Product Description

This is a unique and hilarious traveller's tale that redefines the spirit of cricket.Following a chance encounter with a psychic, Angus Bell sets off on an 8,000-mile Skoda-powered road trip across Eastern Europe in search of a cricket match. It's a gloriously batty adventure which brings Bell face-to-face with fingerless fielders in the Czech Republic, Serbian MI6 agents, and the realisation that England's most eccentric game is being played with passion in the strangest corners of the continent.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58936 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Review
"* 'Very funny. Dave Gorman meets Andrew Flintoff in clothes borrowed from Billy Connolly.' - The Times * 'Weird and wonderful... one of the maddest, most enterprising cricket tours of all time' - Guardian * 'It deserves to be as big a hit as the blow Bell dealt a cricket ball on the bridge over the Bosphorus, propelling it from Europe into Asia.' - Daily Telegraph"

About the Author
Angus Bell is a 27 year old, whisky-swilling Scotsman with a first class degree in English, Flying saucers and Space Studies. He has visited 40 countries, and has written for the South African Sunday Times, Inside Sport in Australia, the US Student Traveller, Cricinfo in India, and The Wisden Cricketer in the UK. He now plays cricket in Montreal, Canada, where he lives with his girlfriend Candy, and pet rabbit Usagi. For more articles and photos from his travels and misadventures, visit www.angusjbell.com.

Customer Reviews

Leg glances on ice in the eastern block, it doesn't get any better than this!
This is a fantastic book even if you are not a fan of cricket! In fact if you don't understand cricket you'll find this book even funnier. Inspired by a Canadian Psychic and accompanied by a family ghost, Angus the intrepid Caledonian Cricketer sets out in his Skoda to conquer Eastern Europe armed with only an MCC coaching manual and some stumps! You'll find this a very easy to read book with plenty of images included some nice glossy colour ones (just in case your imagination can't conjure up a 5'9" Scotsman lofting a tennis ball from Europe into Asia across the river Bosphorus!).

Funny but a little disjointed
Angus Bell travelled around Eastern Europe visiting tiny outposts of the cricketing world in a battered Skoda and this is his often very funny account of attempting to play the odd game in places like Tallinn, Slovakia, Croatia and Romania.

Much of the humour comes from the fact he was travelling "on a budget" and so ended up sleeping in many quite scary places given his frequent financial issues. Bell captures the moments well and amusingly, a kind of Bill Bryson of Slovak slum hostels, but after a while this drags the book down a little. There's often no balance to the grimy aspects of the countries visited so Eastern Europe eventually comes across as nothing other than a monotone crime-ridden, dangerous place to be which ends up working against the humour of attempting to explain cricket to the locals.

batting on the bosphorus: a skoda powered cricket tour around eastern europe
Even for a person who detests cricket like myself I found this book addictive amusing and a fun book to read, I would recommend to others who enjoy traveling and have an interest in CEEC's.