The
game of cricket has been blessed with many fine writers, but for wit and
learning none surely can rival Alan Gibson.
The
son of a Baptist minister, he was born in
After
studying history at
In
1967 he began reporting cricket regularly for The Times, establishing a style all his own. In sparkling prose, he
deployed his knowledge of history, literature, theology and local geography to
paint vivid portraits not just of the cricketers on the field of play but of
the characters off it – and even the frustrations of his journey to the
ground.
The
cricketers he watched acquired a semi-mythical status: Robin Jackman the
Shoreditch Sparrow, Colin Dredge the Demon of Frome. As did the places he
loathed: Didcot railway station and
Yet,
for all the wit and eccentricity, there were few with a deeper knowledge of
cricket history or a greater ability to observe a game perceptively.
Of
Didcot and the Demon
is a collection of his writings during his 20 years with The
Times: match reports but also articles that he contributed, both to The Times and to The Cricketer.
It is compiled and introduced by his eldest son Anthony, who writes with a
clear eye about his father, a genius with a self-destructive streak that led
eventually to a descent into alcoholism: how it lost him his place on Test
Match Special and finally on The
Times.
But,
for all the sadness of the decline, this book is primarily a celebration of a
great writer. For followers of cricket with a sense of humour and a love of
good English, it is 300 pages of joy.
Other cricket journalists might have written in greater detail of the day’s play but, as E.W. Swanton wrote, “it is Alan Gibson whose reports gladden my summer.”
OF DIDCOT AND THE DEMON
The Cricketing Times of Alan Gibson
Anthony Gibson