With his infectious enthusiasm for the game, David 'Bumble' Lloyd blends immense knowledge and experience with an eye for the quirky detail and an unending fund ofbrilliant stories.
This definitive autobiography recalls his childhood in Accrington, Lancashire, when, after a long day playing cricket in the street, he would get his chance to wash himself in his family's bath - but only after his parents and uncle had taken their turn first. From being last in the tin bath, he moved on to make his debut for Lancashire while still in his teens, eventually earning an England call-up, when he had to face the pace of Lillee and Thomson - with painful and eye-watering consequences. After retiring as a player, he became an umpire and then England coach during the 1990s, before eventually turning to commentary with Sky Sports.
After spending more than 50 years involved with the professional game, Bumble's memoir is packed with hilarious anecdotes from the golden age of Lancashire cricket through to the glitzy modern era of T20 cricket. He provides vivid behind-the-scenes insight into life with England and on the Sky commentary team. Last in the Tin Bath is a joy to read from start to finish and was shortlisted for the British Sports Book Awards Autobiography of the Year.
Review: David Lloyd is a former Lancashire and England cricketer and coach, and currently is a much respected commentator on the game. This book is his autobiography. It describes his upbringing in Accrington, Lancashire and his subsequent career in the sport.
His journey as a player started in club cricket in the Lancashire League and progressed through the ranks of county cricket with Lancashire before reaching its pinnacle with nine Test Match appearances for England. Following his retirement as a player in the first-class game, he became an umpire before moving into coaching, serving as coach for Lancashire and then England. He is now a successful cricket commentator on television and radio.
The book is full of amusing anecdotes about his childhood and his cricketing career. Amongst other things, it describes the origin of his nickname "Bumble", a consequence of banter in a professional sportsmen's dressing room. The title of the book, incidentally, will be familiar to all brought up in the period of austerity following the end of the Second World War when, due to the cost of heating water, families would take it in turns to use the one bathful of hot water, and the youngest member of the household would be last in the pecking order.
The book is full of the author's trademark impish sense of humour. There are plenty of anecdotes, such as a painful injury incurred whilst batting against the fast bowler Jeff Thomson in Australia, together with descriptions of the often larger than life characters that inhabit the world of cricket. For an insight into the world of professional cricket in the last part of the 20th century, and the way it has evolved in the 21st century, I would recommend this book as a very interesting and amusing read.
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