Description

This is a biography of the New Zealand all-rounder of the 1930s Ian ‘Cranky’ Cromb. The biography was inspired by the acquisition of an extensive scrapbook relating to the tour of England by the New Zealanders in 1931.

Another lovely limited edition, 248 pages. Just 120 available..

The author says:

My seventh book is on the New Zealand Test Player, Ian Burns Cromb.
Ian Cromb was a New Zealand cricketer who played in five Test matches in 1931 and 1932. Cromb toured England in 1931 and would play in all three Tests on New Zealand’s 1931 Tour of England.

Cromb was an all-rounder, an aggressive batsman, fast-medium bowler in his younger playing days before changing to spin later in his career after an injury. Born in Christchurch in 1905, Cromb appeared for Canterbury between 1929 and 1947.
In 1935/36 the M.C.C. toured New Zealand which saw four first-class non-Test matches take place. Cromb would captain New Zealand in all four of the ‘un-official’ Tests.

In senior club cricket for Canterbury, Cromb amassed 13,551 runs second only to Walter Hadlee’s 14,434. Cromb would become a President, selector and coach of Canterbury. For many years Cromb would also co-run a sports shop in Christchurch with his cricketing colleague, Bill Merritt.

But there is so much more to the story of Cromb’s life than that is mentioned above. One example is of Cromb, the Golfer.
Cromb was a pretty handy golfer himself and would mentor the young Bob Charles. Charles would go to win the 1963 British Open. In 1957 Cromb went on his honeymoon with his second wife to America. Charles would also accompany the couple with Cromb overseeing Charles participation in the US Masters. A diversion even took place to attend the West Indies and Pakistan Test matches in both Kingston, Jamaica and in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Both Tests were won by the West Indies whilst at Sabina Park in Kingston, Cromb and Charles saw Garry Sobers break the then record Test score with 365.

The story behind writing a Biography on Ian Cromb began when I purchased a Scrapbook from the book dealer, Christopher Saunders in January 2022. Chris had kindly contacted me to see if I was interested in acquiring it, knowing of my interest in New Zealand Cricket. I headed to Saunders book shop in Newnham-On-Severn to look at the scrapbook which covered the 1931 New Zealand Tour of England. The size of the scrapbook was 17 by 13 inches, totalled 96 pages and was bound in black cloth with leather spine. The front free endpaper was signed by the entire New Zealand Squad of 14 players.
Inside newspaper reports from national and local newspapers had been stuck inside from the 1931 Tour but the scrapbook also contained cuttings aimed specifically about Cromb and the possibility of staying on after the tour in Lancashire to sign as a professional with Farnworth, which the New Zealand Cricket Council refused permission for him to do. This scrapbook was one prepared for and given to Cromb.

The scrapbook also included loose photographs which were all of Cromb and included as well were a lot of loose newspaper reports from games of which Cromb had excelled during his career for Canterbury.