Remarkable Village Cricket Grounds

Book excerpt: Following the success of Remarkable Cricket Grounds, author Brian Levison focuses his attention on the amazing variety of grassroots cricket venues throughout the British Isles. In the original book he covered some of the largest stadia where cricket is played throughout the world. In Remarkable Village Cricket Grounds he concentrates on the smallest. The inventory of beautiful and atmospheric grounds includes those played by the seaside, at the edge of moorland, in front of grand country houses or on wind-blasted hillsides. Village cricket is played next to windmills, thatched cottages, trout streams, in the heart of Cotswold stone hamlets, and on many of the country's verdant village greens. There are some classic cricketing pubs included along with lavish teas, ancient pitch rollers, equally ancient club secretaries and a variety of warning signs for those wishing to park their car within slogging distance. Almost all of the venues are located in the kind of set-piece British landscape that will have the tourist boards begging for copies. It is a treasury of British life featuring clubs from: Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Essex, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Leicestershire, Wales and Scotland.