A Striking Summer
Britain in 1926 was a troubled country. Revolution was in the air as the catastrophic after-effects of the First World War continued. A General Strike in May soon ended, but it left a legacy of bitterness and recrimination. Millions of workers across many industries were sacked or locked out, and coal mining came to a standstill. Poverty was widespread, but it lived alongside plenty.Against this backdrop Australia’s cricketers arrived to defend the Ashes that they had won decisively in all three series since the war. Cricket in England, like everything else, was still recovering after the conflict. The whole population was desperate for success as interest in the matches transcended class and status.At every venue crowds queued all night to watch the Tests. They were rewarded with great individual performances from some of the greatest players of all time – and it all went down to the wire. The Ashes depended on the final Fifth Test, to be played to a finish. The country held its collective breath.
Stephen Brenkley captures the drama of the series, delves into the characters of the players and shows how in such troubled times the game of cricket briefly united the nation.
Blood on the Tracks
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. 50 years on, 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.
One Hell of a Life
Brian Close was one of the greatest characters of post-war cricket. His fearless courage, standing up to fast bowling and fielding close to the bat, was legendary. He was equally fearless in never wavering in his own certainties. Often defying convention, he mixed glory and disaster in a long and never dull career. Despite outstanding success as captain of both Yorkshire and England, he was sacked controversially from both roles.
In One Hell of a Life, Stephen Chalke draws on conversations he has had over the past 25 years, both with Brian Close himself and with team-mates, opponents and family, many of them, like Close, no longer living. The result is a fascinating portrait of an unusual man, one who might have reached greater heights if he had adopted more of a safety-first approach to life – but then he would not have been Brian Close: daring, defiant and at times plain daft. An inspirational leader, he refused to accept defeat or kneel before authority, living his life as he drove his cars: fast and reckless, with many a prang along the way.
The story of Brian Close is a tale like no other in cricket, rich with humour but also at times hauntingly sad. Close’s loss of the England captaincy, the book’s pivotal event, is set in the context of the social attitudes of the time, with cricket still run by an amateur class distrustful of a single-minded Yorkshireman who played always to win.
Stephen Brenkley is former cricket correspondent of The Independent On Sunday and The Independent. He lives in Barnard Castle where he is president of the town’s cricket club.
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 Cricket Society & MCC Book of the Year, for Grovel! (2008) and Following On (2011). His most recent book, One Day At A Time (2023) – also published by Fairfield – 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.
Stephen Chalke was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 1948 and now lives in Bristol. In 1996 he left full-time employment in adult education to become a writer and publisher of cricket books. He has won five national Book of the Year awards. In 2019 the Cricket Writers’ Club honoured him with the prestigious Peter Smith Award for his ‘outstanding contribution to the presentation of cricket to the public’.
BUY THE BOOKS
A Striking Summer: How Cricket United a Divided Nation by Stephen Brenkley, Blood on the Tracks – England in Australia: The 1974-75 Ashes by David Tossell and One Hell of a Life: Brian Close – Daring, Defiant and Daft by Stephen Chalke are published on October 21 2024
They are available to order from thenightwatchman.net and all good booksellers.
A Striking Summer is available to buy in hardback format here and as an ebook here
Blood on the Tracks is available to buy in hardback format here and as an ebook here
One Hell of a Life is available to buy in hardback format here |
