Last of the Summer Wickets: Tales from the Scarborough Cricket Festival

by John Fuller, Michael Parkinson (Foreword)

The day the county cricket fixtures are revealed each winter, hoteliers in Scarborough get ready for their phones to melt. The migration of cricket fans each August to the North Yorkshire coast has yet to feature in a nature documentary but county cricket by the seaside has been a Yorkshire institution since 1876. Be transported to one of Yorkshire's finest sporting amphitheatres. Enjoy tales from the game and town that will surprise and delight, like the time the PA system picked up a funeral during play or when Derek Randall gave Sarfraz Nawaz a wire rubbish bin to aid his ability to field. There are interviews with fans, players and coaches past and present and those who have been coming to Scarborough for up to 50 years. Read Geoffrey Boycott's last innings for Yorkshire in his own words, Ken Rutherford's 317 in a day recalled by the man himself and Jason Gillespie on his favourite Festival memories. John Fuller travels to the coastal town to find the characters and stories, watch Yorkshire in action and tap into Scarborough's enduring appeal.

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2020

Reviews

[Tim Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Occasionally I read a book I really wish I'd written. Actually, that happens quite often. Less often do I read something I really could have written, wonder why I didn't write, and feel slightly miffed that somebody else got there first. Because the Scarborough Festival is in my blood from years of attending every year thanks to having grandparents in the seaside town. Prior to that I remember waiting outside the gates one day in the rain, wondering if there was a chance of the scheduled one-day match between Sussex and Yorkshire ever happening. 'What happens if the rain don't stop?' someone in the crowd asked. 'They toss a coin,' said his mate. 'Oh well, Yorshire's alright then because Greig can't win owt wi' a coin!' And, a little later, Tony Greig (captain, at the time, of Sussex and England) couldn't, didn't, and Yorkshire went through. A year or so later my father, grandfather and I sat up high on the North Bank watching England take on New Zealand. I have a vivid memory of Richard Hadlee bowling with a stutter to his ru-up. Not a feature that seems to have lasted. After that, I became a junior member: was there when a lot of the matches Fuller describes took place, there when Geoffrey Boycott stood on the outfield outside the pavilion looking lost, having been dropped (banned, even) by Ray Illingworth for some unwarranted media comments. I remember being rudely told me move by Safraz Nawaz (batting) as I was apparently sitting in his eye-line. Northants always seemed to be playing in the festival's championship festival. And Safraz was forever asking me to move. None of which has anything much to do with Fuller's book. And yet it has everything to do with it. Because it's that kind of book. A book to rekindle memories, to set the mind back to a time when the sun shone (even if a cold wind often blew) and there was a wonderful, end-of-season, late August/September festival of cricket at Scarborough. Wonderful stuff!