Product Description

Peppered with bouncers, expletives, and even the odd diplomatic incident, Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps is a rip-roaring journey through 124 years of Ashes history. 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 England batsman was a martyr to syphilis and which Australian fast bowler reckoned the Queen had 'nice legs for an old Sheila', then read on - Stiff Upper Lips and Baggy Green Caps 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'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4748 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
An entertaining, timely and irreverent trip through the history of the Ashes' Sunday Times. 'rollicking good fun - Observer. A history of the Ashes with more spice than you will find in a curry-house kitchen - Daily Telegraph. --Reviews

This irreverent and very funny guide to the Ashes contains all the juicy stuff you won t find in the official publications. --Mail on Sunday

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

The best history of the Ashes I have read
I really loved this book. It gives the whole history of the Ashes, but rather than concentrating on dull statistics it tells the human stories of the great conflicts and players from the whole of Ashes history. Far too many cricket books are worthy and dull, but this one really brought the passion of Ashes cricket to life. The perfect book to accompany this years Ashes. Highly recommened whether you have been into cricket for years, or if you only starting watching last summer.

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!