The Cricket Statistician No 195

48 Worcestershire at Southport in 2018. There are three county championship matches, all in the last ten years, and the rest one-dayers, one including Scotland – though it is not correct to say Scotland did not have a national cricket team in the time of Mike Denness. Mr Brodkin is never unduly partisan, but just enjoys his county’s successes, describing the course of the match as he watched and hoped, with the vital incidents, points of interest and enlightening anecdotes. What, no Roses matches? I presume Mr Brodkin has not yet witnessed a great Lancashire success against Yorkshire, as I had to do at Headingley in 2011! But otherwise this is a book that Red Rose supporters will certainly enjoy, and non- Lancashire readers will find a very pleasant read. This is true county cricket with the focus on some of its best moments. John Ward (This review should have appeared in the Spring Journal and I apologise to author and publisher for the delay in its publication. - RL) Kings in Waiting By Thomas Blow, Pitch Publishing, pp254, £16.99, ISBN9781785318306, e-book £9.99 The recent history of Somerset County Cricket Club has been one of high achievement perhaps greater than any other side in the land, coupled with aching disappointments to challenge even the most resilient of followers. Alongside this there is an approach to the game that makes them a thoroughly attractive side (I for one choose to follow Somerset matches on live stream and BBC radio if my own side, Sussex, are not playing) and a commitment to spin that has led Somerset to donate to England two of its premier bowlers. Thomas Blow – who recently wrote an account of Sachin Tendulkar’s time at Yorkshire, The Honorary Tyke – looks in this book at Somerset’s performance in the years since 2010. Not every year is covered: 2013-2015 are omitted, for example, as is 2017 (when the season finale against Middlesex was for very different stakes from the previous year). But there is in-depth coverage of the seasons where Somerset were to the fore in the county game, with second-place finishes in the County Championship for five years during the period. The continued frustration at failing to secure that first title makes the chapter heading for 2019, ‘The Sweetest Victory’, something of a surprise, and while no doubt winning the one-day title that year was some compensation for the run of second-place finishes, it can hardly compare to the delight that will finally greet the maiden title (as Sussex followers who recall 2003 will no doubt attest). Going through seasons sometimes match-by-match, the book could have become a wearisome rehash of Wisden without the scorecards. That it never becomes so is because the author has taken the trouble to speak to so many Somerset players from the era, which gives the book a liveliness and a freshness, examining not only the on-field performances but also the off-field issues that shaped the period. Thomas Blow writes well, and at the age of only 26 looks to be a rising star in the world of cricket writing.