The Cricket Statistician No 195

52 As a character – well, this book will tell you, and he certainly was a character, a man of many virtues and unfortunate vices. The book is very well produced, with numerous excellent photographs; just the proofreading could have been improved. It has apparently already received some very laudatory reviews from well-known names in the cricket world, and I can only add that I agree it is one of the best cricket books one could buy, a fascinating study of a man of his times who stood out in his times. To me it is a cricket classic. John Ward Fly at a Higher Game By Andrew Hignell, ACS Publications, paperback, pp172, £15 The 2021 season sees the centenary of Glamorgan’s entry to the County Championship, an anniversary which (at the time of writing) the club appears likely to be able to celebrate properly unlike those counties who marked their 150 th anniversary in 2020. This latest offering from the fertile pen of Andrew Hignell, club historian and statistician, traces the progress of the club to this goal, viewed through the life of one of the key players at the club, T.A.L. ‘Tal’ Whittington. The ambitions of the club for a status beyond that of a leading minor county extend well before the achievement of those ambitions in 1921. It is interesting to read of the deliberations of the county, and of MCC, in 1905 which almost led to the allocation of the first Test to Cardiff Arms Park, although the fate of Bramall Lane is a reminder that this could have been a one-off and might have made little long-term difference. During the pre- war period the club’s ambition to play first-class cricket was evident, although neither the facilities nor the playing quality made this a viable proposition. The account of the club’s development during this period is interspersed with Tal’s personal ventures, including a couple of cricket tours to the West Indies. The War, or course, put paid to all of this. After the difficulties of the pre-War era and an unpromising start in 1919, the ease with which Glamorgan became a first-class county after a fairly successful 1920 season is almost an anti-climax. Required to arrange fixtures with eight other counties, Glamorgan collected seven quite easily, but none of them among the ‘Big Six’. An approach to Lancashire, however, met with a positive response and for good measure Sussex indicated a willingness to join the party as well (a gesture Glamorgan were to repay in ill-mannered fashion by defeating them in their opening fixture). MCC was open to the expansion of the Championship and had also been exploring the possibility of Buckinghamshire joining the competition – an invitation the county was sadly to decline, despite being probably the strongest Minor County in England at that stage. Despite the fairy-tale beginning against Sussex, the early 1920s were a difficult period both for Glamorgan and for Tal. The opening season saw Glamorgan defeated in fourteen out of eighteen matches, and over the next two seasons the side won only two matches, so that there was a very realistic possibility that the side would return to Minor Counties cricket