Product Description

Every summer weekend, in every village and local park, thousands of amateur cricketers don their whites and turn out for their club. The weather may be threatening rain, the wicket treacherously green, the team composed of too many last-minute and frankly Hobson's-choice selections - but a day's fiercely contested club cricket, from the fast bowler's first ball to the final post-match pint, is a timeless, indestructible tradition. Gideon Haigh is one such cricketer. As well as being the author of critically-acclaimed and award-winning cricket biographies like "Mystery Spinner" he is, as readers of the Guardian will know, not only a keen member of the Yarras Cricket Club in Melbourne Australia but also chairman of the selection committee for its Fourth Eleven. Now, the columns he has been writing about his club's fortunes "A Load of Hard Yarra", have been collected to form a humorous diary of the Yarras' season, and a portrait of club cricket that weekend cricketers the world over should recognise.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37044 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Review
"- 'Australia's finest cricket writer' - Frank Keating, Guardian - 'One of the best cricket writers of his generation' - John Gaustad, The Bookseller

The Bookseller
One of the best cricket writers of his generation.

Marcus Berkmann, Wisden Cricket Monthly, December 2002
Haigh is superb on the nitty gritty of the game, as he always is... There's the enchantment of surprise in nearly every piece.

Customer Reviews

Beauty Mate!
Anyone who has played club cricket will identify and love this book. Hilariously written and superbly observed - this loose "diary" of a season will leave you with a warm glow inside. Beauty mate!

Instant empathy
I did begin to wonder whether any of the nicknames in this book had been contrived to further characterise the people we barely had a chance to meet in the run up to the Yarra's season but, the more of that season the diary chronicled, the more the characterisation developed anyway and it was all the more touching for it. If you have played any cricket - or any amateur sport - you will empathise instantly with the peaks and troughs of the sporting achievement, and the stresses and strains of club administration. You'll recognise the people too because there is almost certainly the same blend in your own club.

In many ways, this is no different to Rain Men but, as an Englishman, all the more revealing of club culture in a sporting nation we have been conditioned to revere. For that alone Many a Slip is worth reading because you'll identify moreso with a shared bond that spans a far greater distance than some of the more parochial and therefore recognisable events in Rain Men and similar diaries.

Haigh is an excellent, perceptive and thoughtful correspondent who'll neatly encapsulate much of what you feel about your own cricket club. If you're not a cricketer then this is worth reading to see what all the fuss is about: ultimately, it isn't even about the cricket; it's about the shared interest and the mateship. It's a delightful book.

Cricket's the same game wherever it's played
This is the diary of the South Yarra cricket club's 2001-02 sesson in Melbourne, Australia. It makes you realise that all cricket clubs are the same all over the world. Some of Haigh's characters and situations will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has played in the lower reaches of club cricket anywhere. I read this in less than two days on the train and had to struggle not to laugh out loud at several points. Very highly recommended to anyone with any interest in club cricket - or anyone who just wants quick, funny read.