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The Grade Cricketer: Tea and No Sympathy
The brilliantly funny new novel featuring The Grade Cricketer, hero of the bestselling cult classic The Grade Cricketer. 'A sequel to The Grade Cricketer? It's like junk time in a second innings - something you just have to be part of. ' Gideon Haigh. Is life without cricket worth living? It's a question asked and answered by the Grade Cricketer, as he faces a cricket-free future after a devious plan goes horribly wrong. Hilarious, ridiculous and completely true to life to anyone who's ever spent time in a dressing room, Tea and No Sympathy takes us on a skeweringly funny sporting misadventure through the world of grade cricket and the flawed, damaged and occasionally appalling people who play it, from the creators of the bestselling novel The Grade Cricketer. Praise for The Grade Cricketer: 'The Grade Cricketer is the finest tribute to a sport since Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, and the best cricket book in yonks. It's belly-laughing funny but it's also a hymn to the grand and complex game delivered with a narrative pace and ability I'm afraid most Test players don't have. For anyone who ever dreamed of excelling at a sport but never quite made it but still gave it your life, this is the story. A great read!' Tom Keneally 'The Grade Cricketer has taken us so far inside a district club dressing room that you feel like a locker. Ligaments could not be closer to the bone than some of his observations. ' Kerry O'Keeffe 'The Grade Cricketer is strange and, I suspect, brilliant'. Wisden Author Biography As wide-eyed juniors, Dave Edwards, Sam Perry and Ian Higgins all dreamed of playing cricket for Australia one day. That was before they entered the harsh, dog-eat-dog world of Australian grade cricket, where their hopes and dreams were swiftly extinguished; their cricketing careers subsequently laid to rest. As a form of catharsis, 'The Grade Cricketer' was born: a desperate, delusional 'everyman' that thousands of middling amateur
240 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 14, 2020
very insightful into the world of grade cricket!!!
September 16, 2019
After getting involved reluctantly in a plot to fix the third grade grand final, The Grade Cricketer decides to chuck in the sport that he has wasted his youth on. At 31, it is time for him to re-invent himself, go to uni and maybe marry. This goes awry immediately when his girlfriend leaves him, he has to move back home with his disapproving parents and he sees no career beckoning other than working in a sports store.
Eventually, like a recovering drug addict, he succumbs to the temptation of playing in a social game. His father chucks him out immediately for reneging on his promise to go straight, and he finds himself in a share house with one of his cricketing mates. Slowly but surely, he finds himself sucked back into the soul-sapping world of rigs, circuits, chops, champs and all the rest of the macho one-upmanship of grade cricket. All the while, his cricket declines to the point where his blood-alcohol content sometimes exceeds his career batting average.
While not as funny as the first book, this is probably a better effort as a novel, with a story arc that develops the main characters and takes them through a gradual awakening to maturity and a life beyond grade cricket. The disturbing macho attitudes of the first book are now laid bare as corrosive obstacles to the enjoyment of a full life and the joy of a sport that The Grade Cricketer once loved.
Eventually, like a recovering drug addict, he succumbs to the temptation of playing in a social game. His father chucks him out immediately for reneging on his promise to go straight, and he finds himself in a share house with one of his cricketing mates. Slowly but surely, he finds himself sucked back into the soul-sapping world of rigs, circuits, chops, champs and all the rest of the macho one-upmanship of grade cricket. All the while, his cricket declines to the point where his blood-alcohol content sometimes exceeds his career batting average.
While not as funny as the first book, this is probably a better effort as a novel, with a story arc that develops the main characters and takes them through a gradual awakening to maturity and a life beyond grade cricket. The disturbing macho attitudes of the first book are now laid bare as corrosive obstacles to the enjoyment of a full life and the joy of a sport that The Grade Cricketer once loved.
July 17, 2025
A follow up to the highly enjoyable first book, this is a wonderful insight into the mind of a 30 something amateur sportsman.
A humorous look at how you fall out of love with the game, get drawn back in and the realisation there is more to life.
Would recommend this to any club cricketer who liked the first installment
A humorous look at how you fall out of love with the game, get drawn back in and the realisation there is more to life.
Would recommend this to any club cricketer who liked the first installment
September 13, 2018
I only have a superficial knowledge of cricket, but I still found this book both hilarious and edifying.
December 2, 2018
More wry and incisive satire looking at the state of Aussie cricket. A fun and quick read, probably better than the fate that awaits the 'new look' Australian Cricket Team this season!
January 14, 2019
Hilarious. Think this was actually even funnier than the first one. From the off I could tell it was going to be a cracker.
April 14, 2019
Hilarious!
January 27, 2023
Hilarious romp through bawdy Australian male culture through the lens of early 2010s club cricket.
October 6, 2024
Oh boy, what a book. If you love the game, read it!
October 31, 2024
A genuine laugh out loud book if you’ve played grade cricket growing up.
If you haven’t you will probably hate it.
If you haven’t you will probably hate it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews