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Item Details
Title: MYSTERY SPINNER
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AN EXTRAORDINARY CRICKETER
By: Gideon Haigh
Format: Paperback

List price: £9.99


We believe that this item is permanently unavailable, and so we cannot source it.

ISBN 10: 178131182X
ISBN 13: 9781781311820
Publisher: AURUM PRESS
Pub. date: 1 May, 2013
Pages: 376
Description: The story of Jack Iverson is one of the most remarkable in the history of cricket.
Synopsis: It is no mystery that today the name of Jack Iverson is virtually unknown. For most of his life he was an unexceptional estate agent in Australia. He died in obscurity, by his own hand, at the age of only 58. He was a clumsy fielder, and a hopeless batsman. But for four years he was the best spin bowler in the world. The story of Jack Iverson is one of the most remarkable in the history of cricket. 'Every now and then,' wrote one journalist, 'there comes a man who can do the right thing the wrong way round.' Iverson took up cricket, at the advanced age of 31, as capriciously as he left it - joining a club 3rd XI in Melbourne one day, and instantly announcing himself as the most prodigious and improbable spinner of a cricket ball. Using a unique technique he appears to have perfects with a ping-pong ball during wartime service in Papua New Guinea, he doubled back his middle finger and found he could bowl leg breaks, top spinners and googlies, every one dropped on a perfect length and impossible to pick. Within four years he was bowling the Australian Test side to victory over England in the Ashes series of 1950-51.Then, in his moment of triumph, he retired from international cricket, and was never the same bowler again. Mystery Spinner is more than that beautifully written life of an elusive and forgotten hero who, after his brief burst of celebrity, has left strangely little trace in posterity. It is also the utterly compelling story of Gideon Haigh's quest to solve the enduring riddle of Jack Iverson's life - a quest which led him across Australia following tenuous clues in school registers and county records. And above all it is a moving study, for an age that presumes sporting prowess to be the ultimate definition of personal identity, of how skill is only half the battle in sport, and how it takes an extraordinary individual to cope successfully with extraordinary achievement.
Illustrations: Illustrations
Publication: UK
Imprint: Aurum Press
Returns: Returnable
Some other items by this author:
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BIG SHIP
CERTAIN ADMISSIONS (PB)
CROSSING THE LINE
ENDLESS SUMMER (HB)
EYE ON CRICKET (PB)
GAME FOR ANYTHING
INSIDE OUT (PB)
MANY A SLIP (HB)
MOMENTOUS, UNEVENTFUL DAY
MRS MORT'S MADNESS (PB)
MYSTERY SPINNER
MYSTERY SPINNER
MYSTERY SPINNER (PB)
MYSTERY SPINNER (PB)
ON THE ASHES (HB)
ON WARNE
ON WARNE (HB)
ON WARNE (PB)
QUARTERLY ESSAY 10 BAD COMPANY
QUARTERLY ESSAY 48 AFTER THE FUTURE
SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA (PB)
SECOND XI (PB)
SHADOWS ON THE PITCH
SILENT REVOLUTIONS
SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
SPHERE OF INFLUENCE (PB)
SPHERE OF INFLUENCE (PB)
STANDARD BEARERS
STROKE OF GENIUS
STROKE OF GENIUS (HB)
STROKE OF GENIUS (PB)
SULTAN (HB)
THE ASHES 2009 (PB)
THE ASHES 2013 (HB)
THE BIG SHIP
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THE BOOK OF ASHES ANECDOTES
THE BOOK OF ASHES ANECDOTES (HB)
THE CRICKET WAR
THE CRICKET WAR
THE CRICKET WAR (PB)
THE CRICKET WAR (PB)
THE GREEN & GOLDEN AGE
THE GREEN & GOLDEN AGE (PB)
THE OFFICE (PB)
THE RACKET (PB)
THE VINCIBLES (PB)
THIS IS HOW I WILL STRANGLE YOU
UNCERTAIN CORRIDORS
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