Everyone's image of the ideal cricket ground will be a village field, fringed by trees, the outfield dappled with clovers and buttercups, swallows flitting above... And what of all the other wildlife associated with this most natural of sports? At the Oval these days, Test Match Special's commentators remark on the resident foxes as often as the traditional pigeons. At Teddington Town CC in London's Bushy Park matches are frequently interrupted by incursions of deer; at Lyndhurst in the New Forest by wild ponies. At Kirkby Lonsdale CC in Cumbria the local fungus group found 20 species of waxcap on the outfield. For some reason hoopoes, spectacular orange and black-crested birds from southern Europe, favour cricket grounds on their rare migrations to the UK. This unique, funny, delightful cricket book from left field explores the relationship between cricket grounds and the natural world, from wildlife records to the Edwardian cricket writings of Edmund Blunden, and in many remarkable photos.

About the Author
Graham Coster is the publisher of Safe Haven Books, on which list quirky cricket books are a speciality. He is the author of Snow Stopped Play: The Mysterious World of the Cricket Ground in Winter and The Flying Boat That Fell to Earth (both Safe Haven).

Reviews
'Excellent', Simon Burnton, Guardian; 'A wonderfully illustrated, jovially written and insightful piece of work', Country Life; 'A delightful tome that looks at cricket from a different angle, highlights its intrinsic link with the natural world and proves soothing amid the concrete-dominated world of stadium cricket. After society's rediscovery of the natural world during Covid-induced lockdowns, the book is arguably being released at a timely juncture', Yahoo over Cow Corner blog; 'A very nice book indeed, and a wonderful concept. Nature and cricket are among life's greatest joys - to combine them is sublime,' Simon Barnes; 'This book was not what I expected ... a book describing the flora and fauna of cricket grounds. And all the better for it. Certainly the chapters are titled as such ... but they are only used by the author to indicate his feeling that cricket is losing its connection to our environment, as it changes its own "nature" as it attempts to compete in a profit-seeking world. Coster has done a great job. The book is full of humour with enjoyable cricket anecdotes, supported by excellent photographs ... I enjoyed this book a lot.' Jayne Hancock, Journal of the Cricket Society; 'An excellent book', Lev Parikian; '"Delightful" [is] not an adequate word to apply to this wonderful book,' The Cricket Statistician



Book Information
ISBN 9781838405113
Author Graham Coster
Format Hardback
Page Count 144
Imprint Safe Haven Books
Publisher Safe Haven Books
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 135mm * 10mm