The Twelfth Man 2019

Review Chris Barron Who’s Who of The Yorkshire County Cricket Club by Paul Dyson Great Northern Books, 256pp (hb) - £20 I t is almost thirty years since the last definitive Who’s Who of Yorkshire cricket was pub- lished by Tony Woodhouse in 1992 so this latest work by Paul Dyson is much needed. Paul came to ad- dress the Society during last winter and an account of that visit is in the speaker reports of this issue. The meticulous care with which he has gone about the work is evident from reading the Introduction. He has adopted a simple but effec- tive way of deciding the relative importance of entries - the word- count equates approximately to the number of appearances for Yorkshire. The listing comes right up to Kraigg Brathwaite’s late sea- son signing in 2017 after appearing for West Indies at Headingley. The book also includes brief details of the 59 players who appeared un- der the Yorkshire name before the Club’s official formation in 1863. This book, first suggested to Paul by our own Mick Pope, is an es- sential reference point for anyone with an interest in Yorkshire’s great cricketing history. Last of the Summer Wickets: Tales from the Scarborough Cricket Festival by John Fuller Great Northern Books, 251pp (pb) - £9.99 I n his follow up to All wickets great and small, John Fuller celebrates the cricket lover’s phenomenon that is the Scarbor- ough Cricket Festival. He starts with ECB’s fixture list appearing in November and joins the legions of die-hard supporters who scramble to obtain their ‘digs’ in Scarbor- ough for the following summer’s annual pilgrimage to North Marine Road. His journey from there until the end of the match is a whimsi- cal travelogue about the festival itself, the ground it is held at and the town in which it is placed. This is interspersed with anecdotes and recollections obtained from a wide variety of cricketing legends, club officials, local dignitaries, humble spectators and avid cricket lovers, all of whom share the same affec- tion for the concept of ‘first-class cricket on holiday’, as J M Kilburn put it. The book is an easy read and one that will appeal to almost anyone who has fallen under the spell of this unique cricket ground known throughout the world. Fuller touch- es on some tricky ground about the future of the Festival in the age of The Hundred, but concludes that it is unthinkable it will not continue for years to come. His book has the misfortune to chronicle the 2018 match when Yorkshire took an ab- solute drubbing from Worcester- shire, then bottom of the first di- vision, courtesy of Moeen Ali’s 219 runs in the visitors’ only innings of 572 for 7 declared. But for all that, this is book that will strike a chord with almost everyone who has ex- perienced Scarborough. Chris Barron