lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on cricket

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90540 Brodribb, Gerald The Croucher A biography of Gilbert Jessop Constable and Company Ltd., London, 1985. Quarto; hardcover, with silver-gilt spine-titling and decorated endpapers; 240pp., top edge dyed green, with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; slightly rolled; text block and page edges lightly toned. Dustwrapper mildly edgeworn. Very good. Gilbert Jessop - 'Jessopus' - was the fastest-scoring batsman the game had ever seen. In his long career (1894-1914) he scored at the astonishing rate of 79 runs an hour, and his hitting destroyed all the normal dimensions of cricket time. He was no mere slogger, though, but a great batsman, often likened to Victor Trumper. No batsman had then excited spectators to such a degree of ecstasy, and when he failed, it was like a personal disaster. The popularity of 'The Croucher', 'The Idol', 'The Little Demon' was enormous. A scrupulously researched and handsomely illustrated biography. Click here to order $27

215567 Brookes, Christopher His Own Man The Life of Neville Cardus Methuen, London, 1985. Octavo hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine titling; 280pp., b&w plates. Mild offsetting and foxing to endpapers; lightly toned and spotted text block edges. Decorated green and blue dustwrapper with very mild rubbing and edgewear, now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. An old friend once described Sir Neville Cardus as 'his own man'. It is difficult to imagine a more perceptive description of the slight young lad from Rusholme in Manchester who, by dint of his own efforts, ability and imagination, created an international reputation and a beguiling personal legend in the course of a career which extended over fifty years. As a writer on both cricket and music, Sir Neville achieved a stature which is perhaps without parallel: as a man he was an enigmatic mixture of determination and diffidence, self-doubt and self-indulgence, introspection and garrulity. Christopher Brookes has spent five years exploring Sir Neville's life and work. He has created a fascinating portrait of one of England's greatest journalists. Click here to order $25

61305 Cardus, Neville English Cricket - Britain in Pictures series The British People in Pictures Collins, London, 1947. Third impression. Octavo, hardcover, with decorated papered boards; 48pp., with 8 coloured plates & many monochrome illustrations. Slightly rolled, boards slightly bowed; small stain to upper board; offset to endpapers; retailer's bookplate on front pastedown; spotting to text block edges. Dustwrapper foxed on the verso; mildly rubbed and with some writing in pencil on the lower panel; sunned along the spine; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Good. One of the absolute classics of the literature and extremely well written (Cardus used to moonlight as a music critic, or vice-versa). Famously, when a boy, on the eve of a Test he would pray for England to win, but "let Victor Trumper get a hundred". Click here to order $20

90526 Coldham, James P. F.S. Jackson A Cricketing Biography The Crowood Press, Marlborough Wilts. UK, 1989 Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 208pp., with 8pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear; text block and page text block edge dyed toned and top edge dusted. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed. Very good to near fine. 'One of the very best cricketers - perhaps the best all-rounder, saving W.G.Grace - ever to represent England.' Jackson, in a surprisingly short Test career, hit five centuries against the Australians on English soil and, with the help of George Hirst, dismissed the Australians for just 23 in 1902. Click here to order $20

201217 Coward, Mike Calypso Summer - Book and CD Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney NSW, 2000. Quarto; hardcover, with illustrated boards and endpapers; 203pp., with many monochrome photographic illustrations. Faint spotting to upper text block edges. Near fine in like dustwrapper. Two disc CD set issued simultaneously with commentary and interviews. The five matches between Australia and the West Indies in 1960-61 still constitute the most significant series of the modern era. The cricket played by Richie Benaud and Frank Worrell and their champion teams was a revelation after the turgid fare of the 1950s, and the Australian people embraced the game and its favourite sons with a new fervour. The book (and CDs), published to complement the ABC television documentary of the same name, revisit the series and talk to the players who so passionately and selflessly breathed new life into test match cricket. Click here to order $32

38011 Derriman, Philip The Grand Old Ground A history of the Sydney Cricket Ground Cassell Australia Ltd., North Ryde NSW, 1981. Quarto; hardcover; brown boards with upper board titles and decorations; 150pp., with maps and many monochrome illustrations; blue endpapers. Mild wear; slight edgewear to boards with some scraping; text block edges toned with some spotting. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $20

31573 Derriman, Philip (Foreword by Bill O'Reilly) Bodyline Collins, Sydney NSW, 1984. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titling and illustrated endpapers; 160pp, with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; spotting to upper text block edge; previous owner's ink inscription. Dustwrapper sunned along the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Philip Derriman travelled to Melbourne and to Britain to research the bodyline story for his articles in the Sydney Morning Herald, which form the basis of this book. He spoke to nine veterans of the 1932-33 Tests and to a multitude of cricket officials, academics, politicians and old journalists with first and second-hand knowledge of the story. He also spoke to many friends and relatives of people who played leading parts in that story. He found that the story is, in a sense, still unfolding. The further it recedes into history, the better able we are to appreciate its full significance. This probably is the main reason for its continuing fascination. Click here to order $25

212637 Docker, Edward Wybergh Bradman and the Bodyline series Angus & Robertson Publishers. Sydney NSW, 1978. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and illustrated endpapers; 165pp., with a monochrome frontispiece and 16pp. of plates likewise, Mild wear; text block and page edges lightly toned and top edge dusted; mild offset to the endpapers. Dustwrapper rubbed and edgeworn with some spotting; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Bodyline in its most developed form was devised primarily to deal with Don Bradman. Douglas Jardine, the English captain, planned the use of his formidable fast bowlers, particularly Douglas Larwood, with meticulous care before the 1932-33 test series which was to stir up a whirlwind of controversy and bitterness. The book, which also gives a perspective of Bradman's career before and after bodyline, concentrates on the great Australian batsman's role in meeting the challenge posed by the English team and their tactics. It vividly recreates with ball by ball accounts of the crucial matches the turbulent and rancorous atmosphere of those controversial tests. Click here to order $24

56369 Fingleton, J.H. Brown & Company The Tour in Australia Collins, London, 1951. Hardcover, octavo, 255pp., monochrome illustrations. Endpapers and text block edges heavily toned and spotted. Blue cloth boards have minor wear. Dustwrapper toned and spotted; heavy chipping and creasing to head and tail of spine; paint or ink stains to lower spine and rear panel; other moderate wear to edges; scuffed corners; professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good in good dustwrapper. The tour of the M.C.C. in Australia in 1950-51. F.R. Brown, at the age of forty, was the third choice for the captain of what was regarded as a very weak team. Yet they succeeded in winning one test and almost winning the rubber. Brown's feats both as captain and player make a great story whilst Hutton's peerless performances emphasised his supremacy. Click here to order $20

94936 Foot, David (Foreword by John Arlott) Harold Gimblett - revised Tormented Genius of Cricket Fairfield Books, Bath UK, 2003. Third revised edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 175pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; text block top edge lightly spotted. Mild edgewear to the dustwrapper with some light scoring to rear panel (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Near fine. "David Foot has subtitled Harold Gimblett "Tormented Genius of Cricket" and his biography justifies it. This is no cosy recital of runs or wickets, of comfortable success; but of the mental agony of one man who, despite his outstanding cricket gifts, never gained the satisfaction they seemed to offer. Mr Foot is an experienced journalist; and, just as this is not a comfortable book, neither is it a sentimental one. In a way it is an autobiography, for the man recorded much of his agony and indecision on tapes. There is no other book like it in cricket literature; no one else has ever gone - or honestly attempted to go - down into the pit with a cricketer. Because it is so honest, because it has a tragic and not a happy ending, this may never be a "popular" book; but it is fine, compassionate and wise. Mr Foot deserves the admiration and thanks of all who care for human truth in a game which does not always face facts." - John Arlott, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1983 Click here to order $25

82562 Frith, David Bodyline Autopsy The Full Story of the Most Sensational Test Cricket Series: Australia V England 1932-33 ABC Books, Sydney NSW, 2002. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; 477pp., monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; very lightly toned page and text block edges. Slight wear to dustwrapper edges. Very good to near fine. "... the most comprehensive work ever written on this fascinating subject. It is richly descriptive, highly analytical, replete with anecdote and far-reaching in placing the red-hot 1932-33 Test series into historical perspective." Click here to order $22

36745 Frith, David The Slow Men Richard Smart, Cammeray NSW, 1984. First edition. Hardcover, octavo, 199pp., monochrome illustrations. A little spotting to upper text block edges; else near fine in like dustwrapper (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Slow bowlers have brought to cricket a charm, a mystery, and an excitement that are not part of the other departments of the game. In the guile and humour, the courage and the occasional heartbreak of the slow bowler, from the earliest innovators to the wizards of modern times, there is a story not previously told with such continuity and gripping detail. Click here to order $22

7285 Frith, David (Foreword by Harold Larwood) Archie Jackson The Keats of Cricket Pavilion/Michael Joseph Ltd., London, 1987. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 111pp., with 24pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear; mild offset to the endpapers; faint spotting to the text block edges. Dustwrapper sunned along the spine panel; minor edgewear and rubbing. Very good. A contemporary of Bradman, the Scottish-born Jackson made his first class debut for New South Wales at the age of seventeen, and his arrival on the Test scene in 1929 eclipsed even Bradman's when he scored 164 elegant runs against England on his Test debut. The artistry and classical perfection of his batsmanship enchanted purists and partisans alike, and Jackson seemed set for cricketing immortality when lingering poor health turned into pulmonary tuberculosis. In 1933 in the middle of the following, acrimonious England tour, Archie Jackson's death cast a shadow over the whole cricketing world. David Frith writes movingly about his desperate fight against his disease, about the love affair - culminating in betrothal just a week before he died - and the emotional scenes as Jackson's body was taken home. A masterly account of the briefest, saddest and most tantalising of great cricketing lives. Click here to order $28

53802 Grace, W.G. (introduction E.W. Swanton) W.G Cricketing Reminiscences & Personal Recollections Hambledon Press, London, 1980. Reprint: octavo hardcover; green cloth boards with gilt spine titling; 422pp., b&w photographic illustrations. Mild wear; slightly toned text block and page edges. Illustrated dustwrapper faded along spine and adjacent edges, some edge and corner wear; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $20

7287 Howat, Gerald Cricket's Second Golden Age The Hammond-Bradman Years Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1989. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 300pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates and other illustrations. Minor wear; text block and page edges toned; offset to the endpapers. Dustwrapper is sunned along the spine panel with mild rubbing. Very good. With the granting of Test-match status to the West Indies, New Zealand and then India, international cricket achieved greater focus in the mind of the public during the interwar years. Despite the bodyline controversy many memorable - and formative - series were played. If Hammond and Bradman could be considered the two most dominant batsmen there was, besides, the last years of Hobbs, the emergence of Headley and Hutton, the bowling of Mailey, Grimmett, Larwood, Tate and Constantine... Click here to order $20

86866 Hutton, Len Fifty Years in Cricket Stanley Paul, London, 1984. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; green boards with gilt spine titling; 202pp., monochrome plates. Minor wear; a few scattered spots on endpapers; toned text block edges with faint spotting on upper edges. Near fine in like dustwrapper. Now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Here is a magic lantern of a book, with the events and faces of those fifty years summoned before the reader as large as life and as clear as yesterday. The sight of Bradman relentlessly picking holes in every field that was set to him. The sound of Lindwall's boots thudding in on his run-up. The lure of Rhodes' flighted ball dragging his fish forward in the nets. 'Typhoon' Tyson, a lump on his head from a Lindwall bumper and a strange and vengeful look in his eye. All are recalled with a marvellous vividness more usual in a novel than a sports book, bringing back to life the events and emotions of Hutton's extraordinary career. Click here to order $24

87570 Lazenby, John The Strangers Who Came Home The First Australian Cricket Tour of England John Wisden & Co. Ltd./Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., London, 2015. Octavo; paperback; 292pp., with 16pp. of plates. Remainder. New. Trade format. The Ashes cricket series, played out between England and Australia, is the oldest - and undoubtedly the most keenly-contested - rivalry in international sport. And yet the majority of the first representative Australian cricket team to tour England in 1878 in fact regarded themselves as Englishmen. In May of that year the SS City of Berlin docked at Liverpool, and the Australians stepped onto English ground to begin the inaugural first-class cricket tour of England by a representative overseas team. As they made their way south towards Lord's to play MCC in the second match of the tour, the intrepid tourists - or 'the strangers' as they were referred to in the press - encountered arrogance and ignorance, cheating umpires and miserable weather. But by defeating a powerful MCC side which included W.G. Grace himself in a single afternoon's play, they turned English cricket on its head. The Lord's crowd, having begun by openly laughing at the tourists, were soon wildly celebrating a victory that has been described as 'arguably the most momentous six hours in cricket history' and claiming the Australians as their own. The Strangers Who Came Home is a compelling social history which brings that momentous summer to life, telling the story of these extraordinary men who travelled thousands of miles, risking life and limb, playing 43 matches in England (as well as several in Philadelphia, America, on their return journey) during a demanding but ultimately triumphant homecoming. It reveals how their glorious achievements on the field of play threw open the doors to international sports touring, and how these men from the colonies provided the stimulus for Australian nationhood through their sporting success and brought unprecedented vitality to international cricket. Click here to order $15

90537 Low, Robert W.G. A Life of W.G. Grace Richard Cohen Books Ltd., London, 1997. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 312pp., with 16pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear; slightly rolled; very light offset to the endpapers; text block edges lightly dusted. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed with light edgewear and sunning along the spine panel. Very good. From his emergence as a teenage prodigy to well past his fiftieth year W.G. Grace dominated the game of cricket, taking 2,876 first-class wickets and scoring 54,896 first-class runs in a career lasting an incredible 43 years, from 1865 to 1908. His beard and massive frame made him instantly recognisable wherever he went and his gamesmanship and wit were legendary. Using contemporary accounts of W.G.'s greatest innings, many for the first time, Robert Low presents a radically new image of the sportsman who was recognised as the pre-eminent athlete of his day. Click here to order $20

31559 McHarg, Jack Bill O'Reilly, A Cricketing Life The Authorised Biography Millennium, Newtown NSW, 1990. Hardcover, octavo, 226pp., monochrome illustrations. Spotted text block edges; rubbing to lower board edge at head and tail of spine; lightly dustwrapper (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. Modern biography of one of the greatest of spin bowlers: "In propelling a round leather object 22 yards between two sets of stumps, O'Reilly made it do things which previously only existed in the realm of fantasy". Click here to order $20

202156 McHarg, Jack (Foreword by Lindsay Hassett) Bill O'Reilly, A Cricketing Life - signed The Authorised Biography Millennium, Newtown NSW, 1990. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 226pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear: a little shaken; spine extremities softened; text block top edge spotted; signed by the author in ink to the title page. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed and edgeworn (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. Modern biography of one of the greatest of spin bowlers: "In propelling a round leather object 22 yards between two sets of stumps, O'Reilly made it do things which previously only existed in the realm of fantasy". Click here to order $25

90532 Malies, Jeremy Great Characters from Cricket's Golden Age The Beautiful and the Damned Robson Books, London, 2000. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 222pp., with 8pp. of monochrome plates. Minor wear. Dustwrapper lightly edgeworn. Very good to near fine. In this delightful romp through the game's wildest and most unforgettable eccentrics, the author brings cricket's greatest personalities back to life in vivid anecdotal biographies. He discusses Hesketh Nayler, an impotent new York millionaire who paid middle-aged ladies to strip naked and play cricket in front of him using balloons. For sheer vitality and crookedness, few players can rival Arthur Coningham who accused his wife of having sex on the floor of Melbourne Cathedral with a Roman Catholic archbishop. At the subsequent divorce hearings he brandished a pistol at lawyers and tried to attack one of the witnesses. He was later imprisoned for fraud and died in a lunatic asylum. The book describes the life of another Australian Test cricketer, Leslie Fleetwood-Smith who fell from grace: he took to the bottle, became a tramp and was eventually arrested for petty theft. There are details on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who played first class cricket and once took the wicket of W G Grace, on Montague Druitt, a prominent club cricketer who remains a strong candidate for having been Jack the Ripper and many more. Jeremy Malies traces the extraordinary lives of these men and their equally colourful peers, and through them offers a unique and highly entertaining evocation of cricket's golden age. Click here to order $20

12115 Mulvaney, D.J. Cricket Walkabout The Australian Aboriginal Cricketers on Tour 1867-68 Melbourne University Press, 1967. First edition. Octavo; hardcover; green boards with gilt spine-titling and decorated endpapers; 112pp., with 12pp. of monochrome photographic plates, a map and diagrams. Toning and spotting to the text block edges. Price-clipped dustwrapper is sunned along the spine panel and with minor chipping to the edges; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive film. Very good. The extraordinary story of the first tour by an Australian cricket team of England. Cricket was introduced to the western Victorian Aborigines in the early 1860s and by 1867 they fielded an intercolonial team. After being smuggled out of Victoria under the shadow of official opposition, the team left Sydney the following year for a tour of England. They performed creditably at Lords and in county matches. One newspaper of the time even quipped: "Nothing of interest comes from Australia except gold nuggets and black cricketers." The author shows not only a detailed appreciation of the game of cricket but also an acute awareness of the complex issues arising from the racial contacts of the tour, which seem to have been surprisingly amicable. Click here to order $25

7720 Page, Michael Bradman - The Illustrated Biography Using the private possessions of Sir Donald Bradman. The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne Vic., 1983. Quarto; hardcover, with upper board decoration; 368pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; rolled; spine extremities softened; text block edges lightly toned and top edge dusted; mild scattered foxing throughout (but mainly to the preliminaries). Dustwrapper well-sunned along the spine panel. Very good. The book was conceived when Sir Donald consented to make his personal records - including letters, documents, photographs and scrapbooks dating back to his earliest days - available to the publishers as the basis of a new biography. The structure of the book, comprising many separate articles apart from the principle text, gives the reader an illuminating insight into cricketing and social life during the Don's career, and shows the ways in which the public and newspapers of the period regarded him. Click here to order $25

84456 Ringwood, John Ray Lindwall Cricket Legend Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst NSW, 1995. Quarto paperback; 152pp., monochrome illustration. Minor wear only; very good to near fine. In this comprehensive biography, John Ringwood covers all aspects of Ray Lindwall's illustrious career. Lindwall emerges as a true gentleman of the game, a fast and dangerous bowler but never unnecessarily or unsportingly intimidatory, who bought refinement to his art. Click here to order $17

210220 Scott, John Caught in Court A Selection of Cases with Cricketing Connections Andre Deutsch Ltd., London, 1989. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 276pp., with monochrome plates. Mild wear; previous owner's ink stamp; browned text block and page edges. Dustwrapper with mildly faded spine. Very good to near fine. A cricket book with over 150 cases described, including the 1879 Sydney Riot case, the 1892 case featuring the original English Lady Cricketers, and the 1975 Lord's streaker. Really, it just isn't cricket! Click here to order $20

200959 Sobers, Garry, with Bob Harris Garry Sobers - signed copy My Autobiography Hodder/Hodder Headline Ltd., London, 2002. First edition. Octavo hardcover; black boards with gilt spine titling and maroon endpapers; 342pp., colour and monochrome plates. Inscribed in ink to the owner by the author. Mildly toned and spotted text block edges; very mild rippling to lower page edges at the end of the book. Minor wear otherwise. Very good in like dustwrapper (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Click here to order $60

90566 Warner, Sir Pelham Long Innings The Autobiography of Sir Pelham Warner George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London, 1951. First edition. Octavo hardcover; dark blue cloth boards with gilt spine titling; 240pp., monochrome portrait frontispiece and plates. Minor wear; lightly browned and spotted text block edges and slightly rubbed board edges. Plain green dustwrapper with missing segment on head of spine and tiny missing segments at corners and front fore-edge; chipping and tiny tears to edges. Very good in good dustwrapper now protected in archival film with white paper backing. Click here to order $20

7712 Willis, Ronald Cricket's Biggest Mystery - The Ashes Rigby Publishers, Adelaide SA, 1982. First edition: octavo; hardcover; red boards with white spine titling, red illustrated endpapers; 159pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; mild wear to board corners; spotting and toning to text block edges; rubbing to dustwrapper with sunned spine. Else very good in like dustwrapper (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). A fascinating and well-researched account of the origin of the Ashes - that sacred relic of competition between the great cricketing nations of Australia and England. When Australia defeated England for the first time on English soil in 1877, a mock obituary notice was inserted in the Sporting Times lamenting the 'death' of English cricket and stating that the body was to be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. When, five years later an English team visited Australia it was with the avowed intent to "regain those ashes". The term captured the popular imagination and at some stage the English captain, Ivo Bligh, was presented with an urn by a group of Melbourne women reputedly containing the ashes of a burnt bail. It is not certain whether it is this or a substitute that came to be recognised as the trophy and now resides permanently at Lord's. The mystery, however, remains: where did the ashes come from and are they, in fact, still there? The author examines the official story along with alternative suggestions, and details the personalities involved in the foundation of this great tradition. Click here to order $20