Fatty Batter: How Cricket Saved My Life (And Then Ruined It)

by Michael Simkins

Overview

This hilarious story of one man's lifelong obsession with cricket takes readers from the early awkward days as a fat boy growing up in a Brighton sweet shop to his years running a team of dysfunctional inadequates still chasing the sweet spot. In this story, cricket offers a shelter from life's irksome realities and a place in which to quietly dream. That place is a peculiarly English arcadia of occasional wondrous beauty, forests of comforting statistics, and the endless life-affirming rituals of defeat, humiliation, and disappointment—the perfect net practice for life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780091901516
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/03/2008
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Michael Simkins is an actor.

Table of Contents

First Innings

One Short 5

No Ball 9

Wide 13

Pull 17

Bye 21

Cuts 27

Stumped 31

Stifled Appeal 39

Shot 47

Square Leg 53

Long Leg 59

Backward Point 65

Off Drive 75

Twelfth Man 81

Overthrow 85

Strutt 89

Brace 99

Lever 105

Block 111

Hoist 115

Tackle 121

A View From The Boundary

Quiet Studio 129

Tape Running 139

Live Feed Active 147

That's A Wrap 155

Harry 165

Second Innings

W.G. Gracefullys 173

Imperial War Museum 177

Old Wokingham 181

Henfield IIs 187

Worthing Railways 195

Buddhists of England 203

Stonegate Mariners 209

Farleigh Wallop 215

The Orang-utans 223

Wandsworth Cowboys 231

New Delhi Gymkhana Presidents XI 239

South Africa 'A' 245

Nuthurst 249

Rolvenden 259

The Old Spring 265

Burpham 271

W.G. Gracefullys 281

Twenty Overs In The Final Hour

Sackcloth 291

Ashes 303

Close of Play 311