White Cap and Bails

For each county, Bird gives his best anecdotes about the club, its grounds, and his personal experience with it, both as a player and an umpire.

I think the international section is a bit unneccesary, as it does not go into anywhere near the depth of the rest of the book. That would be better suited for another Dickie Bird release.

The most remarkable thing about White Cap and Bails is that, for the most part, it avoids repeating the same information from Dickie Bird: My Autobiography.

I reccomend this book to anybody who loves cricket.

A superficial, glib rehash of old stories.
Review date: 2001-01-10 Rating: 2 out of 10

I admire Dickie Bird as an umpire and have memories of seeing him as a batsman for Yorkshire, and very promising he was too. I still see him nowadays when he visits Scarborough cricket club for Yorkshire matches, and he is a deservedly popular figure. However, this book is a grave disappointment. It is a highly superficial skim through the first class counties and major test playing countries, purporting to be Dickie's memories, but more often than not rehashing old stories of cricketers of the distant past. These can be found in other publications, and those that can't are not worth repeating anyway. Some of the stories are so thin and lacking interest you wonder how they could be included in a supposedly serious book. This reads like a publisher's attempt to milk Dickie's popularity, by throwing together a book of slender content, with nothing new to offer a cricket fan. It is not a worthy tribute to Dickie and it is a shame it bears his name. Avoid this one.

Amusing anecdotes of county and country cricketers
Review date: 2001-01-05 Rating: 6 out of 10

Dickie (with the help of a quite a few friends with long memories) details each individual county, recalling many of the characters through his own first-hand experiences and those of others. All the past greats of cricket are mentioned, each with their seemingly own personalised tale from a career that spanned many decades and even more countries. Umpires too are not excluded and are proven to be human after all! He also recalls many overseas players representing counties, and eventually goes on to reminisce his memories of all the current Test playing countries, players and places he has visited. For all the statistitions amongst us, there is contained general information precluding to all the county and country playing cricket teams. On the whole an easy to read book with plenty to keep the enthusiast entertained.

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