Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book by fine writer, 31 Aug 2009
John Shawcroft's club history is still the definitive work on Derbyshire cricket, but this one is probably even better. Now that's saying something.
By the end of the book, you have been introduced to the players, gone through their careers and know what happened to them afterwards.
There's little doubt that what happened in 1936, with a full side made up of players from within the County borders, is unlikely to happen ever again, given the nomadic nature of cricketers today. That most of these men came from and worked in the coalfields makes this as invaluable a social history as it is a cricket book.
Throughout Mr Shawcroft paints a picture of the players, the era, the matches and the environment and one is left with the one wish, that you had been there to see it all. By the end, you feel that you knew the players and certainly appreciate their achievement.
The author's love for his subject comes through and this is, without a doubt, one of the best five cricket books I have ever read, possibly even THE best.
Wonderful stuff
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5.0 out of 5 stars
More than a cricket book..., 19 Jun 2007
John Shawcroft wrote the Derbyshire volume in the Christopher Helm History of County Cricket series (published in 1989) so he knows all about Derbyshire cricket. Unfortunately, there are few detailed accounts of individual county teams' experiences in particular seasons before the war, perhaps because the championship was usually won by a handful of counties, although Clive Porter produced an excellent account of Kent's first win in 1906.
Mr Shawcroft writes with an authority based on experience and research of a team which, unlike those of today, was composed almost entirely of home-grown talent. Many of the players having escaped from the mines, this is a social history as well as a cricket book. He describes the gradual development of a side which rose from the also rans to one that, in 1936, was a match even for Yorkshire and Lancashire who dominated the county game between the wars. The description of the successful season doesn't start until chapter 28, so that one is able to appreciate how it came about. There are pen portraits of the players and others who contributed during the period under review and scorecards of the 1936 matches.
In short, this is highly recommended, not just to Derbyshire supporters, but to anyone with a fondness for or an interest in the county game that has undergone so many changes in recent years.
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