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Rain Men: Madness of Cricket [Paperback]

Marcus Berkmann (Author)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (4 April 1996)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0349107424
ISBN-13: 978-0349107424
Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 1.9 x 19.7 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 9,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Cricket
- #28 in Books > Humour > Sports

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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.

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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 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 July 2006

J. M. Griffiths - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rain Men: Madness of Cricket (Paperback)

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.

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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So good I decided to emulate Berkmann, 11 Aug 2006

A. C. Metcalfe "AFGM CC" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rain Men: Madness of Cricket (Paperback)

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...

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35 of 37 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

This review is from: Rain Men: Madness of Cricket (Paperback)

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!

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› See all 25 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars I didn't laugh as much as they said I would
When I would read this author's backpage piece in the Wisden cricket magazine I often found its smug satisfaction in playing cricket to a worse-than-medicocre level vaguely... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Andy

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining
Light and entertaining. A frolic through the travails of any wanabe cricketer, although the sentiments and characters must be true in all sporting walks. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Alf King

2.0 out of 5 stars Middle order batting
The last time I bought a book on 'laughability' described on the dust jacket it was Simon Winder's 'Germanania' and you can read my review of that book. Read more

Published 5 months ago by The Ancient Mariner

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Good Book
If you have ever played this silly game at any level, buy this book. Brilliantly written, it had me laughing out loud. Read more

Published 9 months ago by SouthernDave

5.0 out of 5 stars bat and ball
If you love cricket, want to understand people who do or just fancy a great read this is a book for you. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Simon Hatfield

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and wince makingly embarrassing!
A truly entertaining book to read for all people whose range of cricketing excuses outweighs their ability. Read more

Published on 9 Nov 2009 by Mr. LGD Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars A hit for six!
A really entertaining and amusing book about the trials and tribulations of a VERY amateur cricket team where each player has an exaggerated sense of his own ability and value to... Read more

Published on 2 Sep 2009 by D. W. Miller

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 on 6 July 2009 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 on 30 Mar 2009 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 on 8 Oct 2007 by Dr. J. L. D. Pearse

› See all 25 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

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