An Ashes Anthology

For most English and Australian cricket lovers the struggle for the Ashes represents the supreme sporting contest. No other series of matches has inspired such a wealth of writing as the England-Australia Tests. This anthology revives the battles between the two countries from 1882, when Ivo Bligh's side set out for Australia to bring back ‘the ashes of English cricket’ to Mike Gatting's victorious tour of 1986-87. The story is told by leading cricket writers, many of them household names - Neville Cardus, R.C. Robertson-Glasgow, Alan Ross and John Arlott in England; Arthur Mailey, Jack Fingleton and Ray Robinson in Australia - and by the players themselves, including such great names as C.B. Fry, ‘Plum’ Warner, Jack Hobbs, Don Bradman, Ray Illingworth, and Greg Chappell.For each series of matches at least one item has been chosen - a description of the series as a whole, or of a particularly thrilling individual match or innings, a profile of a star player or a discussion of a controversial issue. A linking text sets the scene for each piece, while summarised scores for each match and averages for each series are also included. Thus the reader can enjoy the individual pieces at random or read the whole consecutively as a continuous story that charts the fluctuating fortunes of the two countries, the entrances and the exits of the great players. [from the book cover]