Over the Boundary & Under the Covers: A season of cricket, chaos, committee, characters and comical events at a northern cricket club...

by Nigel G Howard

It's 1978 and ex player Reg Birtles is the chairman of a northern cricket league club. After years of glory the club is in the dumps. Reg decides that through his boisterous leadership the club will be put firmly back at the top of the tree. This involves some unpopular, undemocratic, unethical and risky decisions and functions resulting in some comical outcomes. Along the way we meet a succession of funny characters that we all become familiar with and can relate to as the story develops. Plus, a slow burner of a love affair bringing tension and a twist in the tale to the events.
This is northern humour.
Anybody who’s been involved in sport at grass roots level will recognise and relate to characters and situations in Over the Boundary and Under the Covers

240 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2024

Reviews

[Joe Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really came away disappointed with this. It read very much as an amateur novelist putting together something which they thought was brilliant but is in fact missing in several key areas which make a book good.

As others have commented, there are mistakes every so often that a decent proof-read should have picked up. Instances of missed capitalisation, straight-up errors, and most egregiously is when the wrong character is referenced, meaning the sentence makes no sense. The author also relies on the same turn of phrase far too often ("not backwards in coming forward" is used at least 4 or 5 times( which is tiresome. It gives the impression of a book that hasn't been put together with much care.

This impression is reinforced by the 'plot', if I can call it that. Aside from some of the misogynistic attitude in the narration - which I appreciate may be an attempt at being 'of the time' - and a thinly-veiled cover of a cricket season, there isn't much substance to the story. Yes, it follows a series of one-off events across the course of a summer for a local cricket club, with a weak romantic subplot, but nothing came across as having much weight or value to the story. You may think that doesn't matter, as the book isn't trying to be a classic, it is just trying to be a bit funny, but it fails to achieve that. A few chuckles notwithstanding, this book was not the 'Carry On Cricket' that it was billed as. Entire pages go by with meandering narration of what is happening, often going back to the same old characters and their same old quirks / jokes over and over again. It was fundamentally not a comedy novel, not was it a successful dramatic novel, with a pointless and completely unearned twist towards the end.

I sadly cannot find much at all to recommend this book. Not to cricket lovers, not to people after some cheap and easy fun, and certainly not to anyone expecting a smart and well-constructed social satire.

[Gregor Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable tale full of British humour and a touch of sarcasm. All the characters are very relatable and I’m sure will remind you of people within your own cricket club of social circle and I could certainly picture many of the faux pas’ and events that take place in the book happening at my local cricket club. The only downfall is occasional errors which would have been picked up by better proofreading.

[Shaun Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite book of the year

Always a little suspicious about buying a book after a good Facebook review but this book is the exception. A delightful story of a cricket club in Bolton. The story is set over one season, but is a delight with a great mixture of sport, lust and politics and laughs can wait for the sequel

[Mr S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read but....

Enjoyable in parts and some interesting northern names. A good proofreader would have spotted several mistakes. However,NIgel has encapsulated life in an amateur cricket club and there are some good stories. Bravo!

[Mrs Christine Tickle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. The plot wasn't fantastic, but the characters were so real. I'm from Bolton, near Manchester and all the places named are, or were, in Bolton. I have since tried to decide which cricket club it was based on. So funny and easy to read, I read it on 2 days.

[Nick Morton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started well with identifiable characters but then got a bit lost

[Val Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read

This book had enough cricket and love interest to keep you wanting to know what happened next and not want to put it down

[Steve Mepham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really struggled through this, not what I had hoped for.

[Carl Fairhurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

All a bit rushed in the end...