Edwin Smith: A Life in Derbyshire Cricket

Edwin Smith: A Life in Derbyshire Cricket
Author: Steve Dolman
Publisher: Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2015-08-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1908165618

Edwin Smith will almost certainly be the last Derbyshire bowler to take over a thousand first-class wickets. For 20 summers between 1951 and 1971, he provided the county with a reliable spin option when conditions didn’t favour their succession of outstanding seam bowlers. In the course of those summers, he took 1,217 wickets and scored almost 7,000 runs, taking five or more wickets in an innings on 51 occasions. Only five men in the club’s 145-year history have taken more wickets for the county. Now in retirement in the Grassmoor village where he was born, Edwin’s story is that of a man who gave his life to Derbyshire cricket. As well as playing, he coached the county side and took thousands of wickets in local league cricket. He played his last match at the age of 74, almost 60 years after his first appearance for his village side. A respected coach in and around Chesterfield, this is the story of one of cricket’s unsung heroes and one of the most popular men to wear the county colours. The book captures the period in which he played the game and features many of its greatest characters.

The Summer Field: A History of English Cricket Since 1840

The Summer Field: A History of English Cricket Since 1840
Author: Mark Rowe
Publisher: Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2016-11-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1708165754

Cricket has come a long way since players could only travel on foot, or by horse and cart. Some things never change; someone has to bat, someone bowl, someone be captain; everyone has to learn. The game is nothing without cricketers; yet the men (or women) on the field are never the full story, as The Summer Field shows. It includes spectators, journalists, ground-keepers, coaches, umpires, selectors and tea ladies. Nor is it only the story of the greatest players, such as Sydney Barnes and Herbert Sutcliffe; we meet also Will Richards, the Nottingham school-teacher; his friend George Wakerley, the job-hunting club professional; and Freeman Barnardo, of Eton and Cambridge. This history of cricket since the coming of the railways seeks to answer questions, such as: what was it like to play cricket in the past? Who played it, and why did they? And why are the English so obsessed with Australia?

The Secret Life of the Georgian Garden

The Secret Life of the Georgian Garden
Author: Kate Felus
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2016-12-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786730073

Georgian landscape gardens are among the most visited and enjoyed of the UK's historical treasures. The Georgian garden has also been hailed as the greatest British contribution to European Art, seen as a beautiful composition created from grass, trees and water - a landscape for contemplation. But scratch below the surface and history reveals these gardens were a lot less serene and, in places, a great deal more scandalous.Beautifully illustrated in colour and black & white, this book is about the daily life of the Georgian garden. It reveals its previously untold secrets from early morning rides through to evening amorous liaisons. It explains how by the eighteenth century there was a desire to escape the busy country house where privacy was at a premium, and how these gardens evolved aesthetically, with modestly-sized, far-flung temples and other eye-catchers, to cater for escape and solitude as well as food, drink, music and fireworks. Its publication coincides with the 2016 tercentenary of the birth of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, arguably Britain's greatest ever landscape gardener, and the book is uniquely positioned to put Brown's work into its social context.

The Shorter Wisden 2021

The Shorter Wisden 2021
Author: Lawrence Booth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2021-04-15
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1472988159

The Shorter Wisden is a compelling distillation of what's best in its bigger brother – and the 2021 edition of Wisden is crammed, as ever, with the best writing in the game. Wisden's digital version includes the influential Notes by the Editor, and all the front-of-book articles. In an age of snap judgments, Wisden's authority and integrity are more important than ever. Yet again this year's edition is truly a “must-have” for every cricket fan. In essence, The Shorter Wisden is a glass of the finest champagne rather than the whole bottle. @WisdenAlmanack

Life in the English Country House

Life in the English Country House
Author: Mark Girouard
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 1978-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780300058703

Based on the author's Slade lectures given at Oxford University in 1975-76.