Ask Santa for Arm-Ball To Zooter

Cover Point

By Ged
November 17 2006

Lawrence Booth has delivered a superb book, Arm-Ball to Zooter, ideal for the cricket-lover�s Christmas stocking. Ged Ladd, who conspired with Lawrence in 2003 to get women admitted to the Lord�s Pavilion Bowlers� Bar, reviews this amazingly useful and funny book. 1000 words plus top and table

I discovered Lawrence Booth�s column, The Spin, in Guardian Unlimited, a few weeks after I joined Middlesex in late 2002 but before I had ever attended a Middlesex match.� It gave me humorous solace through that winter and has sustained me through summers and winters since.

Indeed, during my first season as a Middlesex member, 2003, Lawrence Booth and I conspired to get women admitted to the Bowlers� Bar.� Our lobbying was of no consequence, apparently.� The letter I received from Roger Knight in Autumn 2003 politely informed me that the committee had already decided to admit women to that bar from 2004 onwards.� So journalists and members should not assume that people and media power can get results.� No sir-ee.� And of course, Roger chose to write to me and not to the Guardian journalist whose open letter had held the MCC up to public ridicule.� It was a very �The Spin� incident and Lawrence Booth duly milked it.

And to prove that Lawrence has indeed now passed his rite of passage as a cricket journalist, he received �an electronic hand-bagging� from Janet on MTWD this summer when he reported on the Middlesex v Sussex match at Southgate:

http://www.sportnetwork.net/boards/read/s66.php?f=67&i=35441&t=35319&sid=66#reply_35441

(see her posting 21 July 2006, 06:57 � enjoy also the banter that ensued).

Now, Lawrence has written a superb book, Arm Ball to Zooter, which Ged can highly commend to MTWD readers and their kin as an ideal Christmas present.� It�s a Sunday Times Book of the Week (yah, boo, sucks, Ged had one of those in 2000 but he�s still having to work and pay the mortgage) and deservedly so (Lawrence Booth�s, I mean.� Ged�s too, come to think of it).��

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-2426583,00.html

The title Arm-Ball to Zooter gives the clue � this book is an A to Z of cricket language.� Although this is hardly an original construct, the manner of delivery is extremely fresh and original.� Simon Hughes focussed on jargon-busting and many others have tried to be encyclopaedic in such books.� Arm-Ball to Zooter is different.� In �The Spin� style, it is more clich�-busting than jargon-busting.� In the fashionable style, it is more of a miscellany than an encyclopaedia.� Most importantly, it is also extremely funny.� When Ged laughs out loud that much; �the earth trembles�.� Try again; �Ged must be on drugs�.� Third time lucky; �that probably means the book is seriously funny�.�

For Ged, it is the miscellany element that makes this book so enjoyable.�� Ceefax gets the treatment, as does Fancy Dress, Tebbit Test and John Travolta.� Anecdotes abound.� Ged particularly likes the one about Nancy Doyle, the Duchess of the Lord�s kitchen.� When Mike Brearley politely suggested that she serve up something less substantial for his girth-expanding squad, she is said to have replied �I won�t tell you how to fockin� bat and you don�t tell me how to fockin� cook�.� In describing Character, we are given the examples of �ability to grow a silly moustache (Merv Hughes) or say �Happy Days� (Phil Tufnell) or swear a lot (Merv Hughes and Phil Tufnell)�.�

Each letter of the alphabet is graced with an excellent cartoon.� Nick Newman is one of Ged�s favourite cartoonists; the Penguin promotion machine might just have missed a trick by not emphasising that element of the fun.�

And fun is what it all is, although the book is surprisingly informative and useful.� I�m sure I�ll find myself reaching for it ahead of many �more learned� alternatives for reference.� No doubt Santa will be making many well-humoured cricket lovers happy this year with Arm-Ball to Zooter.

Amazon Product Details:

Arm-ball to Zooter: A Sideways Look at the Language of Cricket (Hardcover)
by Lawrence Booth