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Books Related to Local Heroes John Shawcroft - ISBN: 1899807357
More than a cricket book... - Rated
John Shawcroft wrote the Derbyshire volume in the Christopher Helm History of County Cricket series (published in 1989) so he knows all about Derbyshire cricket. Unfortunately, there are few detailed accounts of individual county teams' experiences in particular seasons before the war, perhaps because the championship was usually won by a handful of counties, although Clive Porter produced an excellent account of Kent's first win in 1906.
Mr Shawcroft writes with an authority based on experience and research of a team which, unlike those of today, was composed almost entirely of home-grown talent. Many of the players having escaped from the mines, this is a social history as well as a cricket book. He describes the gradual development of a side which rose from the also rans to one that, in 1936, was a match even for Yorkshire and Lancashire who dominated the county game between the wars. The description of the successful season doesn't start until chapter 28, so that one is able to appreciate how it came about. There are pen portraits of the players and others who contributed during the period under review and scorecards of the 1936 matches.
In short, this is highly recommended, not just to Derbyshire supporters, but to anyone with a fondness for or an interest in the county game that has undergone so many changes in recent years.
