"Ashes debrief and final cricket ramble of the Summer" #ashes #ashescricket #bookreading

Ironbridge Gorge, 14th September 2023.

The rain may be falling, but Ironbridge as always is the perfect backdrop for the reading of the final chapter from my fourth self-published book "The Spirit of Cricket" which is linked below together with other ways and means of supporting me, if you are able, to thumb the eye of the traditional publishers who refused to read my original manuscript!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF4FRKSH

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.paypal.me/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/steveblackford

Here's an extract from the chapter being read here:

"Well my friends it’s over and yes, there is a little quiver in the voice as I lament and declare this year’s cricketing Ashes Summer to be over. I joked last evening on Twitter (“X” now, surely? Social Media Editor) that I now have a gaping void where Test Match cricket has resided rather snugly for the past two months and I requested my readers to send suggestions as to what I could now compulsively and obsessively fill this void with in the coming months. Sure I was being overly dramatic, a forte I’ve long since mastered, and of course the football season will soon begin again, my Social Affairs Editor Dr Horseman tells me the ladies netball World Cup is rather exciting and I need to turn my sporting attention and support to my Los Angeles Dodgers to guide them through the play-offs and into an October surprise of World Series glory. Before that we have golf’s Ryder Cup as well as a plethora of cricketing IT20 and ODI encounters, including a World Cup, and before we collectively know it, Christmas will be upon us once more as well as a final countdown for England’s Winter tour and five Test Match series with India in January and February 2024, the third match being played on my birthday, a rare indulgent treat!

But can we have some more Ashes cricket please?

Now!

Please?

Who in their right sporting mind wouldn’t want just a little more Ashes cricket from a series that saw every winning margin less than 50 runs or the equally tight victory declaration of 3 wickets? Every Test Match! Down to the last knockings of a sporting encounter that flowed on unpredictable tides, casting one team in the ascendancy and favourites to win, only for their opponents to snatch back dominance and cross the finishing line ahead. No comprehensive maulings by an innings and 150 runs or medium total run chases smashed in two sessions and victory by 10 wickets with a day to spare".

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