Cricket Witness No 6 - His Captain's Hand on His Shoulder Smote

105 The Flood (2) HK Rodd The Wonder Man variety. One might conjecture that there were sales among adults, eager to re-discover the delights of their boyhood reading, casting their minds back to what were perhaps sunnier times then those with which they were now faced. However, whether the charm was for nostalgic adults or youngsters enjoying the Greyfriars experience for the first time, the very fact it made hard-bitten economic sense to put them on the market speaks well for the staying power of the ‘story books’ of those by-gone generations. The tour d’horizon of the books and story papers that brought mainly tales of boarding schools and the cricket that was played at them, ranging over nearly a hundred years of British history, is complete. One hopes that of itself it might have brought reminiscent succour to some and interesting data to others. Few could doubt the impressive incidence and penetration of all this material among youngsters of all classes during a lengthy period. The questions remain of whether this long and large-scale blitzkrieg of school- based and schoolboy literature had any effect on society in general and cricket in particular. It is to two essays that attempt to answer these questions that the second part of this text is devoted. Sources Midwinter, Eric Quill on Willow op cit chapter seventeen ‘A Bumping Pitch and a Blinding Light; School Stories and Cricket’ Sweetman, Simon ‘Cricket, Comics and DC Thomson’ The Cricket Statistician Autumn 2009