Over and Out: My Innings of a Lifetime with Test Match Special

Author: Henry Blofeld
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1473670934
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 365

Book Description
For over half a century, Henry Blofeld has conveyed his unfailing enthusiasm for the game of cricket as a much loved broadcaster and journalist. His characteristically patrician tones, overlaid with those of the bon viveur, have delighted listeners to the BBC's Test Match Special where the personality of the broadcaster comes second only to a deep knowledge of the game and its players. With his engaging conversational tone it is easy to see why listeners feel as if they are actually at the Test match watching in Henry's friendly company. Now that 'Blowers' has decided to declare his TMS innings closed, his book reveals the secrets of life in the commentary box and of the rich cast of characters with whom he shared it, from the early days of John Arlott and Brian Johnson to Aggers and new boys Boycott, Swann, Vaughan and Tuffers. Henry is equally revealing of his own performances and self-deprecatingly recalls his several verbal misfortunes while live broadcasting. Like the greatest commentators and writers on the game Blofeld has always understood that there is a world beyond the cricket field. Not forgetting pigeons passing, red buses and much loved cricket grounds, Henry Blofeld writes of his favourite countries, and experiences while travelling, and meeting and interviewing many cricket-loving celebrities. His passionate and entertaining book will become one of the classics of cricket's literature.

Ten to Win . . . And the Last Man In

Author: Henry Blofeld
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1529359961
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 419

Book Description
'Is there anything in sport to compare with the sustained excitement of a cricket match, especially a Test match, in which the advantage continually fluctuates one way and then the other, and when the match enters its last few minutes, all four results are still possible?' After entertaining countless radio listeners around the world for decades, who better to convey the breathless drama of a Test match cliffhanger than Henry Blofeld? Now, in Ten to Win . . . and the Last Man In, he has personally selected thirty matches featuring unforgettable finishes and brought them vividly to life again in his own inimitable way. Ranging from the match-winning bowling of F.R. Spofforth against W.G. Grace's England in 1882, via the first tied Test between Benaud's Australia and Worrell's West Indies in 1960, to the never-say-die batting of Ben Stokes in 2019, he picks out the key events and performances of each memorable match and describes them as only he can. Alongside the big-hitting heroics of Jessop in 1902 and Botham in 1981, he revisits less celebrated matches such as South Africa's hard-fought first Test win in 1906, as well as a crucial innings from Denis Compton in 1948 and a match-saving performance by a young Alan Knott in Guyana in 1968 - one of the most exciting matches he has ever witnessed first-hand. Filled with colourful detail and informed by insight gained from a lifetime immersed in the sport he loves, Henry Blofeld's latest book will leave the reader in no doubt - as he himself puts it - about 'what an absurdly irresistible game cricket can be'.

Squeezing the Orange

Author: Henry Blofeld
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007506414
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Book Description
The quintessentially English cricket commentator, writer, oenophile, bon viveur, collector and national treasure, fondly known as “Blowers”, tells his riveting life story.

Botham's Book of the Ashes

Author: Ian Botham
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1845969057
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
Sir Ian Botham and the Ashes are as closely intertwined as willow and leather or Merv Hughes and his moustache. You simply cannot think of one without the other. In this book, Sir Ian takes you on a ride through a lifetime's relationship with cricket's oldest and most treasured prize, revealing just how it has shaped his life and how he has helped to turn it into the contest it is today. From the moment he first watched the likes of Ken Barrington stride to the wicket in jaw-jutting defiance to the day he flayed Australia's bowling attack around Headingley as if playing with his mates in the park, and then onwards to his role in commentating on what was arguably the finest series of the lot, in 2005, Sir Ian has a rich and varied connection with the Ashes, and he tells all here. The Ashes is a series that has provided incredible highs and heartbreaking lows for English and Australian fans alike over the past 35 years. Sir Ian has often been at the centre of the roller-coaster ride. Whether it is his account of his days as England's dogsbody in 1977 in Melbourne or the story of his refusal to let Bob Willis bowl downwind until he was angry enough to skittle the Aussies in 1981, all is revealed in depth in Botham's Book of the Ashes.

All That You Can't Leave Behind

Author: Soumya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 9352141032
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 84

Book Description
If one were to do a nationwide poll of Indians born after Independence and ask which is the one date they remember the most, the answer may well be 25 June, 1983, the date on which India won the cricket World Cup. It is Often said that cricket in India is a like a religion; nothing could be more misleading. Religion has scarred the nation more deeply than anything else. Cricket is the balm that heals. In our collective consciousness, there is nothing quite like cricket. As the most visible expression of national identity, as an obsession or a dream, cricket is the only thing that possibly unites a country as diverse and as contradiction-ridden as India. In this brilliant book, Soumya Bhattacharya shows how we have made this game our own, given it our own colour, our own customs, our own codes. And how cricket in turn has come to permeate every aspect of our public life, from popular culture to politics–so that, when a game is on, the rest o life happens strictly between overs. In the end, All that you can’t leave Behind is as much about India as it is about cricket.

Cricket and All that

Author: Henry Blofeld
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780340819739
Category : Cricket
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
This is a hilarious and irreverent account of a sport that originated in 16th century England and was then gradually fed to the British Empire whose members regularly outplay the old country. The author's probing research has uncovered hitherto most secret scandals amongst the governing bodies of the game and of the complex lives of some of the great heroes of the past and present day. With his outrageous and contagious sense of humour the author has written a book which explains why cricket is a national institution.

A Thirst for Life

Author: Henry Blofeld
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780340770498
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 421

Book Description
With his trademark bow tie, his distinctive rich, plumy voice, and his eccentric observations, Henry Blofeld is one of Britain's prized cricket experts. He has been close to the heart of the game for over 40 years. As a leading commentator on Test Match Special and cricket writer, at home and abroad, he has informed and entertained wide audiences with his extensive knowledge and perception of cricket at the very highest level.

Captain Cool: The M.S. Dhoni Story

Author: Gulu Ezekiel
Publisher: Westland Sport
ISBN: 9395073438
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Book Description
About the Book THE MOST POPULAR BIOGRAPHY OF INDIA’S COOLEST AND MOST SUCCESSFUL CRICKET CAPTAIN Mahendra Singh Dhoni is as calm and unruffled a sportsman on the field as he is self-effacing off it. But ‘brute strength’, ‘murderous form’ and ‘a man possessed’ were some of the phrases that came to mind when, on 5 April 2005 in Visakhapatnam, he exploded onto international consciousness by becoming the first regular Indian keeper to score a one-day century. With his striking form on the day, his long locks visible beneath his helmet, red tints glinting in the sunlight, ‘Mahi’ Dhoni had transformed from a boy hailing from an obscure small town to a sports legend with the aura of a rockstar. And yet, Dhoni was no child prodigy, no overnight success. When he made his international debut at 23, he was already mature by Indian cricket standards—with five grinding years of domestic cricket behind him. How that legend came to be, and grew from game to game, is told here by noted sportswriter Gulu Ezekiel in his crackling but measured prose. Captain Cool is the story of M.S. Dhoni, Indian cricket’s poster boy. It is also the heart-warming account of the life of a young man who won India the World Twenty20 in 2007, the 50-over World Cup title in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013, but can still tell his throngs of admirers, ‘I am the same boy from Ranchi.’ .

Padwick's Bibliography of Cricket

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description

The Sense of an Ending

Author: Julian Barnes
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307957330
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Book Description
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.