Our October guest speaker, sports writer Ben Bloom, has written an article for the Guardian about the value of cricket societies.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/nov/13/the-spin-cricket-societies-lifeblood-for-a-sport-facing-uncertain-future

Congratulations to Norfolk Cricket Society member Stephen Musk who was named as the winner of the Brooke-Lambert Statistician of the Year Award 2023 by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians at their annual general meeting in March 2024.

Stephen is a prolific writer with around 20 titles to his name including a study of Bart King, the American master of swing bowling, and a number of works on Norfolk cricket.

Further details about Stephen’s award can be found on the ACS website.

Delighted to announce that former England and Essex captain Graham Gooch will be joining us as our guest speaker on Thursday 27th March 2025, 7.30pm at Manor Park. It’s the second visit we’ve had in recent years by a former England captain following the visit of Mike Brearley in October 2019.

Our 2024/25 programme of events is shaping up nicely with Mark Ramprakash, Ben Bloom, Simon Lister and Jeremy Lonsdale all lined as guests. Details of the March and April 2025 events coming soon.

Due to circumstances beyond our control we’ve had to cancel our February talk on the Ukrainian cricket team with author Jonathan Campion as the shipment of Jonathan’s book, published by Pitch Publishing, has been held up due to the Yemen situation. We’ve been able to move Jonathan’s talk to Thursday 25 April but despite our best efforts we’ve been unable to find a replacement speaker for February.

If possible we will try and slot in another speaker in April, if not then we’ll aim to do it in the autumn. In the meantime we do have former England player Chris Old to look forward to as our next guest, he will be with us on Tuesday 26^th March, 7.30pm at Horsford Cricket Club, hope to see you there.

Stephen Musk’s latest cricket title has just been published by Red Rose Books.

A Giant-Killing at Lakenham. The Minor Counties Defeat The South Africans is Stephen’s account of the thrilling win by 25 runs by the Minor Counties – with seven Norfolk players in the side – against the touring South Africans at the Lakenham Cricket Ground in Norwich in August 1924.

A wonderfully detailed publication with player profiles, photos and scorecards, it’s available from Red Rose Books and is priced at £12, UK post free. For further details see the attached flyer.

Copies, whilst stocks last, are also available direct from Stephen Musk at our talks.

Really looking forward to our Spring programme of talks; we’ve got some great speakers lined up.

On February 20th we’ll be welcoming former England and Middlesex bowler Angus Fraser; on March 23rd James Coyne and Timothy Abraham will be joining us to discuss their book Evita Burned Down Our Pavilion: A Cricket Odyssey Through Latin America’ and rounding off our season on 20th April will be former Essex spinner Ray East.

We’re really looking forward to welcoming former England and Warwickshire spinner Ashley Giles as our guest speaker at Horsford Cricket Club on Thursday 24th November, 7.30pm start. It will be the first time we’ve had one of the players from the 2005 Ashes series visit us, can’t wait to hear Ashley’s memories of the five Tests he played that summer.

It’s great to be back up and running after a two and a half year break because of Covid. Many thanks to everyone who’s supported us by renewing their membership subscriptions or by coming along as a guest to our first two talks; Dean Headley in September and Peter Baxter in October, hope you enjoyed the events.

Special thanks to Horsford Cricket Club for hosting us, we’re really enjoying having Manor Park as our new home.

Norfolk Cricket Society member Stephen Musk has had a number of works published in recent months.

Three Brothers from Brandon, written with the much missed Mike Davage, tells the story of Basil, Rodney and Desmond Rought-Rought who all represented Norfolk in the minor counties championship between the World Wars.

Priced at £10 (post free to UK) it is available from Red Rose Cricket Books, further details here.

Overcoming Stigma in Victorian Cricket: The Remarkable Story of Francis Terry, Canada’s Mad Vicar is, as the title indicates, the quite remarkable story of the man widely regarded to be Canada’s best batter at the end of the 19th century.

Priced at £12 (post free to UK) it is available from Red Rose Cricket Books, further details here.

Bart King of Philadelphia: The Father of Modern Swing Bowling – written with Roger Mann, and including input from former England bowler Bob Cottam on the technical aspects of swing bowling – is the story of Bart King, the greatest US cricketer.

Priced at £25 it is available from Troubador Books, further details here.

Read the Five Star review from cricketweb.net here

Stephen is currently working on an account of the Minor Counties XI which defeated the touring South Africans at Lakenham in 1924.