On my very occasional visits to Hay-on-Wye (I’ve been there twice), I head out looking for older cricket books, and often they can be snagged for a pound, maybe two. I have picked up a number of the Boycott books from the late 70s, early 80s, where he wrote a tour diary about his fortunes, and often with blisteringly honest critiques of his team-mates. It’s the sort of book that could never be written now. It’s from a bygone age. But for all that, this Boycott book reads of a man in crisis and it is better for it. It seems real.
This particular book relates to the Ashes series of 1978/9, in the midst of the Packer Revolution, with an Australian team lacking its main stars. It is largely disregarded by the Australian cognoscenti on the grounds we were playing their 2nd XI, and thus the 3-0 hammering we received the following year (in a non-Ashes series) is more of a true reflection of the two sides at the time.
The book is couched within the first chapter when Geoffrey gets his excuses in early. He had been sacked as Yorkshire captain – oh don’t we miss those brutal fraternal wars in that quaint old county – and had the terrible sadness of his much beloved mother passing away. Geoffrey, as one of those highly paid gurus would no doubt have said, was not in a good place. So excuses may be a bit harsh, but I’m not going to call them reasons…
The book takes us through a tour that seems to be played on nothing but rubbish pitches. Look at the scores in the tests. Barely anyone has a good series with the bat. Rodney Hogg stands out with his bowling figures, but the teams are all over the place, and there are no draws. England find themselves in difficult positions in many of the games, but pull themselves out of them with a lot of luck and a lot of help from poor captaincy, dropped catches and bad play. Boycott himself has an awful tour with the bat, but even then Sir G is a front-runner for modern thinking, as the epilogue has a wonderful bit where he takes the positives.
Boycott pulls apart Yallop’s captaincy, while also getting the hump early in the tour that he wasn’t being listened to, but then being fulsome in praise of Brearley for asking him his views once that concern had been raised. Brearley does seem to apply remarkable common sense in most of his dealings, from what I can see. I think Geoff really liked Derek Randall, even though he really wasn’t his kind of player, and his 150 in the Sydney Test, when England had just lost the 3rd in Melbourne to lead 2-1, and had conceded a first innings lead of 142, was the deciding factor in the series. Then Randall’s contributions seemed to fade away.
There’s some interesting stuff throughout. England’s former run scoring record holder, Gooch, is still without a test hundred, and would go another two years before getting one. Brearley seems to get the solid start off to a tee more than Geoffrey, and this book is very noticeable by a lack of comments on that. There’s lots of praise in there for those who surpassed themselves, including Bob Taylor, who made a 97 in the 5th test that pretty much secured the game. But Boycs does show his frustrations with Botham’s batting and bowling, Gower getting out the same way, but he is borderline effusive on Brearley:
“I watched Brearley pretty closely…..and I consider he did a magnificent job on and off the field.”
This is also cricket from a byegone era, and it makes me feel old reading it, because this is the first overseas highlights I ever remember watching (I was 8). There is plenty running through the piece on bouncers, and the almost quaint “no bouncing list” that existed (yes, people were protected from having bouncers bowled at them if they were crap batsmen). It was more understandable given helmets were in their infancy in those days, but reading it makes me feel old.
Boycott has a pop at the umpires “they assumed an air of infallibility which their decisions did not always bear out” and at the Aussie crowds “The Hill at Sydney used to be amusing, sharp and cutting, but not unfriendly; now it is simply foul-mouthed and crude.” He wasn’t pleased with the pitches “The great Don Bradman himself once remarked that nobody expected Joe Davis to play snooker on a bumpy table” and Yallop’s captaincy also came under his microscope, with one exchange with Rodney Hogg an example of how the new captain struggled to assert authority. Boycott also rails against sledging and over-appealing, and the former debate still lingers on.
A really interesting read, and although just over 180 pages of text, none the worse for its relative brevity. Highly recommended if you can lay your hands on it. It is big boy/girl cricket writing. Honest, frank, informative, descriptive and free from cliche, management-speak, taking the positive speak (with one caveat) and dealing in nicknames. It’s a book that covers the debut of Allan Border (which all those who wish to dismiss this series Down Under should contemplate) and the force of nature that was Rodney Hogg. There are also familiar themes – the running between the wickets of Graeme Wood runs through this like a stick of rock – and the ODIs in this book look like the belong in Roman times compared to today’s high octane stuff.
A book like that today would be media managed out of existence. James Anderson once said that the ECB amended about 200 pages in his book (he may have been joking) and yet although I have it on my Kindle rack, I’ve not read (but also not heard anything controversial about it either). If you wonder why I am so nostalgic, books like this are the reason why. Honest accounts, dealt with in an adult manner. It’s actually quite refreshing.
Being Outside Cricket 
Thanks for this. Read it with great interest.
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As I said a few weeks ago I got his autobiograhphy out of the library about 25 years ago. It was similarly honest and to the point. You may not always agree with his point of view but you knew he was writing what he believed to be true.
I found his constant wars with Yorkshire county cricket club and the various characters very funny. (Probably my sense of humour) I believe Alan Lamb had to wait for his retirement before he was able to write his book because he couldn’t get it passed ECB censors.
You are right Dmitri it is from a different world and a different cricket culture. Maybe it was because that is how I was introduced to cricket in that era. But I find the modern game and the bland , corporate nature of everything so pathetic. Jimmy should have waited until he retired and printed the full version. But I suppose his corporate managers would worry he wouldn’t sell as many copies.
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Here’s Boycott bowled by Hogg in that series:
And caught at slip:
And some Graeme Wood run out fun (sadly none from the 78/79 series – Wood either ran himself out or his partner, mostly Rick Darling, in every Test of a six Test series):
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Thanks for the review. I remember that tour — I was 12. Looking at the score sheets just now I’d forgotten that we still 8 ball overs in Australia at that time. Graeme Wood did in fact run either himself or his opening partner out in every single test — 6 tests! Well done sir. It as noticed at the time too, I recall.
I also remember my youthful feeling of despair and frustration (as an Australian) of missing Lillee, Thompson, Greg Chappell, Marsh, etc, and having to field a team of youngsters who really weren’t up to playing test cricket, and getting mangled by the poms at full strength. It all seemed so unfair and hopeless.
But I doubt any young people today would be able to conceive of how utterly mind-numbingly dull Boycott was as a batsman. I can forgive him today, because he’s an interesting commentator, and I also give him credit for batting in the only style he could, but holy heck….. Just looking through his scores — 13 from 67 balls, 16 from 82, 77 from 367 (7 and a half hours), 23 from 108….
He never ever looked like he would get out or even *could* get out if he tried. And never bothered scoring runs either. Just stood there and dead batted everything. All eight balls an over. Block…….. Block……… Block……… One of the neighbours broke his foot by kicking a piece of furniture in celebration when Hogg got him lbw off the first ball of the match.
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What did you make of his comments about the Hill being foul mouthed and crude, and no longer having any charm or friendly humour?
Not so much of the……… “hey Jardine, leave our flys alone.”
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This LBW?
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That looks like him getting out for a spritely 13 in the 1st test (after batting for only an hour and a half).
I found it– —
Not so dramatic, and looks like the umpire might have decided he couldn’t stomach another day and a half of Boycott.
@Mark,
Boycott seems to have forgotten this in Sydney in 1971–
That day, though, the crowd turned ugly, when the England fast-bowler John Snow felled the tail-end batsman Terry Jenner with a bouncer. As boos echoed round the ground, the Australian was taken to hospital with a deep gash to his head.
The near-riot that followed, as Snow returned to his fielding position near the Hill, produced the ”worst incidents ever seen at an SCG cricket match”, The Sun-Herald reported.
”Spectators hurled beer cans and bottles at Snow as he called on them to fight him. One man grabbed Snow by the shirt and tried to drag him over the fence.”
As ”pandemonium broke loose” the England players sat in the centre of the field, before skipper Ray Illingworth sensationally led them off. Fourteen people were arrested. Snow’s grabber was not among them.
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cricket/the-day-snow-stopped-play-in-the-sydney-test-20101217-190qh.html
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DVYK, to be fair to Boycott, he was in very bad form in that series. Only one score over 50 attests to that. He was in a bad state over the death of his mother and was not really focusing on his batting. I imagine that even Bradman would have scratched around under similar conditions. It got so bad that he started to tinker with his stance.
However, in the next season he got back into shape to such effect that you might recall the tri-series of 79/80, when Sir G was one of the stars of the limited over tournament, with Lillee, Holding, Roberts etc all in action.
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Thanks for that info.
When I wrote that comment I had only just then recalled my feelings as a 12 y.o., and (I admit) never reflected on it previously. I now notice that my rather extreme youthful reaction was accompanied by a large measure of implicit respect and recognition of an enormous talent.
These days, he’s one of the few commentators who I pay close attention to.
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I agree that Boycott was generally more on the irritating side as a player. But that odiODI series in 1980 shows that Bearley was able to get him to play with freedom. And Ian Chappell will still deny it.
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