Stuck for a Christmas present for one of the men in your life? If they are cricket fans then the just out book; ‘Somerset Cricket The Glory Years 1973-1987’ might just bowl them over. It’s published by Wellington’s , Halsgrove Press.
The book is a visual history of the best years of Somerset county cricket of photographs taken by the local photographer Alain Lockyer with some text by Richard Walsh.
Two years ago Somerset Cricket Museum acquired a unique archive of images taken by Alain between 1973 and 1990 , and this book concentrates on the short golden era from 1979 to 1983. This is when Somerset dominated the domestic one day cricket scene.
Players included Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Joel Garner.
Alain captures the crowds, the excitement, the players off the pitch, and the public outcry when it was learned that contracts for Garner and Richards were not being renewed at the end of the 1986 season, and Botham decided to leave too.
Eventually Botham, Garner and Richards returned to the county where they made their names in English cricket and received honorary life memberships. Botham has had a stand named in his honour, and Garner and Richards have had gates at the county ground dedicated to them.
Alain Lockyer has run the Taunton based Somerset Photo News Agency for more than forty years, and often takes photos for the Wellington Weekly News.
Somerset Cricket The Glory Years 1973- 1987 is published by Halsgrove, price £19.99.
Alison Weekes