“Ashes to Ashes” — Book Promo Vol.1
“The bowler’s Holding the Batsman’s Willey”.
Watching Test Match cricket through the night has always been rather a fools errand but I’ll never tire of the impulses that drive me to rearrange my life as well as my body clock to watch the grandest of all games at 4am, night after English wintry night. I credit my parents but especially my dear old Mum for my lifetime love of cricket and whilst she would shake her head in utter bemusement as her son wearily retreated to bed (or school, college or even, whisper it, work) at 8am after watching cricket from Australia or the West Indies, New Zealand or Pakistan all through the night, I’m now into my fourth decade of doing so, 52 not out in the game of life and I won’t be retiring any time soon.
Why is an easy question to answer if more than a little baffling to a lot of people. The game itself, the elongated form of the game and Test Match cricket, is both the grandest of all games and the greatest. For a game that can last five days it can change in an hour, a dazzling hundred or an inspired spell of bowling and the nailed on favourites are suddenly struggling to stay in the game.
But it’s far, far more than that.
But to stay on topic and veering away from waxing lyrical on my favourite sport that even trumps football in my affections, watching this grand game through the night is heightened immeasurably by the strange feelings of illegality of watching live sport through the night and feeling as though you are the only person in the country doing so! It may be 4am in a cold and frosty England but it’s an early afternoon in Sydney or Melbourne (Australia lives in the future!) and it never fails to please the child in me that as I peer outside through the gloom and a full moon illuminating a night sky, I’m watching cricket in the sunshine of Wellington or Barbados, Karachi or Adelaide.
Breakfast at mid-night. Chocolate biscuits and copious amounts of tea throughout the night. It’s 4am, the final session of the day (night?) is about to start and thoughts of sleep are washed away by a quick shower and before you know it, it’s 7.30am and as the sun sets and the shadows lengthen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground or the beautiful mountain backdrop of Mount Maunganui in New Zealand, dawn is breaking here in a cold, misty and damp England and, if life allows, it’s now time for bed! If it doesn’t and I have the wild and beautiful company of my son for the day then a short afternoon nap will be the order of the day before a couple of hours sleep in the evening and then this crazy, self imposed and self obsessed sporting madness can begin all over again.
This all makes no sense whatsoever and I’m the first to appreciate this but for a few short weeks I disappear into the illicit world of watching cricket from the other side of the world whilst the rest of my mother country is fast asleep and oblivious to the wickets and runs, “buzzers” and “bouncers” and the glorious thwack of leather on willow from the sunshine of Mumbai as I warm myself against the cold of an English winter.
I penned “Ashes to Ashes” for a variety of personal reasons that are all covered within the book, many of which feature at length in elongated stories wrapped around the sporting action itself and you’ll therefore have to buy a book I’m immensely proud of to find out more!
Here’s the blurb from the reverse cover:
“50 something ex fast bowler who could always bowl a mean “off cutter” but always marvelled at this grandest of all games. Veteran of many “through the night tours”, this is my second book and first on a sport that always enchants me and is the book on Test Match cricket I’ve always wanted to write”
“I admire Ben Stokes for non-sporting reasons as I do another of England’s current totemic sportsmen, Tyson Fury. Both men have been incredibly frank and open with their struggles with mental health. Incredibly frank. One continues to be the Heavyweight Champion of the World with the giant presence of a taller George Foreman and the hand speed of Muhammad Ali. The other is a 31 year old leader of men recovering from the loss of his Father as well as recovering from the darkest of human places. For that alone, I greatly admire Ben Stokes”
“This is the human story behind England’s tours to Australia and New Zealand via the West Indies and Pakistan amid a sporting revolution redifining the very essence of the sport worldwide”
“Test Match cricket is alive and well — Vive la Révolution!”
426 pages long, the book comes in 5 parts:
(1) AUSTRALIA “Ashes to Ashes for Joe Root’s England”
(2) WEST INDIES “Chaotic Calamity in the Caribbean”
(3) “A Cricketing Journey”
(4) PAKISTAN “All hail the Stokes and McCullum Revolution!”
(5) NEW ZEALAND “The Revolution gathers pace ahead of The Ashes”
The middle section and Part 3 is a 70 page personal story of my own playing days and a singular piece of writing I’m incredibly proud of.
I tried, but not overly so, to get this published via a traditional publisher, but without any form of representation, track record or an Agent, I knew I stood very little chance and so I took the great leap forward and decided to “publish and be damned” lest it sit forever inside the tiny confines of my mind or just an unrealised pipe dream.
Following the original publication of this book in May 2023 I also self-published a second book on cricket “The Spirit of Cricket” in August 2023 and at the end of that Summer’s Ashes tussle with Australia. I will be promoting this particular book in a similar way with further articles coming soon!
As a way of self-promoting both of these books and all four I have self-published to date, I decided in the Summer of 2023 to create my very first Youtube channel “The Blackford Book Club” and so following you’ll find a selection of videos of your humble narrator, author and self-publisher reading extracts and chapters from this particular book and, as you’ll quickly realise, these were recorded either in the lounge, the garden or even perched precariously on the end of a rickety old “fishing peg” on the banks of the River Severn here in middle England and with the incredible backdrop of Ironbridge, the world’s oldest iron bridge and World Heritage accredited site.
If you’re not a fan of Youtube, all of these videos and many more can also be found within my Rumble Channel under the same “The Blackford Book Club” name. So here follows a selection of videos, a couple of promotional images and a link to www.amazon.com where you can not only purchase my pride and joy but also read it for FREE should you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
As an independent writer, all support is gratefully received and I thank you for reading.
"Ashes to Ashes" Link - Available via Amazon
"England take charge in Mount Maunganui" - Youtube
"Deja Vu at the MCG" - Youtube
"Test Match cricket is boring? Kiwi's win in a thriller!" - Youtube
"Leach tries to spin England to victory in vain" - Youtube
"Ashes to Ashes - Through the night with the England team Part 5" - Youtube
Thanks for reading. If you are able to support me in any way I’d be eternally grateful and suffice to say, I always reciprocate the kindness of a follow/subscription.