Book Review: Faces on a Wall: An English County's Curious Collection of Captains by Andrew Radd

Over the course of my life, I must have read thousands of cricket books. I have a decent library of my own, but if I sat down and thought about it, my favourite ones cover the unsung heroes, people who in some cases have disappeared into the mists of time and are not household names. 

So it is with much of Andrew Radd's fascinating book on the many and varied characters who have captained Northamptonshire since 1878. 

I hadn't heard of many of the earlier ones, which made this book all the more enjoyable. There are a number of impressive names, including 'Tubby' Vials, Rawlins Hawtin and 'Punch' Raven. My knowledge kicked in around the time of Vallance Jupp and subsequently Freddie Brown, cricketers and characters both.

Like Derbyshire, Northamptonshire have seldom ascended the peaks of county cricket and for many years they were seen as the ultimate in perennial underdogs. Yet that changes nothing in so far as their contribution to the county game is concerned. Many outstanding players have played for them, and, as this book shows, a good few have been captain.

Dennis Brookes was an outstanding player for them either side of the Second World War and would have been an England regular had he played for a different county. Raman Subba Row became a respected administrator of the game, Keith Andrew was perhaps the best wicket keeper In the country through the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as being one of its great characters. 

Then there was Jim Watts, the very astute captain who led the county to one day silverware, Allan Lamb, Rob Bailey, Matthew Hayden.. the list goes on. 

A lot of work has gone into gathering together the information that makes this such an informative and enjoyable read. I respect that, because not all of that information would have been readily available in the public domain.

The book looks at the challenges faced by all of those captains as the game changed and it was no longer a necessity that an amateur should be in charge. 

While it is essential reading for any Northamptonshire fan, I can only say that any cricket fan will get to the end of this book and probably want to revisit it almost immediately. 

A very good read and again, massive respect to Pitch Publishing for ensuring this saw the light of day.

Faces On A Wall: an English County's Curious Collection of Captains is written by Andrew Radd