By Charles Randall
4 March 2013
A book written by a club cricketer in Hertfordshire has just missed the short list of the Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award, announced this week.
Tom Rodwell, of Berkhamsted CC, had Third Man In Havana, Finding the Heart of Cricket in the Most Unlikely Places, published by Corinthian Books last year. It is a charming account of the globe-trotting exploits of a group of charity-minded cricketers trying to make a difference to communities through the game. Their work for the Courtney Walsh Foundation, for example, landed them in a match against the inmates of Tower Street Prison in Kingston, Jamaica, but they played cricket for various reasons in Cuba, Panama, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Israel to name but a few places.
Rodwell, a visiting lecturer at London Metropolitan University Business School, wrote this book as chairman of the Lord's Taverners. It is a witty well produced effort -- but not enough to persuade the judges. Perhaps they felt there was not enough real meat for the top six.
To my personal surprise even the ground-breaking book by Ed Hawkins called Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld failed to make the short list for Bloomsbury. Hawkins's guide through the machinations of the illegal gambling industry in India has already been reviewed in this website.
Among the short-listed choices is a novel by Peter Gibbs, the former Derbyshire batsman, who became and accomplished author and script-writer after his professional days finished. His tale, woven into cricket, is called Settling The Score (Methuen). The judges chose a book from the over-crowded genre that describes major tour experience from the spectator point of view. This one was written by comedian and presenter Miles Jupp, called Fibber in the Heat, Following England in India, A Blagger’s Tale (Ebury Press). At least it isn't about The Ashes.
The six finalists include two books from Australia aiming for the £3,000 prize, due to be presented to the winner by Church of England priest and former minor county seam bowler Andrew Wingfield Digby on 15 April in the Long Room at Lord’s.
Chair of judges Vic Marks said: ""It has been hard enough to finalise a short list of six. It will be trickier still to find a winner from such a contrasting selection of books. Fortunately we have a wise panel of judges who are up to the task."
The competition, run by the Cricket Society since 1970 and in partnership with MCC since 2009, is for books nominated by MCC and Cricket Society members, and is highly regarded by writers and publishers. Last year’s winner Chris Waters, author of a Fred Trueman biography, commented upon accepting the award: "I genuinely didn’t expect to win, which you probably gathered from my garbled speech, but it is an award that I will always treasure."
In 2011 the Guardian columnist Harry Pearson commented after his win: "I was amazed. Following Yorkshire since the early seventies hasn't exactly prepared me for success." In 2010 a prolonged search of the dustbins at Lord’s failed to locate Anthony Gibson’s excitedly discarded winning cheque.
SHORT LIST
(alphabetically by author)
Peter Gibbs: Settling the Score (Methuen)
Gideon Haigh: On Warne (Simon and Schuster)
Steve James: The Plan: How Fletcher and Fowler Transformed English Cricket (Bantam Books)
Miles Jupp: Fibber in the Heat, Following England in India, A Blagger’s Tale (Ebury Press)
Malcolm Knox: Never a Gentlemen’s Game (Hardie Grant)
Andrew Murtagh: A Remarkable Man, The Story of George Chesterton (Shire Publications)
Other books considered :
(alphabetically by author)
Tony Barker: Keith Carmody: Keith Miller’s Favourite Captain (ACS)
Peter Baxter: Can Anyone Hear Me? Testing Times With Test Match Special on Tour (Corinthian Books)
Keith Booth: Tom Richardson, A Bowler Pure and Simple (ACS)
Stephen Chalke: Micky Stewart and the Changing Face of Cricket (Fairfield Books)
Max Davidson: We’ll Get ‘em in Sequins (Wisden Sports Writing)
Ed Hawkins: Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld (Bloomsbury)
Alan Hill: The Valiant Cricketer, The Biography of Trevor Bailey (Pitch Publishing)
Christopher Martin-Jenkins: CMJ: A Cricketing Life (Simon and Schuster)
Paul Nixon and Jon Colman: Keeping Quiet (The History Press)
Tom Rodwell: Third Man in Havana, Finding the Heart of Cricket in the Most Unlikely Places (Corinthian Books)
Keith Walmsley: Brief Candles – McMaster, Hyland and Other One-Match Wonders (ACS)
David Warner: The Sweetest Rose, 150 Years of Yorkshire Cricket (Great Northern Books)
Charles Williams: Gentlemen and Players, The Death of Amateurism in Cricket (Weidenfeld and Nicholson)
Panel of judges: Vic Marks (chairman), David Kynaston (MCC), Stephen Fay (MCC), John Symons (The Cricket Society), Chris Lowe (The Cricket Society).
The Cricket Society seek to encourage a love of cricket through playing, watching, reading and listening. It supports young cricketers, makes annual awards, holds regular meetings, publishes an acclaimed journal and has a cricket team.
The MCC are the custodians of the Laws and Spirit of Cricket, an innovative independent voice in world cricket, and a passionate promoter of the game. They are also the world’s most active cricket-playing club and the owner of Lord’s, the home of cricket.
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