Buying pre-order items
Ebooks and Audiobook
You will receive an email with a download link for the ebook or audiobook on the publication date.
Payment
You will not be charged for pre-ordered books until they are available to be shipped. Pre-ordered ebooks will not be charged for until they are available for download.
Amending or cancelling your order
For orders that have not been shipped you can usually make changes to pre-orders up to 72 hours before the publishing date.
Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available
- Delivery and returns info
-
Flat rate of $10.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia
Description
THE WISDEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
'A forensic tour de force' VIC MARKS
'Engrossing ... Illuminating detective work into the astonishing statistics of English cricket's most enduring record' ANDY ZALTZMAN
'A fascinating and definitive account of one of cricket's most fabled innings' JOHN ETHERIDGE
A compelling new look at the untold story behind one of English sport's oldest records.
In 1902, playing for England against Australia at The Oval, Gilbert Jessop played arguably the greatest innings in the history of cricket, turning what looked like certain defeat into what became an incredible victory, and doing so at such speed that he set a record for the fastest Test century for England that still stands more than 1,000 Test matches later.
Even Ben Stokes's team of Bazballers have been unable to put in the shade a cricketer for whom all-out attack was the only way to play long before T20 cricket was invented. But the precise circumstances of Jessop's astonishing performance have long been shrouded in mystery. The original scorebooks are missing and the accepted truth that he took 76 balls to reach his century has rarely been scrutinised.
Drawing on an array of long-forgotten contemporary sources, Simon Wilde forensically reconstructs one of England's most famous matches in an attempt to establish what really happened. How many balls did Jessop face? Might he have actually got to his hundred even faster? Jessop's relentless big hitting and fast scoring were revolutionary for cricket, but chimed with a speed-obsessed era which saw the start of the modern Olympics, the first mile-a-minute trains and the first 100mph cars, and the public adored him. As C.B. Fry said of him: 'No man has ever made cricket so dramatic an entertainment.'
Product details
| Published | 29 Sep 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 9781526694256 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Dimensions | 198 x 129 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Reviews
Related Titles
