MCC and Cricket Society announce shortlist

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The shortlist for the MCC and Cricket Society Book of the Year award for 2025 has been announced.

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The shortlisted books are:

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Striking Summer, How cricket united a divided nation, Stephen Brenkley, Fairfield Books

One Hell of a Life, Brian Close, Daring, defiant and daft, Stephen Chalke, Fairfield Books

Worrell, The brief but brilliant life of a Caribbean pioneer, Simon Lister, Simon & Schuster

The Cricketers of 1945: Rising from the ashes of World War Two, Christopher Sandford, Pitch Publishing

Blood on the Tracks, England in Australia, The 1974-75 Ashes, David Tossell, Fairfield Books

Forgotten Pioneers, The story of the original English lady cricketers, Giles Wilcock, Pitch Publishing

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Longlisted books that did not reach the short list were:

 

Batting for Time, The fight to keep English cricket alive, Ben Bloom, Pitch Publishing

Echoing Greens, How cricket shaped the English imagination, Brendan Cooper, Constable

Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes, The story of an Ashes classic, David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts, Bloomsbury

Lara, The England Chronicles, Brian Lara with Phil Walker, Fairfield Books

An Unusual Celebrity, The many cricketing lives of Bill Bowes, Jeremy Lonsdale, Pitch Publishing

Clyde Walcott, Statesman of West Indies cricket, Peter Mason, Manchester University Press

Bill Edrich, The Many Lives of England’s Cricket Great, Leo McKinstry, Bloomsbury Sport

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The winner will be announced at Lord's on 14 April.

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Mike Coward on ABC Listen

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You can catch Mike Coward's interview with Rod Quinn of ABC Listen here.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Fahey on The Baggy Green

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Michael Fahey has spoken with ABC Listen about his updated book (with Mike Coward), The History of the Baggy Green.  You can hear it here. 

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6 February 2025
 

New Golden Age podcasts

 

New podcasts are now available from Tom Ford's Golden Age of Cricket: Peter Lloyd completes his podcast on Charles Macartney, and Richard Tomlinson discusses WG Grace.

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1 February 2025

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James Rodgers OAM

 

James Rodgers, a member of the Company of Cricket Scribes, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to primary and secondary education and services to cricket.  James' publications on cricket include two histories of the Sydney University Club (Summertime Blues and Golden Blues), and he was also a contributor to the centenary history of the Sydney Grade competition (Making the Grade) and the Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket.

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26 January 2025

 

Pat Rodgers on The Final Word

 

You can now hear Pat Rodgers discussing the career of Mick Pierce and the first ever Sheffield Shield match  on The Final Word podcast with Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins, here.

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20 January 2025

 

 

New Trumper title coming from Red Rose 

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Young Vic, Max Bonnell's study of Victor Trumper's early life, is due soon from Red Rose Books.  This short book traces the first twenty years of Trumper's life, exploring the uncertainty over his origins, the poverty and tragedy of his early life and the mysterious process by which a boy with no cricket in his family and no material advantages developed into the greatest batsman of his age.  It's due for release on 15 March 2015, and available for pre-orders here.

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9 January 2025

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Peter Lloyd discusses Charlie Macartney

 

You can now hear Peter Lloyd discussing his new biography of Charlie Macartney on Tom Ford's Golden Age of Cricket podcast, here​.

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6 January 2025

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Peter Schofield and Ric Sissons win 2024 Jack Pollard Trophy

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The Jack Pollard Trophy, for the outstanding Australian cricket book of the year, has been awarded to Peter Schofield and Ric Sissons for When the Kangaroo Met the Eagle, their outstanding account of the 1913 Australian tour of the United States.

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The book was published in a limited edition of 100, which sold out rapidly.  A review published by Cricketweb can be found here.

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4 January 2025

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Four new cricket titles coming from Pitch Publishing in 2025

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English sports publisher, Pitch Publishing, is offering four new cricket titles in 2025.  In March, there’s Deadly, a biography of the late Derek Underwood by Mark Peel, whose previous subjects include Douglas Jardine and Ken Barrington.  Also due in March is The Club, Rod Lyall’s history of the ICC.  Andrew Murtagh’s Cricket’s Black Dog, scheduled for May, is a study of depression among cricketers.  And also coming in May, Ian Lockwood’s Ten Clowns and a Parson is a biography of the nineteenth century Yorkshire left-armer Ted Peate.

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4 January 2025