GREAT ASHES MOMENTS, Ken Piesse, foreword by Greg Chappell, a hardback, RRP $39.95, Ken Piesse's 48th cricket book
From the highs of Don Bradman’s mighty 254 at Lord’s to the home-town hat-trick from the flipperman Shane Warne, Great Ashes Moments is the ultimate Ashes anthology, detailing the finest moments from the first 137 years of England - Australia Test battle.
Included are the best catches, the biggest hits, the most famous boo-boos, quotes, laughs, nicknames, occupations and let-offs.
And for the first time it is revealed how Australia’s bravest captain Bill Woodfull offered to stand down after the first Bodyline Test match, a decision which was accepted but latest rescinded when he told the selectors that there would be no comebacks.
Spiced by an array of delightful little known photographs and images, Great Ashes Moments is cricket author and commentator Ken Piesse’s 67th book.
One of Australia’s finest Greg Chappell, a friend of Ken’s for more than 35 years, has provided the foreword and says of his epic century at Lord’s in 1972: ‘Walking back up that little embankment into the (Lord’s) members’ and seeing them all standing and applauding was as good a feeling as I ever had in cricket….’
The book is also being released in England on the eve of this summer's Ashes battles and will be available at the Lord's shop.
THE TERROR,Charlie Turner, Australia's Greatest Bowler, Ric Sissons
Surely Shane Warne is Australia’s greatest bowler? Not according to author and historian Ric Sissons who has released The Terror, Charlie Turner, Australia’s best bowler.
Sissons says Turner’s strike rate of six wickets per Test against all-powerful English batting line-ups in the 19th Century deservedly places him among the game’s icons – and maybe even ahead of the iconic Warne.
CTB Turner was a fast spin bowler about Shahid Afridi’s pace and in 17 Tests he took 101 wickets at a better strike, superior average and more economically than Warnie’s 708 in 145 Tests.
In the foreword to The Terror, a limited edition from cricketbooks.com.au, Test great Alan Davidson agrees that Turner should be in every bowling pantheon.
“His claim that Charlie was the greatest ever is creditable and well argued,” Davo says. “His proportion of five and 10 wicket hauls are astonishing.”
The author says Turner deserves to be included in the next induction in Australian cricket’s Hall of Fame.
Both the Limited Edition signed-by-Davidson copies of The Terror (at $60) PLUS the standard edition ($35) are are available from cricketbooks.com.au
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF AUSTRALIAN CRICKET PLAYERS
Presenting for the first time a truly comprehensive ‘A to Z’ who’s who of Australian cricket in which we cover every Australia’s first-class and representative cricketer in a single volume.
Australian cricket's ultimate encyclopaedia includes almost 3500 entries from Sean Abbott to Paul Zschorn and features legends from Bradman to Benaud and Woodfull to Warne.
Embellished with signature moments, meaty stories, entertaining one-liners and extraordinary facts and feats, it includes every Australian first-class, Test, ODI and Twenty20 player from 1851 to 2012. The Encyclopaedia has just arrived. For one of the signed copies do ring or email me.
HERE ARE SOME EXCERPTS:
TERRY ALDERMAN: ‘After England’s Robin Smith slammed him to the offside fence for a boundary in 1989, he walked back to his mark and yelled: ‘You're not going to get me’. Returning from shoulder surgery, he took 41 wickets including Graham Gooch four times, prompting Gooch to record a home phone message: ‘Sorry, I’m out at the moment, lbw Alderman.’ ’
IAN CHAPPELL: ‘Australia’s finest post-war captain ahead even of Benaud and Taylor, Chappell also was one of the revolutionaries responsible for rival promoter Kerry Packer entering cricket so sensationally in 1977. Determined, abrasive, inspired, a master of strategy, Chappell led Australia to the unofficial world championship in 1975 on the back of two of the fastest bowlers of them all in Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. It had been on a Chappell whim that he threw the ball to Thomson to bowl into the wind at Brisbane in 1974-75. He watched in awe as the Bankstown boy soon accelerated to speeds close to 160 km/h (100mph) against an equally-stunned English top-order. ‘
NEIL HARVEY: ‘Australia’s stellar post-war batsman could barely read a scoreboard yet had one of the most distinguished careers of all, his outstanding record complemented by his fielding prowess in the country, covers and in-close. Long-time contemporary Richie Benaud said Harvey’s balance and brilliance in the field was unsurpassed. From the time he made twin centuries, aged 13, in a lower-grades District final in original home-town Melbourne, Harvey always seemed destined to represent his country.’
Charles Davis’ stats are definitive… Ken Piesse’s authoritive insights and anecdotes help to make this one of those ‘must-have’ volumes... the ideal argument settler… a book to truly delight and one you will thumb into again and again.
DYNAMIC DUOS, CRICKET'S FINEST PAIRS AND PARTNERSHIPS
They came and conquered… Lillee & Thomson, Warne & McGrath, Clarke & Ponting and dozens more of cricket’s most dynamic duos.
From the Waugh twins who delivered the knockout blow in Australia’s winning of the world championship in the Caribbean in 1995, through to prized pairings from every Test playing country in the world, KEN PIESSE tells their stories with flair and humour.
All the obvious ones are there, Simpson-Lawry, Langer-Hayden (pictured on the cover), Trueman-Statham (or should that be Statham-Trueman) , Hobbs-Sutcliffe plus of course Sangakkara-Jayawardene and ‘Caught Marsh bowled Lillee’.
There are a few quirky ones, too, like Don and Lady Jessie Bradman (the best partnership of my life’ and ‘Mackay and Kline, a 90-minute Adelaide union which continues to fascinate.
Old favorites of mine like Arthur Morris and Neil Harvey have been in touch, ‘Harv’ talking of his ever-so-close relationship with Sammy Loxton and Arthur talking of his union with Sid Barnes and particularly with the Don and the epic final day at Leeds when Australia ran down 400 in a day to register one of Australia’s finest wins.
Arthur wrote: “In 1948 Leeds, no doubt that was Don and my most important partnership because it was the most difficult and certainly the most unexpected including Don and my expectations…’
He signed off by sending all of us at the Australian Cricket Society in Melbourne all his best, saying: Pleased your efforts on behalf of the Cricket Society have been so successful. As they say up here in NSW, ‘Bewdy mate! Best wishes from Judith and me.”
It was a lovely letter, typical of Arthur, who many of you met and some even had a beer with not that long ago in Melbourne at our big Windsor Ballroom function where Arthur, then 86 and Judith were joint guests of honor at the launch of Our Don Bradman.
Matthew Hayden has contributed the foreword, talking of his prolific partnership with Justin Langer and how the pair ‘just clicked’ on first meeting, even if ‘K.L.’ initially thought he was a member of the Gabba groundstaff! In his foreword, Hayden also says: “Ken Piesse’s service to cricket is truly remarkable. He knows and loves the game like few I know.”
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GREAT ASHES MOMENTS, Ken Piesse, $39.95
THE TERROR, Ric Sissons $60 & $35
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF AUSTRALIAN CRICKET PLAYERS (600+ pages), $35
DYNAMIC DUOS, cricket's finest pairs & partnerships, limp covers, $30
