Appeal of the Championship

Has cricket’s county championship ever been so close?

Yet, in mid-August 1981, Sussex found themselves neck-and neck with Nottinghamshire and playing them at Trent Bridge in the most crucial match of their 140-year history.

Certainly not for Sussex , who – alone of the eight counties who played in the embryonic championships of the Victorian era – had never carried off the prize.

In the dying light of the final evening, the last Notts batsman was struck on the pads and all Sussex exploded in appeal.

It was a summer to remember. Ian Botham was defying all the odds in humbling the visiting Australians, and the country was in the grip of Lady Di fever.

In this delightful book John Barclay tells the story of that year, his first as captain of Sussex . It starts in Sydney , where he sat on the rocks and planned his campaign, and it ends in those thrilling last weeks of summer.

With the imperious Imran Khan and the earthy Ian Gould, the ageing Geoff Arnold and the bespectacled Tim Booth-Jones, he inherited a team of disparate characters – but they fused into so happy a whole that by August they stood on the verge of a unique place in the history of Sussex cricket.

For all those who have played cricket at this level or who only wish they had, John Barclay’s humour-studded recollections will provide a joyful read.

THE APPEAL OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP

Sussex in the Summer of 1981

John Barclay

Foreword by Rt Rev Lord Sheppard of Liverpool