Book Review: Blood On The Tracks- England in Australia, the 1974/75 Ashes by David Tossell

I clearly remember watching the nightly highlights of the England tour of Australia in 1974-75 with my Dad. It was the first time such highlights had been on television in colour, though it mattered not, when we had a black and white until a couple of years later. Dad always used to joke that he could make it colour, by sticking some Quality Street cellophane over the screen.

I also recall him shouting at the TV as the day's 'excesses' by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson showed an England batting lineup, missing the best player in the country, Geoff Boycott, hopelessly exposed against high quality pace bowling. 

'It's all very well them getting excited now,' he said, 'but the buggers didn't like it when Harold Larwood put the fear of God into them.' It was a fair comment, just as McDonald and Gregory had been too quick for England before that. A cyclical game, cricket, but these two looked terrifying from a distance of continents. At twenty-two yards I have no idea how you handle it. Fifty years on, the highlights clearly show the challenges from two quick bowlers at the pinnacle of their powers.

Tour books are a staple of cricket literature, but I got to the end thinking that I couldn't recall a better one than this, by David Tossell.

It is so admirably researched, before you even consider the writing, which makes it as fast-paced and compelling as any any thriller. Which is what it is, even if at this distance we all know the ending and indeed 'whodunnit'.

The font size and layout is admirable, the photos excellent and the linear scorecards a real bonus. It looks and feels like a proper book and it certainly delivers. It is methodically arranged from the selection of the party through to the challenges of the tour itself, on and off the pitch. 

The author has been short-listed seven times for the British Sports Book Awards and has written about sport for over four decades. Such  experience is clear in a book that makes for such  compelling reading. 

England were underprepared and unwilling to take any risks with the selection of young - or at least younger - players. There were several who could have gone, almost certainly should have, but instead we saw Fred Titmus go at the age of 42 as one of the spinners, while early injuries on fast, bouncy pitches saw Colin Cowdrey sent for at the same age. While they did as well as anyone, apart from Tony Greig and Alan Knott, it was nonsense, created by an antiquated selection process that had been flawed for decades. 

Their opponents selected younger men with points to prove. Of course, they had no idea if Dennis Lillee would be properly fit, or stay fit after months in plaster with a stress fracture of his back. Equally, they didn't know that Thomson would in one series go from fast and erratic tyro to one of the most frightening sights in the game. Had it been boxing, they would have stopped it after the first Test, when it was clear that England were outgunned and outclassed. Australia had rocket launchers at either end, while England had nothing to compare. There was no contest.

This is my second offering from Fairfield Books in so many weeks and is every bit as good as Stephen Chalke's fine work on Brian Close. 

If you are looking for a Christmas read that you will return to again and again - the hallmark of the very best writing - then you cannot go wrong with either of these titles. 

While the cricket season of 2024 is an increasingly distant memory, David Tossell has delivered a book to keep any enthusiast warm and engrossed over the darkest, coldest months of the year.

I could not recommend this more highly.

Blood On The Tracks: England in Australia, the 1974/75 Ashes is written by David Tossell and published by Fairfield Books