Firsts, Lasts & Onlys: The Most Amazing Cricket Facts from the Last 500 Years

by Paul Donnelley

This title features 200 brilliant and bizarre curiosities highlighting the First, Last and Onlys that have occurred during the illustrious history of this sport - from the determined cricketers fined for playing on the Sabbath to the only virtuoso to score a century and take all ten wickets in a single innings. This absorbing collection of stories is guaranteed to enthral and includes some of the greatest gentleman to have graced the field of play, such as: the first player to bat on all 5 days of a test match; the last incidence of under-armed bowling in an international match; and, the only father and son to score centuries in the same First Class innings. Delight in a myriad of facts that you never knew about this glorious game.

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2010

About the author

Aged 15, I wrote a quiz for the late Jeremy Beadle on the London radio station LBC. Two years later, I was the biggest outside contributor to the best-selling Hunter Davies's Bigger Book of British Lists.

My own first book - 50 Fantastic Hits - was published when I was 24. I have since written more than 20 books, often with a showbusiness theme. I am the author of biographies of Julia Roberts (2003) and Judy Garland (2007); a history of television scandal (TV Babylon in 1997); four editions of a best-selling encyclopaedia of film stars Fade to Black (2000, 2003, 2005, 2010); a guide to the films of Marilyn Monroe (2000); Essex Murders (2007), a book about homicide in that county for which I also took many of the photographs; Assassins and Assassinations (2008), a look at 25 of the most notorious plots; The Arsenal Companion (2008), 501 Most Notorious Crimes (2009); Arsenal Day-By-Day (2009); Cricket Day-By-Day (2009) and Firsts, Lasts & Onlys Football, Firsts, Lasts & Onlys Cricket and Firsts, Lasts & Onlys Golf.

Firsts, Lasts & Onlys is a registered trademark of Paul Donnelley.

I have contributed to the following books: Hunter Davies's Bigger Book of British Lists (1982); Poison Pen The Unauthorised Biography of Kitty Kelley by George Carpozi Jr (1992); Clinton Confidential The Climb To Power - The Unauthorised Biography of Bill and Hillary Clinton by George Carpozi Jr (1995); Tom Jones: Close Up by Lucy Ellis and Bryony Sutherland (2000); The Pocket Essential Marx Brothers by Mark Bego (2001) and White Slave: The Autobiography by Marco Pierre White and James Steen (2006).

In the mid-1980s I wrote many of the questions for the television quiz show Pass the Buck (hosted by George Layton for Thames Television). I also wrote a number of unbroadcast shows - you could say I have been involved with more pilots than a kamikaze squadron. Of the shows that did make the air, I wrote for Jeremy Beadle's Today's the Day (TV-am), Today's the Day (BBC), Ultra Quiz (TVS) and University Challenge (Granada for BBC).

I was the editor of Crime Stories, Man About Town and M-Zone. I have worked for several magazines and newspapers including The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, Daily Mail (where for two years I was stand-in editor on the gossip column Wicked Whispers), OK! (where I was a columnist for three years), Sunday Express, Punch (where I was a reporter-feature writer and occasional stand-in deputy editor), Idols, Maxim, For Women, Video World, Hotel & Caterer, City AM (where I was the chief sub editor), thelondonpaper and, most recently Master Detective where I write "Paul Donnelley's Murder Month", a column on criminal history.

I am a member of the National Union of Journalists and the Society of Authors

I live in a book-lined flat in Essex and am presently at work on a number of non-fiction books.

Reviews

[Amit · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.50 ⭐

GENRE - SPORTS / CRICKET.

PAGES - 223.

It's just been a few days that India won the T-20 Cricket world cup of 2024 and since I being a cricket enthusiast have been engulfed by cricket fever I thought to read a book on the same subject.

A fantastic book which show cases the first and lasts and onlys in the 500 years of cricket history.
The use of 3 stumps for the first time, The first overseas tour, the first international Test match outside England and it wasn't featuring England but it was between USA vs CANADA in 1844, the first white man to captain the Westindies cricket team, the first ties test and so on.
A few iconic moments were did not feature in this book like the first asian team to win the ODI world cup 1983, First world cup to be played outside England i.e. in India and Pakistan in 1987, the first team to win the inaugural T20 world cup and also Yuvraj Singh 6 sixes in an over were not mentioned.
Nonetheless a very interesting book for cricket lovers .

Thank you ❤️🙏😎

[KUNSH SHARMA · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty good book for cricket or sports enthusiasts

[SWC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book lists a concise compendium of unique Cricket occurrences. The facts are listed in chronological order. The first date is 1478 which is the first year of a certain reference to the game of Cricket. There appears to be a bias towards English facts. However, there still is a good coverage of all countries currently playing test cricket.

On Monday and Wednesday I ride the bus to work. This has been my reading over a few trips to work