Tragi-comedy in the Yorkshire Leagues
Harry Pearson’s craft is to immerse himself (and take his readers inside) closed worlds that are, generally, both fairly bleak and gently comedic. Hence A Tall Man in a Low Land, his account of life among the Belgians; or Racing Pigs and Giant Marrows, his mosey round old-school northern summer entertainments. Now, he brings his eye for telling detail and deadpan tragi-comic colour to Yorkshire League cricket.
Of course, this world of trundling branch lines, long-held grudges and naysaying old-timers is perfect, ultra-fertile territory for the deadpan outsider. Like Alan Bennett or Victoria Wood, Pearson never makes mock of his subjects (or not often, anyway); he finds comedy in truth without having to shoehorn gags and has a great ear for other people’s turns of phrases too. He quotes the Aussie leg-spinner Cec Pepper, who had played for Burnley and Rawtenstall in the 40s and 50s saying of Ian Botham: “I could have bowled him with a cabbage with the outside leaves still on it.”
On his day trips – the format is one game per chapter – Pearson reflects on the legendary overseas players who came into this self-contained world: from Learie Constantine who was paid £25 a game after the War – three times the wage of a division 1 footballer – to Michael Holding and Roy Gilchrist, who bowled full-pace beamers and went to jail for assaulting his wife but still played 20 years in the leagues nonetheless.
Pearson shows how the Leagues became and remain so independent from the mainstream of English cricket. There’s a serious cricket story at the heart of the book, but you’re never too far from seeing the laughable side of a game taken so seriously. A three-page riff on the mysterious select XIs who used to play the tourists – from D.H.Robbins XIs to T.N.Pearce to H.D.G.Leveson-Gower – piles fact upon weird fact until it becomes plain ridiculous.
Slipless in Settle takes us into what feels like a different world, and one so rich in character, history and often comical otherness that you wonder why no-one has done it before.
Harry Pearson will be star guest at the SPIN Cricket Club’s live event on August 5. See www.spincricket.com for details or email: spincc@spincricket.com to reserve a place
