by Mayukh Ghosh
The impression we have about cricket in America is not great. The game is played there, even though not
usually by the native Americans.
But, more importantly, they have not made any great progress in the last century or so.
Things were different in the 19th century. Cricket was played very seriously, especially in Philadelphia.
The most famous face among them all was Bart King’s.
Stephen Musk and Roger Mann have done extensive research to give King his rightful place in the history of the game and, as they stated, “this book aims to restore King’s reputation to the point where his name could, with all seriousness, once more be advanced when picking a World XI to play Mars”.
As a small child Stephen Musk’s mother took him to watch his father play cricket. Musk senior played a good standard of club cricket, turning out twice a weekend throughout the season.
When Stephen was seven or eight, his mother stopped attending, but he carried on. He soon learned how to score and, enjoying it, became quite good at it.
But he did not inherit any sporting ability from his father and so he didn’t get to play for his school. He did, however, continue scoring.
“When I was 16, my mates and I founded a cricket club, named the Norwich Huns. We would travel around rural Norfolk playing cricket against village sides. The standard was low but the cricket was enjoyable.
“From the age of 13, I was a regular attender at the Lakenham Festival. Lakenham hosted Norfolk CCC’s home matches in the Minor Counties Championship.
“The highlight of my life undoubtedly occurred at Lakenham, when I was 18. Due to an injury to one of Norfolk’s players, a twelfth man was required to field for Suffolk’s second innings. I couldn’t resist volunteering, even though I was a rotten fielder. Luckily, I managed to ‘get away with it’, not making any huge errors.”
Stephen became an avid student of cricket history in his mid-twenties. The trigger was watching the Australian miniseries ‘Bodyline’, which was shown on British television at that time.
Unfortunately, severe mental health problems intervened soon and he was forced to retire when aged just 35.
After a few idle years, he became a member of the ACS Minor Counties group, being responsible for covering Norfolk’s matches in the Minor Counties Championship.
“I started to write books on Norfolk cricket. The first came out in 2010. So far, I have written three books in the ACS Lives in Cricket series (on Michael Falcon, Lionel Robinson and George Raikes). I have also written
“Five booklets/short books, published by Red Rose Books.
“A centenary history of the Norwich Wanderers Cricket Club
“Two statistical books: one on early Norfolk cricket (co-written with Mike Davage) and one on the Minor Counties Championship before the Great War (co-written with Julian Lawton Smith and Pete Griffiths).”
Roger Mann, on the other hand, has been involved in the game for over sixty years. He had played for over thirty of them, mostly for Paignton in what is now known as the Devon Premier League.
He has done administrative work in various capacities but his other major cricketing career was as a coach.
He founded the South Devon Youth Cricket Coaching Association in 1986. Former England wicketkeeper Chris Read is amongst a number of first-class cricketers produced by the Association.
During 2004, he had a long running battle with Hugh Morris of the England & Wales Cricket Board who disapproved of his coaching “elbow spin” (The Murali action).
His coaching sessions were filmed by Sky TV and seen in 44 countries. Because he was trying to make a point, rather than wage a campaign, he eventually agreed to cease coaching the action a few months later.
He has also hosted a coached a number of young overseas cricketers. Two of the most famous names among them are Fanie de Villiers and Jacques Rudolph.
The fascination with the game, though, began long back.
“Since I was a 12-year-old boy, I have been fascinated by the history of cricket, and have studied it, deeply, ever since.
“Over the intervening years, I have collected memorabilia for the period 1700 - 1945, and now own what is often referred to as one of the most comprehensive collections of its type in the world today.
“This collection includes an archive of photographs which are available to authors, and publishers, via its web-site at www.therogermanncollection.co.uk.
“The Cricketer International was a long-term, and, regular user of these photographs, as are The Association of Cricket Statisticians, The M.C.C, The Sunday Times, and most writers of cricket biographies.
“In 2007 it was chosen to supply the illustrations for John Major’s best-selling book More Than a Game. It also supplied most of the still images for the BBC TV series Empire of Cricket.”
Two men with very different cricketing backgrounds but a common fascination for Bart King.
But how did it all begin?
Stephen: “I have had my ‘eye’ on Bart for many years. I bought my house in 1992 and one of the first pictures to be put up on the walls was a framed, A4-sized copy of a photograph of him in his delivery stride. I began to acquire books containing references to Bart, slowly at first but then more rapidly as I became fascinated. Amongst my early purchases were John Lester’s A Century of Philadelphia Cricket, John Marder’s The International Series, Henry Sayen’s A Yankee Looks At Cricket and, most importantly, Ralph Barker’s Ten Great Bowlers. Bart was clearly one of the all-time greats and I was sufficiently inspired as long ago as 2007 to download copies of all the matches featuring him that were on Cricket Archive’s Player Oracle – which, at that time, consisted of his 65 first-class games plus just seven matches listed under ‘miscellaneous’. At that time, still convinced that there had to be a biography which had somehow escaped me, I felt thwarted, both that someone must have beaten me to it and that, even if no biography existed, that I would have to spend a considerable amount of time in Philadelphia researching the local sources. This would not have been possible for me, either on financial or psychiatric grounds.
“Moving on a few years, I purchased a few more interesting books on the history of cricket in North America, written by the likes of Tom Melville, David Sentance, Patrick Adams, Beth Hise, and Jayesh Patel and also obtained the vital booklets by C.J. Clynes and Mark Leopard. It became clear that there was, after all, no biography of Bart in the public domain and, when I revisited Cricket Archive, I found that details of the vast majority of his significant matches in Philadelphian domestic cricket were now available, thanks to the sterling efforts of Brian Croudy in entering the data. I could therefore conduct most of my research from my computer and not have to pay a visit to Philadelphia. Finally, the way was clear for me to ‘do’ Bart properly.”
But it was easier said that done at that point. An American cricketer who played over 100 years ago was not the easiest of subjects and his career and life was bound to be shrouded in mystery. Moreover, the technicalities needed to be grasped properly.
“Given Bart’s seminal role in the mastery of swing bowling and, therefore, his enormous influence on the development of the ‘modern’ game of cricket, I decided that much had to be written on the genesis of his various deliveries. This required extensive research as my knowledge of swing was minimal to say the least. I also had to immerse myself in the game of baseball in order to investigate the almost universally held assumption that Bart’s development of the art of swing bowling owed much to his experiences of playing baseball. My conclusion is that the ‘almost universally held assumption’ is actually a myth born of lazy scholarship and has little or no truth behind it.
I also had to immerse myself in the game of baseball in order to investigate the almost universally held assumption that Bart’s development of the art of swing bowling owed much to his experiences of playing baseball. My conclusion is that the ‘almost universally held assumption’ is actually a myth born of lazy scholarship and has little or no truth behind it.
“Given that most potential readers would almost certainly be entirely unfamiliar with the history of cricket in North America, I felt that Bart’s career needed to be thoroughly put into context in order for his greatness to be truly appreciated. Hence the requirement to pen many more than a few words on the rise of first-class cricket in Philadelphia, its peak (roughly between 1891 and 1912), and its subsequent precipitate decline. I also realised the desirability of providing detailed information on Bart’s most significant teammates and opponents in Philadelphian cricket, who would otherwise remain merely shadows. I had originally planned to publish a shortish biography. However, I soon realised that a much lengthier volume was required in order to do some justice to Bart’s story.”
At this point Stephen realized that he needed help and he found two able companions.
“At this stage I was in contact with both Roger Mann and Mark Leopard and managed to persuade them to aid me in writing Bart’s biography. While I have written the basic narrative, they have improved it beyond all recognition. Roger, my co-author, has brought with him not only his wonderful archive of cricket photographs (many of which have never before been published - including many of King’s bowling action which are of paramount interest) but also many years of experience as a cricket coach and a wealth of knowledge about the period under consideration. He also made the vital observation that my prose was a little dense and needed simplifying. Mark, who is one of the leading experts on cricket in North America, has provided large amounts of material for us and also checked that I haven’t blundered into reproducing some of the many inaccuracies that are sadly widespread in post-contemporary and modern sources, both on the printed page and the internet.”
Roger has narrated his side of the story.
“When Stephen first asked me to join him in producing his book about Bart King, I thought it through and decided that we might make a good team.
“Stephen was used to writing books, many of which I had read and enjoyed, and I had spent 30 years of my life playing cricket, 30 years running my own cricket coaching school, so why not go for the hat-trick and write about cricket?
“Having been an opening bowler myself, the art of swing bowling has always fascinated me. Bart King was the first man to master the art, so perhaps I would enjoy discovering just how he arrived at this mastery.
“As soon as I started researching my photograph collection, I became fascinated by his unusual run-up. Having worked out just how his “hands-on-head” run-up blossomed into his “bound” and then into his delivery, I realised that I had something to offer Stephen.
“I knew that photographs were the key to enlightening the reader, and I had a wonderful series of images of Bart King in action, taken by the great cricket photographer, George Beldam. These would help the book for sure!
“My life-long interest in cricket history matched Stephen’s, so a joint project seemed the logical way forward.
“I think “Bart King of Philadelphia” has justified our decision, and enhanced Stephen’s reputation as one of England’s finest cricket writers. He has been a joy to work with!”
It is indeed a comprehensive biography and should help reinstate Bart King’s position in the rich history of the game.
Copies can be obtained from Michael Down at Boundary Books.