|
|
|
 2008 Surridge kit available online! World Cup replica shirt, training top, polo shirt, etc. Full details 
          
|
Scottish cricket - 20 years after Freuchie at Lord's
On the 20th anniversary of Freuchie's famous victory at Lord's in the Village Cup, the first Scottish club side ever to play at the home of cricket, Neil Drysdale takes an affectionate journey down memory lane, but also assesses the wider state of Scottish cricket as the national team prepares to compete in the World Cup qualifying tournament. Punchy, and always entertainingly written, this book is a 'tour de force', according to critic Sandy Strang, which makes "a worthy contribution to the sadly thin corpus of Scottish cricketing literature". Here is his full critique: NEIL Drysdaleâs affectionate 20th anniversary retrospective on wee Freuchieâs magical mystery tour of British hamlets culminating in that glorious sporran-thrusting date with Lordâs destiny is an intriguing melange. Sure, thereâs the obligatory, overblown ãover the moonä reminiscences as the ãrambunctiousä (sic!) Coo, ãPanglossianä (sic!) Jasper Irvine, the Admirable Geordie Crichton, ãno shrinking violet with an MA from the Nigel Rose school of bumbledomä and ãStakhanoviteä (sic!) Niven McNaughton et al are initiated into the venerable Village Cricket Hall of Fame. And, rightly too, the Drysdale hagiolatry embraces the presiding odyssey overlord, the eponymous ãDadä of the tomeâs title, august, ubiquitous Dave Christie ö that beatific amalgam of geniality, toughness, pragmatism, patter, and above all, down-to-earth decency, ãunstintingly wed to hard graftä and ãwith no inclination to waste breath indulging in recherchŽ du temps perdu, as he looks to the future and the next generation of wannabe Lordâs larrikinsä emerging from that ãlittle Brigadoon at the heart of Hampden Centralä. But Drysdaleâs magnum opus is no mere dewy-eyed dwelling on one fond halcyon day in St Johnâs Wood. He strikes some serious chords of trenchant social and sporting commentary. He applauds the socially inclusive ãHooray for Bollywoodä philosophy presently permeating Scottish cricket, highlighting that cricket here is no mere patrician pastime for public schoolboys and English ŽmigrŽs, but, unlike football and rugby, the only Scottish sport to have successfully pursued a racial integration policy. He berates ãthe Old Firm and their scabrous tusslesä whilst acknowledging that ãraucous, seething mass of partisan biasä which is Freuchie v Falkland at cricket. He castigates Fred Trueman, ãthat embittered graduate from Curmudgeon Collegeä, and thereâs an especially poignant cri de coeur from the daughter of unjustly much maligned Test-captaining Scot Douglas Jardine. The authorâs visceral passion for cricketâs foibles also indulges in some wryly amusing recollections of his own belts-and-braces cricketing past in Armadale, ãa grime-encrusted community where none of the local bakers would ever stock fairy cakes on the basis that no customer would ever risk his health by asking for themä. He was an ersatz opening bat with the Atlas club, ãthe little Nells of the east of Scotland club scene, whose sojourns, trials and tribulations offered both an Altmanesque tableau of vignettes and the sobering reminder that sweat and blood and commitment are no substitute for a smidgeon of talent·onwards we marched even if the ultimate destination could only ever be the road to nowhere.ä Freuchie, though, he reminds us, marched triumphantly through the Grace Gates at Lordâs. It was victory for their niggardly self-styled ãMean Machineä bowling - compensating for frequently brittle batting - and especially fervently committed fielding fostered by a ferocious work ethic. ãWe all need adventures and dreams in sportä, a pro-Caledonian Ian Botham reminds us in the Foreword ö a neat Drysdale scoop here ö ãand Freuchieâs story is up there with the best." |
Email This Article To Someone!