''The Best Loved Game'' is a book written by

Geoffrey Moorhouse Geoffrey Moorhouse, FRGS, FRSL, D.Litt. (29 November 1931 – 26 November 2009) was an English journalist and author. He was born Geoffrey Heald in Bolton and took his stepfather's surname. He attended Bury Grammar School. He began writing as a ...

. Written during the summer of 1978, and published the following year, the book describes the

1978 English cricket season The 1978 English cricket season was the 79th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. There were growing concerns about the impact of World Series Cricket (WSC). On the domestic front, Kent won the County Championship d ...

through a series of essays based around matches Moorhouse attended. Each chapter features a specific match. Moorhouse attended a range of games from school and village level to

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

matches, thus covering both amateur and professional cricket. The book therefore describes different types of cricket and the different levels at which it is played, providing a picture of its place in English society at that time. The descriptions are also set against the backdrop of the Packer Crisis, which was affecting cricket at that time, with a number of professionals joining the so-called 'Packer Circus', an unofficial series of matches funded by Australian tycoon Kerry Packer. This resulted in a number of senior players being banned from international cricket, and lengthy court cases to resolve the resulting disputes.

Theme

The book contains description of 14 fixtures of various kinds. The writer starts the book at Lord's, the

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

of cricket, with the traditional three-day fixture between the MCC and the

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

champions of the previous season (in this case,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

). He visits Lord's three more times during the course of the season (in June for the Test Match against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, in July, for the oldest fixture, between

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and Harrow School, and finally in early September for the Gillette Cup final). He also goes to grounds around the country, including Oxfordshire to cover a village championship game and Lichfield for a minor county game.

Awards

''The Best Loved Game'' was awarded the Cricket Book of the Year award by The Cricket Society in 1979. In May 2019, it was longlisted by

Wisden Cricket Monthly ''Wisden Cricket Monthly'' (WCM) is a UK-based print and digital cricket magazine available to buy worldwide. The original version ran from June 1979 to September 2003. The magazine was revived in November 2017, launching with an Ashes Special whi ...

in an article on the best cricket books of all time.

Influence

''The Best Loved Game'' was the inspiration for ''Still the Best Loved Game?'', by Neil Cole, published in 2019, forty years after the publication of the original. ''Still the Best Loved Game?'' follows a similar format, with observations on cricket drawn from matches throughout an English summer, but takes a much more inclusive approach befitting the 21st century (featuring women's, as well as men's, cricket; disability cricket; MCC Schools v the English Schools Cricket Association, which includes state school players, rather than Eton v Harrow; and a Loughborough v Durham university match rather than Oxford v Cambridge).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Best Loved Game, The 1979 non-fiction books British non-fiction books Cricket books English non-fiction books