The Cricket Match

by Hugh de Selincourt

In The Cricket Match (1924) and in its successor The Game of the Season (1935), English author and journalist Hugh de Sélincourt (1878-1951) gives a glimpse of life in a Sussex village. First we have a bird's-eye view at dawn of the village nestling under the Downs then we see the players awaken in all widely different circumstance of their various lives, pass the morning, assemble on the field, play their game, united for a few hours, as men should be, by a common purpose - and at night disperse.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Sports

129 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1924

About the author

Hugh de Selincourt was an English author and journalist, chiefly remembered today for his timeless tale of village cricket, The Cricket Match (1924). He studied at Dulwich College before going on to University College, Oxford. During the 1910s, he worked as a journalist, initially as drama critic of the Star and later as literary critic of the Observer. He continued to write book reviews for the Observer long after quitting his official post in 1914.

Reviews

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long, long ago, before many of you were even a twinkle in your father's eye, I read a slim book about cricket.... and enjoyed it. Many years later I decided I'd like to re-read it - but I didn't know its name. I carried out some research and discovered that there are very few works of fiction about cricket... VERY few! So I decided that "The Cricket Match" must have been the book I read so many years ago... it wasn't, but I still enjoyed it.
This is a gentle book that progresses at the pace of an English summer with the buzzing of the bees and the sound of a hard ball hitting a willow bat. It is the essence of an England that no longer exists except as you drive past some village green and watch the bowlers running up... the field spread out... the batsman, all alone, judging his shot.
When I was young I had no time for cricket - I didn't really understand it - then one day I was watching England play and Graham Thorpe was hit so soundly that he had to be stretchered off the field. One of the commentators asked Geoffrey Boycott if that was allowed, to which he replied, "The object of the game is to get the batsman out - there's nothing to say how!". It was then that the whole thing clicked. Cricket is War! A man stands there, alone, with his bat as something akin to half a brick is thrown at him at tremendous speed. He has to stand there, guarding his wicket and making a score (at best). It is a game you have to work at to win. Cricket is the game of the English. Their empire grew out of the type of men who would give up a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to stand there and have deadly "rocks thrown at them... the dangers of the battlefield were as nought in comparison. Cricket breeds courageous men.
This delicious book takes you through one of these Match days. A miscellaneous bunch of individuals of all ages and from all walks of life come together to play as a team. The pace is gentle and steady with the odd exciting rush as a ball is missed or a hit is scored... a ball bowled, caught or is dropped. This is an England that no longer exists - except for on that field of green.

[Len · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will mean little to people outside the UK and equally to people under the age of - I was going to say fifty, but sixty is probably more appropriate. The used to be a duo of entertainers who wrote and performed comic songs: Flanders and Swann. One of their songs looked back at an earlier time when railway branch lines in England linked small town and villages with their local markets and main line stations. It was called Slow Train and The Cricket Match brings that world back to life.

It is a day in the life of Tillingfold, a fictional village in the Sussex Downs. The book was first published in 1924 and the author brings that age expertly to life as the menfolk prepare for their cricket match against their arch rivals from the village of Raveley. The structure of village life with its patriarchal population in which women care for their men and children, cooking, cleaning and nursing - when they don't have servants to do it for them - and the social divisions split between the gentry, local professionals - doctor, bank manager, headmaster - a very few outsider professionals, Tillingfold has yet to become a dormitory town for London stockbrokers and fund managers, and the tradesmen and unskilled workers is explained quietly and precisely through dialogue and description.

There are divisions to be seen, some stirrings of rebelliousness and a little unease at the way the country is going. Then comes the Saturday of the cricket match and for a few hours on that hot summer's afternoon people are brought together as the boys playing football are pushed off the Public Recreation Ground, the pitch is measured out, the stumps set in place, the folding chairs for the ladies to watch are set up, and the players assemble.

Old John McLeod, he's actually in his fifties, overweight, coddled by his wife and living in some form of retirement after an undisclosed stroke of luck; Sid Smith, hod carrier by trade and looking after his family financially his worry, is the team's strike bowler; the gentlemen and the gentry, Paul Gauvinier, an artist with a suspiciously foreign name, the team captain, Edgar Trice, youthful country gent is the making, and Dick Fanshawe and Henry Waite with enough time on their hands to discuss the poetry of Verlaine; Tom Hunter, bad teeth, a shopkeeper with socialist leanings; Jim Saddler the gardener and wicket-keeper; Ted Bannister, timber yard owner; Teddie White; and young Horace, only fifteen, being privately educated and with a fervour for all things crickety that could never be subdued. The story, I suppose, celebrates the magic of cricket - for those who feel strongly about the subject. It has its own life and its own rules and for a short while it can unite people together.

An excellent story with light humour and understandable personalities. It is old fashioned of course - it was written in the 1920s. A male controlled world and an all white cast. There is one piece of unthinking racism when someone refers to what I assume were the lyrics of an old style minstrel song - you know the type, white guys in black-face, banjos and insulting accents. Overall the author's attitudes have stood up well considering it is just over a century old. One thing that is probably necessary for full enjoyment is some knowledge of how cricket is played and how worked up grown men can get when playing a game which involves hitting a ball with a bat to stop it from striking three pieces of wood behind them. The story though requires only a sense of humour.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful story of a village cricket match in the 1920's - rightly considered the best ever fiction story on cricket. Brought back wonderful memories of a match I played in England on a village cricket ground. Something special for an Australian.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Towards the end of the 1980s the New Zealand historian J O C Phillips published his excellent history of New Zealand Pakeha masculinity A Man’s Country? and quickly came under fire from some of our more conservative practitioners of the discipline for relying on novels for large sections of the discussion of 19th century male culture; this criticism confused the fictional with the unreal. Hugh de Selincourt’s thoroughly enjoyable mid ‘20s comic novel about a village cricket match in the fictional Surrey village of Tillingford is a fine piece of evidence for why we should not do that.

The story turns around a match against a neighbouring village, Raveley. It has passion, laughter, joy and pleasure as well as disquiet over the seeming ‘ring-in’, drama as the match draws to a close, hero worship on the part of lads for the fathers and elders and what the British sports historians Dick Holt and Tony Mason called the “quiet harbours of casual exertion and sociability” that are sports clubs. What is more, the novel takes place over the course of the day from players awakening to Tillingford fielding and the day drawing to a close.

Light, witty and with a sharp eye for both the foibles of the game and subtle and not so subtle hierarchies and relations of village life. Even as the game plays itself out and class relations spread across the oval – itself a solely masculine space – competency and civility weave together to ensure that feelings are, as much as possible, not hurt while doing as much as can be done to enhance the chance of winning. This is a fabulous study of the cultural order that is sport and the social order that is the village. In short, it is excellent evidence that Phillips’ critics were wrong, and the novel and fine historical source. On top of that, it is a delightful read.

[Susan Grimshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

My father gave me this book in 1956 and I have read it several times. It is a gentle story of life in a different era, taking you right into the world of the 1920s through the context of the Village Cricket team and their Saturday afternoon match. The characters spring to life and the description of the match gets you quite excited.

[Tamara Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just finished reading this to my 11 year old son. My 14 year old, and then hubby, will read it next. We are all a bit cricket mad. We read the book aloud over the course of two days (in between actual cricket matches). We were transported to another time and place and carried a piece of Tillingfold with us this evening as we walked through farmers fields to our local cricket club. My son suggested we talk to each other in ‘old fashioned English’ for the rest of the day - and I had to admit it was middlin’ hot! For me this book was a bit of a portrait of human kindness - a most welcome thing in this world and at this time. We tried to prolong the short read and I have already ordered the sequel - though I doubt it will equal The Cricket Match. Other reviewers have said it’s an England that no longer exists - as a newcomer to the country, I still see hints of it though - and am very grateful that I do. Play up, Tillingfold!

[David Perrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was about so much more than just a cricket match. Set in 1920s rural West Sussex, each chapter individually portrayed different parts of the day of the match from dawn til dusk, and the older style english dialogue and characters beautifully revived the atmosphere of village life in this period. Even though the two opposing villages of Tillingfold and Raveley are fictional they are characterized by the area in and around the real life village (now town) of Storrington, which happens to be very close to where I have always lived. It was also interesting to learn from the editor's notes that Hugh De Selincourt had a spell as captain of Storrington Cricket Club. Yes, a really good read and thank you to my friend Laura for giving it to me as a birthday present. It bowled me over! 🏏 5 stars...

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like cricket. You would have to know something about cricket to enjoy this book, because most of it is a play by play of a local cricket match. The premise of the book is more interesting than the actual content. A group of very different people come together for the sole purpose of cricket then disperse after the match ends.
To highlight the differences between the characters, the author wrote dialogue to represent the people's accents. I find this difficult to read. I understand the purpose, but don't enjoy reading conversations written like this.

[Nicholas Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing book. A difficult unenjoyable read. If you want to read a cricket book, read Glory Gardens.

[Aqeel Sohail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is also a very good and excellent book

[Manish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been meaning to read this book for quite some time and when I started it, I gobbled it up in one go.The narrative is free flowing and the language used is easy. At times, its almost as if you are reading the transcript of a commentary. It reminds you of a far simpler times. Times when you had no worries. All the worries belonged outside those boundary ropes. Inside those hallowed ropes, you were just another player, free from social conventions and titles. Ironically, inside those ropes you were free. If you have ever loved or played a team sport, you will relate to this book for sure. And to all the Cricket lovers, do read this book. It would make you fall in love with cricket all over again. My word, it would delight you to no end.

[Maxwell Cooter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this book as a teenager. I loved it for the depiction of the match itself, I almost found myself playing every shot and fielding every ball, wrapped in the intensity of it. But re-reading it again as an adult revealed a richer picture: the nuances of class differences, the varied notions of sportsmanship and feelings for the game. The portrayal of the match is still gripping but the vivid picture it presents of a life long gone (and I live about 20 miles from the real-life Tillingfold so it's an area I know well) and the pen portraits of the players mean that this more than a book about sport. An American could read this and not be totally lost ... and could understand something profound about the English psyche.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good conceit - to show the life/relationships in a village through preparations for and playing of a cricket match, but didn't work for me. Dialogue very strange at times and I wondered if a was reading a book for children at the beginning. Don't find sports commentaries very interesting either (second half of the book is account of the match itself).