Tim Cawkwell

Compleat Cricket Tim Cawkwell

On Monday 18 September 2017, while Essex had won the cricket County Championship, Warwickshire were in the relegation slot; the next two rounds were to decide which of five teams would join them in going down. The result was eight days of hard-fought cricket, exploiting the game's thrilling capacity for snatching victory from defeat, triumph from disaster - and vice versa. On Thursday 28 September, in the last hour of a county cricket season that had begun six months and fifty-six days of cricket earlier, the matter was finally decided, leaving a trail of 'what ifs' ruefully in the mind. COMPLEAT CRICKET is a richly illustrated account of those last two rounds, eight days of intense battling to score runs, take wickets and hold catches. It contains a light-hearted discussion of the relative merits of slow and fast cricket, blast and block cricket, but it chiefly aims to tell a story that shows off the excitements, tension and drama of slow cricket to perfection. / 110 pages, 112 photographs / "The writing throughout is enjoyable, mimicking the anticipation and tension that builds as a longer-form match unfolds, and a long campaign reaches its climax. There is no way to stop yourself from being drawn into the narrative, or feeling the tension, anticipation and excitement." - The Cricketer. "I wasn't expecting the book to be as gripping as it is and it's actually one of the best bits of reportage on the climax of the 2017 season that I can remember reading . . . Tim has brought a new vision and a sense of drama and excitement in his account." - Cricket Society Bulletin.