Month: July 2019

REVIEW: BORDER’S BATTLERS

It may well have been the greatest Test match of all, better than The Oval 1926, Headingley 1948 and even Edgbaston 2005. With all its sub-plots, spats, heroes and tension, it can be argued that Madras 1986 was even more thrilling than the original tied Test in Brisbane 1960.

REVIEW: MY SONG SHALL BE CRICKET

Franklyn Stephenson was an extraordinary, innovative cricketer. First time at the MCG he took 10-46.  His slower ball became the most famed in English cricket. He was switch-hitting long before KP. He was the last to do the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets. Yet his career is forever underrated – and tainted.

MELBOURNE’S RARE BOOK FAIR

Having a self-imposed spending ‘limit’ at a Rare Book Fair is a discipline few of us can master, especially for collectors like me who still thrill to the hunt, 50-plus years since an indulgent uncle passed on a copy of Charlie Macartney’s My Cricketing Days.

Australia’s only 50-year-old Test cricketer

In the old days of Ashes tours when ambassadorial duties demanded the packing of dinner suits and a supply of quality dress shirts, it was felt Bert Ironmonger lacked the necessary social graces to successfully represent his country overseas.  He mowed lawns for a living. He’d lost half his forefinger in a farming accident as […]