The Great Romantic: Cricket and the golden age of Neville Cardus - Winner of William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2019 by Duncan Hamilton

Author:Duncan Hamilton [Hamilton, Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473661820
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2019-07-24T18:30:00+00:00

and preferred to see ‘a single, glorious shot’ from Woolley or Walter Hammond than a century by an inferior who occupied the crease as

though fossilised to the spot. He had a fondness for bowlers such as C. S. ‘Father’ Marriott. ‘To watch a leg-spinner endeavouring to deceive a great batsman on a good wicket is a connoisseur’s delight,’ he said, arguing that crowds would ‘flock to see a bowler of rare manipulative skill’, because ‘whether he is getting wickets or not getting wickets, he compels constant attention from the onlooker.’ Cardus would gladly have watched Hedley Verity tweak the ball at medium pace towards nothing but a solitary stump or against chalk marks on a brick wall, so entranced did he become by the ‘wheeling up of his overs’ and the sun shining on his high forehead ‘as though from some illumination sent out by his intellect’.

He still fretted that groundsmen were producing bland pitches to create statistical landmarks. The glut of them, said Cardus, was a threat to cricket’s future because ‘drama cannot be felt unless … conflict hot and bitter is present.’

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