Cricket in the Backblocks

After leaving school in the late 1920s, Colin Imray sailed to Malaya as a cigarette salesman. In this unfamiliar environment, he found his feet through one of the great loves of his life - cricket. And when he became a policeman in Palestine, cricket again brought him into contact with people of all races, classes and backgrounds. As a young man he encountered some of the game's greats, from having his head patted by W G Grace to watching such legendary players as Hobbs, Woolley, Tate and Sutcliffe. Once in the colonies, however, he played in very different venues, such as the wicket at the top of a hill to steep that the umpire blew a whistle to let the fiedlers know when a ball was being bowled. Among his fellow cricketers were the demon Chinese schoolboy bowler Ping, the defrocked clergyman who used his hat to make specdtacular catches, and Aeneas Quintus Perkins, who was rumoured to speak only a few times a year. Colin Imray's third book of reminiscences is a fascinating account of life in the then British Colonies, full of unforgettable characters and scences. It will appeal to anyone who loves cricket in all its forms, and is a memoir of a long-departed way of life.