Many a Slip by Gideon Haigh
Every summer weekend, in every village and local park, thousands of amateur cricketers don their whites. The weather may be threatening rain, the team a frankly last-minute selection -but a day's fiercely contested club cricket, from the fast bowler's first ball to the post-match beer, is a timeless, indestructible tradition. Award-winning writer Gideon Haigh is one such cricketer, and keen member of the Yarras, a club side in his home town of Melbourne, Australia. Now he has written a hilarious diary of his team's season, a portrait of club cricket that weekend cricketers everywhere will recognise. Here, then, are the salt of the cricket earth: the amply-proportioned Womble, who wields a 3lb bat, usually in the direction of cow corner, and doesn't so much chase a ball as chaperone it to the boundary; One Dad, the Christian fast bowler who celebrates his wickets with a hearty 'Hallelujah!'; and mysterious Space Cadet, who 'seems to place the ball according to the signs of the Zodiac'...This is a club where sides do not get picked but move into alignment like celestial bodies, contending with pitches so waterlogged the bowler has to detour round puddles of sawdusted slush, and light so bad that fielding is only possible by sonar. A modern-day version of England, Their England, Many a Slip is that rare thing, a genuinely funny sports book, and a shows a new side to Gideon Haigh's talents.
'Australia's finest cricket writer' -- Frank Keating Guardian '[Haigh's] deftness is equally to the fore in these 37 short and very funny pieces following the club's fortunes during the 2001-2 season' -- Andrew Shields Time Out 'One of the best cricket writers of his generation' -- John Gaustad The Bookseller 'Haigh is superb on the nitty gritty of the game, as he always is... There's the enchantment of surprise in nearly every piece.' -- Marcus Berkmann Wisden Cricket Monthly
Gideon Haigh has covered all recent Ashes series in both Australia and England for The Times, the Guardian, or Wisden Cricketer, and written books about each one for Aurum. He is the author of a number of acclaimed cricket books, including Mystery Spinner, which was voted Cricket Society Book of the Year and recently chosen by The Times as one of its 50 greatest sports books of all time; The Big Ship (a biography of the Australian Test captain Warwick Armstrong); Many a Slip (a hilarious diary about his club side); two anthologies of material from Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, Peter the Lord's Cat and Parachutist at Fine Leg; and several collections of essays. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and daughter.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781854108715 |
| ISBN 10 | 1854108719 |
| Title | Many a Slip |
| Author | Gideon Haigh |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Quarto Publishing PLC |
| Year published | 2002-10-24 |
| Number of pages | 160 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |