Contents

PROLOGUE: In the Nets

1 ‘Let Him Stew’

2 Rare Thing

3 ‘Dead Animals, Bloody Turds, Old Apples, Sponge Cakes . . .’

4 The Crumb-Eaters

5 ‘You’re the Fred Astaire of Cricket’

6 Hungry? ‘I’ve Had Twenty Malt Sandwiches’

7 The View From the Scrapheap

8 ‘Like the Biggest Neon Sign Up at Kings Cross’

9 His Right Knee

10 ‘Bacchus Is Being Absolutely Obnoxious’

11 God Was His Nickname

12 ‘Guys, I’m Going Into the Trenches for You’

13 ‘Gentlemen, Before You Go . . .’

14 The Bulldozer Theory

15 Cape Crusader

16 ‘I Just Remember the Shenanigans Up on the Tenth Floor’

EPILOGUE: Old Men in a Bar

Acknowledgements

Statistics

Interviews

Bibliography