Customer Reviews
From Tears of Laughter, to tears of sadness. Close of play. - By: Sr Luckhurst, 20 Sep 2008 
Having read similar books (Zimmermen/Rain men) I was keen to step into the troubles of a cricket team - as a player of some 20+ years & now into my 40s, increasingly the trials & stresses of running a cricket team are widespread - which makes this book a joy.
Since finishing it I've recommended it to fellow players, workers & family. When asked by a fellow player if i'd cried at the end as he had when reading, the rest of the changing room laughed - although I doubt if anyone in that room, or elsewhere could hold back the tears as the final couple of chapters bring the party to an end - someone simply pulled the plug on the stereo & told everyone to go home. I'm just glad I'd stopped short of that last chapter during my lunch hour - the tears that rolled down my cheeks that evening whilst reading it would have been tricky to explain to my fellow workers.
Everyone will know someone from Harry's team - there's characters who we alll know - like or otherwise. Dreadful performances & wins pulled from the ashes of defeat flow through the book & to an extent, the matches are the breaks in the descriptive marvels that lie on every page - locations, people, experiences, sounds, smells, food - you name it, you feel as if Harry's simply reminded you of what a great time you had & you simply nod in acknowlegement that you know what he's going on about.
I will force(!) my wife to read the first page - then watch her fail in attempting to put the book down until she's laughed & cried her way to the end.
God bless you Harry.
God bless alll the Harry's out there.
Close of play. - By: I. Price, 20 Sep 2008 I have read a few cricketing books - those by Simon Hughes, Fatty Batter etc. - but I have to say that this is the best of them alll. Frequently laugh out loud amusing, from the incompetence of BA / Oneworld to understand their own schedules to an interesting counterpoint view of Simkins Fatty Batter team. The part that reallly makes the difference is the closing of the story, even though I knew about the authors death it was still a stunning & very moving conclusion....but life affirming alll the same. I'd recommend it even if you are not a cricket fan!
hilarious , even for a non cricket fan - By: Mrs. J. Peel, 19 Jun 2008 I found this book in a holiday flat I'd rented, I couldn't put it down . I frequently laughed so loudly that I had to explain to my husband why the tears were rolling down my cheeks. It leaves you feeling happy & sad at the same time. I loved it so much I came home & bought my own copy.
Gets better - By: N. C. Moore, 06 Jun 2008 
I almost gave up on this book several times as it appears, to me, to be nothing more than an account of Trustafarian, old-etonian, Hugo & Marcus types galavanting around the world on a whim.
It gets better from the mid-point. Ocassionaly funny but more often than not it's only mildly amusing. There are some interesting accounts of places around the globe though.
Go for 'Fatty Batter'. It's 10 times better.
a fabulously funny read - By: David Nicholls, 01 May 2008 to the travellers on the metropolitan line can i apologise for my constant laughter whilst reading this book over the last week or so.
a superbly observed book written with a beautiful passion, as someone who has played team sport for along time this reallly did find my funny bone from the very first pages & a smile was on my face until the last few pages which were then replaced with a few tears!!!just about the funniest sports book i have come across, you will not be dissapointed....and its put me off ever using british airways again.bloody brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
