A pleasure to talk to Max Bonnell last week at the @thecricketsociety.bsky.social MCC BOTY ceremony about his wonderful shortlisted book on leg spinner Charles “Father” Marriott - congrats to the winner @rwhitehead2.bsky.social and the four other shortlisted authors Marks, Wigmore, Wilde and Wilson
Congratulations @RWhitehead61 for winning @CricketSociety / @MCCOfficial Book of the Year award for 2026. A fine achievement & commiserations to @deanbwilson @timwig @swildecricket #maxbonnell #vicmarks who also produced fine books. Standard was very high.
Isn’t it a minster like Beverley?
Pelham Warner, admittedly never slow to congratulate himself, on MCC’s training sessions before the 1903/04 Ashes: “Nor we did neglect to practice fielding, for every day we gave an hour to practising catching, and a high catch requires a great deal of judging in the bright sunlight of Australia.”
who-only-cricket-know.uk/highways-and...
Two articles with a Guyanese flavour posted to the book website: a bibliographical note on historian Clem Seecharan and a biographical paper on curator-umpire Badge Menzies written by his grandson Donald
A splendid evening: great questions from Raf Nicholson and the audience, great answers from Neil and good to see the great man himself, Howard Milton, present the award that carries his name
You pears!
A day full of tension - even for the neutral - yesterday in what remains the best domestic red ball competition - despite all sabotage attempts
I hadn’t realised how important the “Battle of Vis” was, closing off any chance of Napoleon threatening India, until researching a reference to it in Byron’s poem “Farewell to Malta”
These undignified ends are a feature of the period because souvenired stumps were an important source of income for underpaid pros?
I’d love to see some research on what percentage of t20 games are alive with three balls to go
Enjoying a re-read of Barclays World of Cricket for the next WCM column on 50 Books: here is an extract from Benny Green’s essay on ‘Some Cricket Eccentrics’
Top night for a top man
Particularly given the “Soros-funded” dog whistle
Popped in last week to the free @senatehouselib.bsky.social exhibition In The Grip of Change: a great little collection of written and oral history paying tribute to Caribbean pioneers, including two familiar to all cricket lovers. Recommended for anyone at a loose end in London - closes 12 April
Having established himself as the best batter in the world, Len Hutton became the first official professional captain of England in 1952, breaking a long-standing tradition of amateur leadership. From there, it was a bumpy — if ultimately successful — ride
IT IS HERE! The next edition of County Cricket Matters.
For those of you that like Patrick Eagar’s work there is my interview with him and featuring some of his early photographs.
And the usual fantastic articles.
To order please follow the link below -
www.countycricketmatters.com/shop
So sad to hear this - a writer whose delight in and insights into the “cosmic jokes” of football and life brought such pleasure to his readers
The brothers’ collaboration, Opening Up, is one of the more thoughtful cricketing memoirs
Yes, an admirer of this work, one of the best in the “state of the game” genre: John Arlott judged it “compulsory reading” in his (last) book review for Wisden in 1992
I’m currently trying to tell something of The Story of Cricket in 50 Books for Wisden Cricket Monthly and will occasionally post some supplementary material here @wisdencricket.bsky.social
Don’t disagree with the point but if you ever do a reprint it was Sir Hubert Parry not Sir Edward Elgar who wrote the music for Jerusalem