Product Description

In September 1882, "The Sporting Times" published a mock obituary for English cricket, and a great sporting rivalry was born. Relations between England and Australia have never been the same since. Every other year, the two teams gather for the traditional frenzy of backbiting, finger-pointing and dubious facial hair. For a list of every Ashes century and five-wicket haul, try Wisden, but if you want to know which Australian captain punched his chairman of selectors on the nose, which England batsman was a martyr to syphilis and which great fast bowler reckoned the Queen had 'nice legs for an old Sheila', then "Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps" is the book for you. "Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps" is a rip-roaring history of 124 years of Ashes cricket between England and Australia. It exposes the seamy side of Ashes cricket - the inside story behind controversies from the "Bodyline" series of 1932-33 to the Lillee and Thomson blitzkrieg of 1974-75. It profiles great players from W.G. Grace to K.P. Pietersen, and captures choice examples of the dark art of 'sledging'. Embellished with some 75 black-and-white photographs, and incorporating more than 100 of the wittiest and most wounding Ashes quotations, "Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps" is the perfect gift for cricket fans, whether English or Australian.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25253 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Sunday Times
An entertaining, timely and irreverent trip through the history of
the Ashes

Observer
...rollicking good fun...

Daily Telegraph
A history of the Ashes with more spice than you will find in a
curry-house kitchen

Customer Reviews

Not just sledging...
When I thought that "Penguins Stopped Play" topped my personal list of most enjoyable and humorous cricket books, this one came along... While it took me a bit before I actually decided to start reading it, after getting through the first few pages it became hard to put it down. This is a remarkably funny book and written both very eloquently and colourful. The fact that the stories go a lot further than just a dull summing up of famous sledging phrases which most of us have heard (or used?) before, adds a very nice extra dimension. The lay-out is also quite original as well as many of the extremely well chosen pictures. In all a book which I can highly recommend to anybody in search of a damn good read, even if cricket is not his or her primary interest.

Worthy Alternative History of The Ashes
As befits a journalist on a British quality newspaper, Briggs' narrative exudes authority. The book is presented in a manner that is a welcome antidote to the often overly dense nature of texts on cricket and although it is essentially structured chronologically, the use of pictures and different fonts help to make this a work that will appeal to all readers, not just for those who like to think of cricket as a branch of science in its own right.

Some of the anecdotes are extremely funny - in this dismal time for English cricket, at least Fred Trueman flies the flag for England by consistently proving himself the funniest man in the history of the Ashes - but occasionally Briggs lets his guard slip by lauding a particular comment disproportionately, such as the 'building an idiot' quip levelled by an Australian fan at Phil Tufnell. Certainly not the original jibe that Briggs suggests.

This may be pedantic, but as the England team found in the 2006/07, embrace complacency at your peril!

A good way of fighting the depression
For English fans out there the recent and ongoing Ashes series must be wearing you down. 4 tests in, 4-0 down and the last test was as comprehensive as they come.

This beautifully bound and well thought out book is refreshing after the avalanche of poorly written and hastily rushed out efforts following the 2005 Ashes series. I'd rank it up there alongside Gideon Haigh's excellent offering that clearly stood out from the pack, winning Wisden's coveted cricket book of the year award.

The anecdotes delight; whilst you'd have thought there was little ground left to cover (on the topic of sledging), there were many tales here I had never heard of before. It leaves you with a far greater sense of the history of the Ashes in a more personal sense.

As an afterthought, it is printed on high quality paper and has a satisfying 'weight' when you pick it up - it's hard to beat a well bound book!