A Slightly Antipodean Collection: We put two coffee table books between Bradman and Fingleton just to be on the safe side
by Mayukh Ghosh
Bill Francis, for a number of years, has been dedicated to recording the stories of old New Zealand cricketers. He has written some acclaimed biographies, besides enjoying a tremendous career in broadcasting which culminated in him becoming the Governor of Radio New Zealand.
He is a former director of New Zealand Cricket, a vice-president of Auckland Cricket and is Chair of Auckland Cricket Development Foundation.
The obsession with cricket began very early in Bill’s life.
“I was brought up in large, sporting-mad family where backyard games – mainly cricket and rugby - were played from the time we were old enough to hold a ball or a bat.
“My older brothers set the way – becoming prominent players in the Wairarapa (100 kilometres north of Wellington) where I was born. Eventually I would play against them in a senior club match and was once dismissed by the combined efforts of my twin brothers. The scorecard read: W.P. Francis stumped R.C Francis bowled R.T Francis – 68. Clearly a weakness exposed by our backyard play but not before I had 68 to my name!
“In my early cricket years, I was coached for a year by Don Neely (at the age of 12) – then a teacher at my school. He was very inspirational – Don would go on to play first class cricket, captaining Wellington to win the Plunket Shield and to be one of New Zealand’s foremost cricket historians and writers and someone I still keep in touch with.
“We loved listening to the Ashes series – particularly the games in Australia – and the commentaries featuring Alan McGilvray, Lindsay Hassett, Johnny Moyes, Ray Lindwall and others.”
Then, as he grew up and began working, the cricket, quite naturally, took a backseat.
“When I left school I joined the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation as a cadet – moving into creative writing before concentrating on journalism. In my early broadcasting years, I did a lot of sports journalism and commentating – attending Olympic and Commonwealth Games and commentating on cricket for over a decade including Test match commentaries.
“Working in broadcasting curtailed my own on field sporting endeavours because in the early years as a journalist I would be frequently working at the weekend.
“Eventually I became a broadcasting leader – managing the most successful commercial radio network in New Zealand – Newstalk ZB – a news and current affairs station. Alongside this I also managed its Talk ‘stablemate’, Radio Sport.”
All along books played a huge role in shaping Bill up for a career in broadcasting and writing.
And it all began with a book on Colin Cowdrey which he bought out of his first salary.
“Books, reading and writing have been in my blood from a very early age.
”As a youngster I used to do a ‘paper-run’, delivering the evening newspaper on my bike around the streets of Masterton. From my first pay-packet I bought a cricket book on Colin Cowdery, which I still have in my library.
“While I have eclectic reading interests – politics, biography, New Zealand fiction and general fiction, I loved reading Neville Cardus and other prominent cricket writers to satisfy my cricket curiosity.
“I have a very large library of four thousand books of which my cricket collection holds a special place.
“While my first books were written about the media – my interest in writing biography lead me to my first cricket writing venture – Tom Lowry, Leader in a Thousand, the story of New Zealand’s first cricket captain.”
When I asked Bill to choose his favourite cricket books and restrict the list to only ten, I understood I was requesting him to do something which was not easy for him.
He took his time and came back with a list. Here they are:
The Playing Mantis by Jeremy Coney: Ghosted autobiographies feature extensively in cricket’s immense bibliography so ‘The Playing Mantis’ by Jeremy Coney stands out as exceptional in the delivery of a literate, humorous story by the actual author. Like this on his introduction to day/night cricket. ‘I had to play despite my Victorian upbringing, primeval instincts and puritanical protestations’.
Autobiography by Neville Cardus: I had read the Summer Game and other early Cardus before I came to this and was captivated discovering what seemed an unlikely path to famous music critic and cricket writer and life at the Manchester Guardian.
Basingstoke Boy by John Arlott: My own broadcasting career was always going to pique my interest in Arlott’s story – first poetry with the BBC soon followed by cricket commentary.
The Great Romantic by Duncan Hamilton: This is a delight by a wonderful biographer.
Mystery Spinner and The Big Ship by Gideon Haigh: When it comes to Australian writers Gideon Haigh is the gold standard and the toughest ask is how to pick between his Warwick Armstrong and Jack Iverson. So, I’m taking liberties and bracketing the two.
Both are researched and written in Haigh’s masterly manner: Armstrong creating a blueprint for the quintessential Aussie skipper; and Iverson’s spinning inventiveness and tragic ending.
Jack Fingleton by Greg Growden: In 2018 I spoke with others at the Sydney Cricket Ground- a centenary day celebrating the Life and Times of the immortal Victor Trumper. As a Kiwi I was surprised at the intensity of the views as to who was the superior between Bradman and Trumper. In ‘Jack Fingleton -The man who stood up to Bradman’, by Greg Growden, the author explores the relationship between Fingleton and his teammate Bradman as well as Fingleton’s claim that Trumper was ‘the greatest batsman who ever lived’. It’s tough on Bradman but ever-fascinating.
Sir Donald Bradman by Irving Rosenwater: Most worthwhile cricket libraries will have a range of Bradman offerings. I can’t go past ‘Sir Donald Bradman’ by Irving Rosenwater. Published around Bradman’s 70th birthday this still stands as one of the most authoritative books on ‘The Don’.
Silver Fern on the Veld by Dick Brittenden: He covered and wrote on New Zealand teams and players when success was sparse but in ‘Silver Fern on the Veld’, his chapter on the Boxing Day action at Ellis Park Johannesburg in 1953 is a piece of theatre and writing to savor. Read and re-read the Bert Sutcliffe and Bob Blair drama poignantly captured by Brittenden never palls.
Men in White by Don Neely and Pageant of Cricket by David Frith: No cricket collection is complete without some coffee table classics to spread around. Pick up randomly ‘Men in White’ by Don Neely or ‘Pageant of Cricket’ by David Frith and you’ll be lost in cricketing photographic nostalgia and action for an afternoon. Blissful.
Some other books worthy of inclusion are:
Harold Larwood by Duncan Hamilton
Harold Gimblett by David Foot
The Summer Game by Don and Paddianne Neely
The Little Wonder by Robert Winder
Miller’s Luck by Roland Perry
Martin Crowe by Joseph Romanos