Bookshelf

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30325, 28 December 1963, Page 9

Bookshelf

No cricket writer today is more felicitous of phrase than Alan Ross, whose recent work ‘'Australia, 1963,” and his editorship of “The Cricketer's Companion” have attracted particular attention. But it needs more than a happy knack with words to make a good cricket reporter, and Mr Ross has the perception and the eye for detail of the expert, as well as the touch of the essayist. In THE WEST INDIES AT LORD'S (Eyre and Spottiswoode; 104 pp.) he is at his best. He has taken as his subject the second test this year between the West Indies and England—-a magrtificent match which, after some superb individual efforts and swift fluctuations in fortune, ended with England six runs and the West Indies one wicket short of victory. A book about one cricket match is comparatively rare. But there is no lack of material here for Mr Ross to charm and captivate his reading audience. This highly exciting and vastly entertaining match held tha colours of the cricketing spectrum; but there was probably nothing quite equal to E. R. Dexter’s onslaught on the West Indies fast bowlers. A picture of Dexter driving the pace bowling is reproduced on this page. Mr Ross lacks perhaps the humour of a Cardus or Robertson-Glasgow. In other respects he is their equal. And that makes him very good indeed. In a quite different key is ALFRED MYNN, AND THE CRICKETERS OF HIS TIME, by Patrick Morrah (Eyre and Spottiswoode; 224 pp.) The youngster of today may not have heard of the Lion of Kent, but Mynn, in his time, loomed as large in cricket as Grace and Bradman later did. Mynn was a large and loveable man, a bowler of tremendous pace and a hitter of vast proportions.

Mr Morrah. in this sirnplytold tade, gives an excellent picture not only of Mynn and his contemporaries, but of the England in which they Jived. This exceUentlyillustrated. entertaining and informative work will be of particular interest to those with a feeling for cricket history; and for those without St, it is never dull reading. The best-known voice in Australian cricket commentating belonged to the late Johnny Moyes, who was also a prodigious writer on the game. His last published work is THE CHANGING FACE OF CRICKET (Angus ©nd Robertson; 160 pp.) and it is a book of much variety. The ground Mr Moyes covers ranges from Hambledon to Wally Grout aind back again. A handy little volume for cricketing officials is CRICKET UMPIRING AND SCORING, by a farmer secretary of the M.C.C., R. S. Rafit Kerr (Phoenix House, Ltd.; 120 pp.) In a foreword John Arlott makes the point that umpiring can make or ruin cricket This little book, admirably arranged, will help make umpires and make good umpires better ones. It covers everything a good umpire should know.