Sports Books - our writers pick their favourite cricket and football books for the festive season

FEW authors have made a greater contribution to Yorkshire’s cricketing history than Jeremy Lonsdale, whose latest two books have found their way into The Yorkshire Post’s Christmas stocking.

A Game Emerging: Yorkshire cricket before the coming of the All England XI looks at cricket in the county from its first recorded evidence in the 1750s on through to the 1840s, charting how a sport that had lagged behind London and the south-east developed during that period before it was then popularised by William Clarke’s national collective.

A Game Divided: Triumphs and troubles in Yorkshire cricket in the 1920s examines one of the most successful decades in Yorkshire’s history, one in which the county club won four successive County Championship titles, came close on other occasions, but drew criticism as well as plaudits.

It lifts to five the number of books by Lonsdale on the history of cricket in Yorkshire, which would make him the ideal Mastermind contestant on the subject, perhaps, and/or the perfect companion at pub quizzes devoted to the greatest game in the greatest county

Inevitably, such enterprises require prolonged periods sourcing the British Newspaper Library, various books and more material that you could shake a cricket bat at.

The art is then distilling such material, often dry and dreary, into something cogent and readable, a task which Lonsdale performs with aplomb in two more splendid additions to the game’s literature.

Although interesting to these eyes that Yorkshire lagged behind London and the south-east as the game took root in the nation’s consciousness (one might have imagined that Yorkshire led the way in that regard and that others followed, given the Broad Acres’ proud association with the summer sport), the book on the 1920s seems especially welcome given that it is a rather unheralded part of Yorkshire CCC’s history.

As with A Game Emerging, there is plenty of social context, fascinating in itself, but the Yorkshire cricket team of that period flies under the radar somewhat even though it did contain such luminaries as Herbert Sutcliffe, Percy Holmes and Wilfred Rhodes, great unsung heroes such as George Macaulay, and men who sound as if they could only have played for Yorkshire, such as Emmott Robinson and Edgar Oldroyd.

Robinson, indeed, an all-rounder described as “the personification of Yorkshire cricket” by Sir Neville Cardus, was famously immortalised by that same writer in these words…

“Robinson seemed to be made out of the stuff of Yorkshire county. I imagine that the Lord one day gathered a heap of Yorkshire clay and breathed into it and said: ‘Emmott Robinson, go on and bowl at the pavilion end for Yorkshire.’”

Through Cardus’s writing, anything but dry and suffused with imagination, Robinson became something of a cult hero.

“I reckon Mr Cardus invented me,” he said endearingly.

They were, one fancies, good for each other.

Despite Yorkshire CCC’s great success in the 1920s, Lonsdale poses in his final chapter the seemingly counterintuitive question: A Great Side?

Yet, as he explains, “To some followers of the game, Yorkshire was a talented side, able time and again to triumph under any circumstances. To others, they heartlessly bludgeoned teams with fewer resources.

“For many, the side personified Yorkshire grit and resilience; to their critics, they competed in a joyless style, where the only objective was to win, or worse, not to lose.

“To some, a team of home-grown players symbolised northern self-reliance; to others, the county club did nothing to cultivate amateur cricket.”

A team that was more ruthless than romantic, then, one perhaps ahead of its time by modern standards.

Perhaps the greatest Yorkshire team was actually seen during the following decade, the 1930s, when the club won seven Championships and boasted such luminaries as Hedley Verity and Bill Bowes.

Or maybe the 1960s team that enjoyed similar success was the best of the bunch, containing such legends as Fred Trueman, Brian Close, Raymond Illingworth and Geoffrey Boycott.

Either way, students of Yorkshire’s history could do worse than immerse themselves in Lonsdale’s latest volumes, while at the same time wondering to which topic he will turn his attention next.

* A Game Emerging: Yorkshire cricket before the coming of the All England XI (£16) and A Game Divided: Triumphs and troubles in Yorkshire cricket in the 1920s (£15) by Jeremy Lonsdale are published by ACS Publications.

A couple of local books that will relate to football fans of all regions.

First up, The Mont: 125 years of the Mexborough Montagu Hospital Charity Cup 1897-2022 by former Yorkshire Post sports journalist Stephen Penny and local historian and teacher Chris Brook is a comprehensive history of a popular cup competition contested by local teams in the Don and Dearne area of South Yorkshire.

Predominantly teams from the old pit villages of Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley, the Montagu Cup was a highly sought-after piece of silverware for any club.

The final was, and still is, more than just a football match to the people of Mexborough and the local football fraternity, it is an occasion, played on Easter Monday at Hampden Road. At its peak, crowds could be in excess of 4,000. When this writer was a cub reporter on the South Yorkshire Times covering the finals between 2002 and 2006, it attracted fans and punters from the whole area.

The book is a treasure trove of information for anyone who has ever played in it, watched it, refereed in it, scored in it or got sent off in it.

A little further afield but no less resonant to those who love standing on the terraces is What I Talk About When I Talk About Non-League Football by debut author Stefan Appleby.

Appleby is a fan of Gresley Rovers, a Northern Premier League team from Derbyshire. He charts the highs and many lows of following his beloved club up and down the country over a 10-year period.

Why is a book about a club in Derbyshire appearing in the annals of HM The Yorkshire Post I hear you ask? Well, the beauty of this book is you don’t have to be a fan of Gresley to enjoy it.

It is the story of non-league devotion, an unbreakable, inexplicable bond between a supporter and their club that will resonate with football fans of all levels, the length and breadth of the country. Written with great warmth and humour, the stories from the terraces will have you smiling along.

Switching sports, Beryl: In Search of Britain’s Greatest Athlete by Jeremy Whittle has just won the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year so probably needs little introduction.

This exhaustive tome on Yorkshire cyclist Beryl Burton is beautifully written and helps paint the picture of the life of one of Yorkshire’s greatest sporting superstars.