Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
43 used & new from £0.01

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Rain Men: Madness of Cricket
 
See larger image
 

Rain Men: Madness of Cricket (Paperback)

by Marcus Berkmann (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.00 (22%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 4 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Friday, July 17? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
20 new from £3.57 22 used from £0.01 1 collectible from £10.99
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 12 used & new from £0.01

Frequently Bought Together

Rain Men: Madness of Cricket + Zimmer Men: The Trials and Tribulations of the Ageing Cricketer + Not Dark Yet: A Very Funny Book About a Very Serious Game
Price For All Three: £19.97

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Zimmer Men: The Trials and Tribulations of the Ageing Cricketer

Zimmer Men: The Trials and Tribulations of the Ageing Cricketer

by Marcus Berkmann
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.99
Penguins Stopped Play: Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World

Penguins Stopped Play: Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World

by Harry Thompson
4.6 out of 5 stars (48)  £6.99
Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life (then Ruined It)

Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life (then Ruined It)

by Michael Simkins
4.6 out of 5 stars (26)  £5.99
Not Dark Yet: A Very Funny Book About a Very Serious Game

Not Dark Yet: A Very Funny Book About a Very Serious Game

by David Lloyd
4.4 out of 5 stars (7)  £5.99
The Sledger's Handbook: How to Deliver the Perfect Cricketing Insult

The Sledger's Handbook: How to Deliver the Perfect Cricketing Insult

by Liam McCann
4.2 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.49
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (4 April 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349107424
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349107424
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,424 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #16 in  Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Cricket

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
npower® Ashes Series
   npower.com/Cricket    Ashes 2009 Countdown Here. npower® Sponsors of the Ashes 2009 Series 
Cricket Rules Tea Towel
   www.GiftsFromWales.com    A must for all cricket fans The Ins and Outs of Cricket 
  
 

Product Description

Review
'The Fever Pitch of cricket. Very funny.' Daily Telegraph 'Many thousands of cricketers will be able to identify with Marcus Berkmann's marvellous Rain Men. A masterpiece.' Sir Tim Rice 'A very funny book about some very sad men' Ian Hislop 'It captures splendidly the many dazzingling facets of the truly atrocious cricketer' Observer 'For addicts with a low batting average - i.e. most cricket lovers' Guardian

Product Description
There are many cricket books, and they are all the same. 'Don't Tell Goochie', autobiographical insights of nights on the tiles in Delhi with Lambie and the boys; 'Fruit cake days', a celebrated humourist recalls 'ball' - related banter of yore; and Wisden, a deadly weapon when combined with a thermos flask. Rain Men is different. Like the moment the genius of Richie Benaud first revealed itself to you, it is a cricketing epiphany, a landmark in the literature of the game. Shining the light meter of reason into cricket's incomparable madness, Marcus Berkmann illuminates all the obsessions and disappointments that the dedicated fan and pathologically hopeful clubman suffers year after year - the ritual humiliation of England's middle order, the partially-sighted umpires, the battling average that reads more like a shoe size. As satisfying as a perfectly timed cover drive, and rather easier to come by, Rain Men offers essential justification for anyone who has ever run a team-mate out on purpose or secretly blubbed at a video of Botham's Ashes.

See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?


 

Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (16)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars So good I decided to emulate Berkmann, 11 Aug 2006
By A. C. Metcalfe "AFGM CC" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
his book has compelled me to do two things I would never have done before:

1. write a review so evangelical I am about how funny this book is; and

2. set up my own hopeless cricket team with a bunch of rugby, football and hockey players from university with the same levels of success of the team described in these pages.

I can not imagine how anyone but the most hardened anti-sports fan can fail to enjoy this book. I find that there is a lot of drivel written about cricket which seems be in love with its own sense of history and literature but this is a real treat. Don't go and buy the next Beckham, Rooney or Lampard autobiography - read a book about proper sportsmen who really suffer for their love.

... and A Few Good Men Cricket Club are looking for a good fast bowler by the way...
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club!, 29 Jul 2006
By J. M. Griffiths - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I remember being escorted from the canteen at work whilst crippled up with laughter, the first time I read "Vintage Stuff" by Tom Sharpe. This was worse!
Having played at "The Gibbon" and some of the other grounds exquisitely described by Marcus Berkmann I woke up in intensive care and knew life was never going to be the same again. If an ex-cricketer does nothing else this winter, he should read this book.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I'M ONLY 14! AM I ALREADY THIS SAD!, 25 Sep 2003
By A Customer
As I say I'm only 14 and I play Cricket. Everything in this is the absolute truth. When I first read Rain Men it made me cry and my stomach hurt with laughter over a hundred times. It is Hilariously funny and frightenly accurate, it worries me that I am that sad. I have already read it three times, It is surly the funniest Cricket book EVER!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars am I Marcus Berkmann?
I thought only I was so cricket-obssessed that it has taken over my life. When I read Rain Men, this was the book I wished I had written and indeed could have written. Read more
Published 9 days ago by J. Lieberman

5.0 out of 5 stars An effortless drive to the boundary...
Quite simply the funniest laugh out loud book about cricket that I've ever read. It's also beautifully written in a conversational style that only a few can manage. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Andrew Morse

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely hilarious! And true to life!
I came to this book after reading Harry Thompson's "When Penguins Stopped Play", encouraged by the comments in some reviews of that book (which I enjoyed) that this one would be... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Dr. J. L. D. Pearse

5.0 out of 5 stars Drink-spillingly funny and honest to boot
For a humble Sunday second eleven wicketkeeper, reading this book is like gazing into a mirror and seeing reflected in it the richness and absurdity of the game I love and the... Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2006 by Pete UK

3.0 out of 5 stars Mildly amusing in the main, casualty-ward funny in others
To get the most out of this book you need to be familiar with the minutae of village cricket and the characters of bowlers,umpires and batsmen. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2005 by Caterkiller

5.0 out of 5 stars Face Ache-ingly funny
It is a while since I read this and will have to pick it up again soon. It is simply fantastic. I read it on the beach and was chuckiling away and wiping tears from my aching face... Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply hilarious
I'm sat here at work *willing* England to take a wicket in the 3rd Test agasinst RSA at Trent Bridge. Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2003 by daminc

5.0 out of 5 stars Funnier than Bill Bryson?
Definitely. This book is a landmark in cricket literature. You people that skipped work to see another collapse. Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2002 by K. S. Muneer

5.0 out of 5 stars For No. 11 batsmen and 3rd-change bowlers everywhere!
Having read Rain Men for the third time - consecutively! - I can still find things to laugh at or empathise with. Read more
Published on 10 Aug 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars A convert to cricket and a female at that!!!!
Hilarious, and caused me to receive some peculiar looks!!!

Rain Men was first shown to me one drunken evening in a bar frequented by members of Captain Scott's XI near Leicester... Read more

Published on 20 Oct 2000

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]

   


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

Elemis Resurface and Renew Skin Care Gift Set of 4 Products
From soap to shavers, massagers to mascara, stock up on your daily essentials or truly pamper yourself.

Discover Health & Beauty

 

Up to 75% off Shoes

Shoe Clearance - 75% off Shoes
Save up to 75% on shoes for the whole family.

Shop clearance shoes

 

Train Hard...Play Hard

Nike, Gola, Converse, and more
Gear up with up to 60% off athletic and outdoor shoes.

Shop now

 

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

Learn more about Gift Certificates

 
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates