Geoffrey Moorhouse

Geoffrey Moorhouse (Born 1931 [cite web
title = Moorhouse, Geoffrey (Harper's Magazine)
publisher = Harper's Magazine
url = http://www.harpers.org/subjects/GeoffreyMoorhouse
accessdate = 2007-05-17 ] ) is an English author.

Moorhouse was born in Bolton and attended Bury Grammar School. He began writing as a journalist on the Bolton Evening News. At the age of 27, he joined the Manchester Guardian where he eventually became chief feature writer and combined bookwriting and journalism. [cite web
last = Bolton Evening News
title = Millennium people: Geoffrey Moorhouse
publisher = Newsquest Media Group
date = 1999-06-19
url = http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/1999/6/19/767668.html
accessdate = 2007-05-17 ]

In 1982 Moorhouse was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His "To the Frontier" won the Thomas Cook Award for the best travel book of its year in 1984. He has recently concentrated on Tudor history, with "The Pilgrimage of Grace" and, in 2005, "Great Harry's Navy". He lives in a hill village in North Yorkshire. [cite web
last = Orion Books
title = Geoffrey Moorhouse - an Orion author
url = http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/5603-0/Author-Geoffrey-Moorhouse.htm
accessdate = 2007-05-17 ]

Moorhouse is an honorary Doctor of Letters of the University of Warwick. [cite web
last = University of Warwick
title = Honorary Graduates of the University
url = http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/gov/calendar/section4/hongrads
accessdate = 2007-05-17 ]

Books

* The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536-7: The Rebellion That Shook Henry VIII's Throne ISBN 1842126660
* Great Harry's Navy ISBN 0753820994
* To the Frontier ISBN 0753804786
* On the Other Side: A Journey Through Soviet Central Asia ISBN 080501229X
* Best Loved Game ISBN 1851451331
* Calcutta ISBN 0140037497
* Om: An Indian Pilgrimage ISBN 0340601914
* Sydney ISBN 1865081280

The Best Loved Game (1979):A Book by Geoffrey Moorhouse

‘The Best Loved Game' was written during the summer of 1978 (and it was first published the following year). This book describes the English Cricket season of that year. It is worth mentioning that 1978 was an extra-ordinary time for the cricket world. The Arrival of Mr. Kerry Packer about a year ago had threatened to change the whole nature of the game. Lured by the money and the media-coverage guaranteed by the media-mogul, some of the top players of world cricket had signed contracts with Packer, thus making themselves unavailable from official international cricket. With the problems being unprecedented, the cricketing world was completely unprepared for this. There were all kinds of confusions and even the high court got involved in the dispute. For a brief period, the future of the royal game looked very uncertain. At that time, Mr. Moorhouse, a very distinguished writer, who loved the game immensely, decided to chronicle the cricketing events of the summer. He, like many others at the time, thought (and they were right) that the game would soon change forever. "It seemed important to record an English season while the matter was still in balance, lest the shape and nature of our cricket should presently be spoiled.” [ 'The best Loved Game" by Geoffrey Moorehouse (1979). (First published by Hodder and Stoughton Limited)]

The Book

The book contains description of 14 fixtures of various kinds. Obviously, the writer starts the book at Lords, the Mecca of cricket, with the traditional three-day fixture between MCC and the County champions of previous season (in this case, Middlesex). He visits the Mecca three more times, during the course of the season, (in June for the test match against Pakistan, in July, for the Oldest Fixture, between Eton and Harrow School, and finally in early September for the Gillette cup final). But he does not confine himself to big grounds and big matches only. He goes to Oxfordshire to cover a village championship game, he goes to Lichfield for a minor county game. In short, he wants to cover cricket, as a part of English summer, and in this, he succeeds greatly.

The style

For more than half a century Sir Neville Cardus was the undisputed king of cricket writing. His style influenced more than one generation of cricket writers. Moorhouse was no exception. Of course, he had few things in common with the great Cardus. (They both came from North-West England, Cardus from Manchester, Moorhouse from Bolton, both spent a considerable amount of their professional career at Manchester Guardian, and most importantly, both greatly loved the game of cricket). The greatest thing about this book is that Moorhouse covers the matches as a cricket writer, not as a cricket reporter, and the difference can be enormous. Following the style of the great man, Moorhouse cares less about the statistics (although the scorecards are provided in details at the end of every match report). Instead, in the sprit of Cardus, he gives characters to the players, describes the scenario, talks about the past heroes of Cricket, and even talks about his own emotions. He starts “The Roses Match” recollecting his family connection with the Red Roses. Wherever he goes, he tries to fathom the sprit of the particular match. Thus, this book describes the sprit of the game more than anything else.

An important point to make here is that while the Packer affair had a lot to do with the writing of the book, the writer isn’t interested about the merits or demerits of Packer’s intentions. While he starts the introduction of the book with “This book owes something to Mr Kerry Packer, without whom it might not have been written”, [ 'The best Loved Game' by Geoffrey Moorehouse (1979). (First published by Hodder and Stoughton Limited)] he also mentions in the same page “I do not wish to argue here the rights and wrongs of the Packer affair, much less to recount its already wearisome history.” [ 'The best Loved Game' by Geoffrey Moorehouse (1979). (First published by Hodder and Stoughton Limited)] .

So, while the name Packer appears many times in the book, the only serious comment that the writer makes about the whole affair (and he is right in his comment) is ”In one respect, and in only one I think, he (Packer) has done a service to the game by forcing us all to face the fact cricketers have been abysmally ill-paid.” ['The best Loved Game' by Geoffrey Moorehouse (1979). (First published by Hodder and Stoughton Limited)] .So, as a whole “the Best Loved Game” is not about any controversial issue, it is simply about cricket being part of the English summer.

He was right

Interestingly, all the buzz about the Packer affair, which looked such a menace in 78, died down within a year or so, as the richest man in Australia and ICC managed to reach an agreement. Yet, the changes introduced by Mr. Packer have not only lasted for a considerable time, in fact, these have continued to produce more changes to the game. Cricket is now fully internationalized, and at the same time fully commercialized. International stars are now richly paid (and so are the commentators), thanks mainly to the backings and blessings of satellite TV channels. In a sense, Mr. Packer was a bit too ahead of his time.

The 'love’ affair

In 1977, test cricket celebrated its 100 th anniversary. While test cricket still remains the most prestigious cricketing event, the general public nowadays are more interested in the shorter versions of the game, One Day Internationals and (in more recent times), the 20-20s. Instead of white shirts, the cricketers now wear multicolored dresses. Day night cricket, introduced by Mr. Packer in Australia, is now common everywhere. Yet despite all these changes, there is no doubt that the great game of cricket has its origin in the villages of England. For all the new introductions to the game (like 3rd umpire, TV replay, powerplay etc.) cricket still remains a very simple game. There are many who love the game simply because of its simplicity. For such people, ‘The Best Loved Game” can be a wonderful reading.

References