Something to read

posted by John Winn
I learned this week that the typical WH Smith reader buys just three books a year. Having ordered three books in the last week alone this came as something of a surprise to me.
It will probably come as no surprise that now that the cricket season is over and withdrawal symptoms have set in, the three books on my shopping list were all cricket books.Two of the three have not yet arrived, the first the autobiography of Clive Van Ryneveld, from Stephen Chalke's excellent Fairfield Books, is still en route from South Africa and the second, a new biography of Fred Trueman by Yorkshire Post cricket writer Chris Waters should be with me this week. The latter has received a glowing review in November's Cricketer Magazine with the promise of 'insights from those closest to Trueman'.
The third book,which I have read, is also published by Chalke and will, I think, have particular appeal to pcws. It is 'Typhoon Tyson to Twenty /20.A lifetime of watching Northamptonshire cricket' by Tony Ward. A short read, just 95 pages, and in some way a rather sad one. Not that it lacks humorous moments, but they are at times the result of that rather sardonic sense of humour that followers of unsuccessful causes tend to develop about something they love deeply, and I speak as a follower of Darlington FC for almost 60 years. As Stephen Chalke, whose idea the book was, says in the foreword, humour that 'is essential if you are a Northamptonshire supporter'.
Admitted to the championship in 1905 Northants have been runners up three times and along with Gloucestershire and Somerset are part of that exclusive club who have never qualified to fly the championship pennant. They have of course had success in other competitions and Tony Ward descibes his great joy at witnessing their victory over Lancashire in The Gillette Cup Final of 1976.
As the title would suggest Frank Tyson features prominently in the book as does Colin Milburn,whose career and life both came to a sad end.For me though the greatest pleasure the book offers is its descriptions of the county's diehard, if pessimistic, supporters; their grumbling, their witticisms and the importance of county cricket in their lives.
An altogether different kind of book I would recommend and which I read earlier in the year is 'The Captains' by Malcolm Knox, a history of Australian cricket seen through the eyes of its 42 captains from Gregory to Ponting. At over four hundred pages this is a hefty tome but Amazon is offering a second hand copy at £3:59.Knox is an Australian and it is interesting to see how cricket appears to those at the other side of the world, for instance the 'chucking' controversy of the late 50s and early 60s. Over Charlie Griffith and Tony Lock the author leaves us in no doubt that as far as Australians were concerned these two 'chucked' but Ian Meckiff, whose action Wisden had no doubt was illegal, is treated with almost saintly reverence.
Finally, and I have saved the best to last, pcws will want to get hold of 'Bloggers on the boundary', a diary of the 2010 season by Messrs Sanderson, Hutton and Davies, names well known to you all!I received a copy by mail from Peter Davies yesterday and I am sure copies will be widely available shortly. Watch this space.