Tony Day has written two popular books about our village. One celebrates Lympstone fisherman Jim Squires, and one the Annual Village Show. His third book is published this month by Lympstone History Society, and explores another traditional English village activity – Cricket. The title is “Keeping Score: The Story of Cricket in Lympstone”, which is appropriate when you remember that Tony has been the cricket club’s scorer for the past 20 years.
This is an entertaining account of cricket in a Devon village from late Victorian times to the present day. You’ll meet the cricketers – the poacher and the professor, the landowner and the labourer, the fisherman and the farmer, the barrister and the bartender. You’ll join the search for a permanent cricket field. And you’ll learn of the day that Lympstone played against a team from Afghanistan.
Lifting his eyes from the scorebook, Tony has been digging up stories from the past and present, and trying to answer the questions they raise. Who removed the bumps from Humpy Bumpy field? Which Lympstone cricketers went on to play for their Countries? Why was there no cricket team at the end of the 1890s and 1990s? Which current player is the first and only to complete the ‘double’ of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets? All this and more (much more) is told with Tony’s effortless storytelling skills and sympathetic humour.
The book is being launched on Thursday, 12th June from 6pm at the Annual Cricket Match in aid of the Friends of Lympstone Church, between Lympstone and a St Peter’s School XI, at St Peter’s beautiful ground. Bar & Barbecue, entry free.
Tony will be there to sign copies of the book for those keen to buy it at the bargain price of only £5, and he can also be found doing signings at the exhibition in the Village Hall to accompany Lympstone Legends on Friday 13th June 5 – 7.30pm and Saturday 14th June noon – 2.30pm. It will also be on sale at the exhibition on Saturday from 5 – 7.30pm. After that, you can buy from the author, email: tonyday47@outlook.com.
It’s a good read!
Lympstone History Society
