Description
Ebook version
Publication date: 21 October 2024
*** Includes exclusive Bill Frindall-style linear scoresheets for every Test match ***
Publication date: 21 October 2024 (if you order before the publication date, files will be added to your account on the date of publication)
As the 1975 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack put it, “Never in the ninety-eight years of Test cricket have batsmen been so grievously bruised and battered by ferocious, hostile short-pitched balls as were those led conscientiously by Mike Denness.”
Led by tearaway speedsters Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, the Australian bowling attack terrorised the tourists during the six-match series – by the end of the first Test, two English batsmen had suffered broken bones. There was plenty more suffering to follow as the Aussies blitzed their way to a 4-1 victory.
When Bob Dylan released his album Blood on the Tracks a few days after the Ashes had been surrendered it could have been timed deliberately to provide a future author with a book title that reflected events in Australia. Instead of songs reflecting a “bleak fatalistic view of love”, as one reviewer described it, the album might have been expected to deliver stories of broken bones and frightening near misses.
For that was the narrative of the doomed attempt by the England team to retain the urn in the face of a barrage of some of the most intimidating fast bowling ever witnessed. Nearly 50 years after Dylan’s generosity, David Tossell’s book offers a gripping and forensic account of this uniquely frightening and wince-inducing Australian summer and the indelible mark it left on cricket.
About the author: David Tossell has been writing about sport for more than four decades and is the author of 19 previous books. He has been shortlisted seven times in the British Sports Book Awards and twice for MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year, for Grovel! (2008) and Following On (2011).
His latest book, One Day At A Time (2023), is a history of limited-overs cricket. He was the long-time head of European public affairs for the NFL and previously executive sports editor of the Today newspaper. He lives in Buckinghamshire, whom he is proud to represent in over-60s cricket.
PRAISE FOR BLOOD ON THE TRACKS
The book is right up there with the very best of its kind, or indeed any kind.”
Martin Chandler, CricketWeb
What makes this an outstandingly good book is the manner in which the author has assembled his story, weaving new testimony into a welter of earlier published memoirs and making full use of contemporary newspaper reports. The author’s ready eye for the absurd [also] ensures that the book is laced with gentle humour. Tossell has brought the matches [featured in Blood on the Tracks] to life more vividly than in any other book I have read.
Douglas Miller, The Cricket Statistician (journal of the ACS)
Blood on the Tracks makes for absorbing if grisly reading … It’s a seriously impressive collation of material, well written and edited.”
Huw Turbevill, The Cricketer
It is so admirably researched, before you even consider the writing, which makes it as fast-paced and compelling as any thriller. I could not recommend this more highly.
Steve Dolman, Peakfan’s blog
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