The Best Loved Game

The Best Loved Game chronicles the 1978 English cricket season through a series of detailed essays, each focused on a specific match. Geoffrey Moorhouse travels across England to document games at every level of play, from village greens to Test matches at Lord's. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of significant upheaval in professional cricket, with the Packer Crisis causing bans and legal disputes throughout the sport. Through visits to 14 different fixtures, Moorhouse captures the full spectrum of cricket culture, from schoolboy matches to county championships. The book showcases cricket's unique position in English society by examining how the sport connects and divides different social classes and communities. Its exploration of tradition, change, and cricket's role in English life earned it Cricket Book of the Year in 1979 and continues to be recognized as a significant work in sports literature.

Readers value this book as an intimate portrait of cricket in 1978, though it focuses more on personal experiences than match analysis. Cricket enthusiasts appreciate Moorhouse's ability to capture both village games and first-class matches with equal attention. Readers liked: - Detailed descriptions of cricket grounds and atmospheres - Personal anecdotes about players and spectators - Coverage of both amateur and professional cricket Readers disliked: - Limited focus on major matches and statistics - Some found the writing style too meandering - The narrow timeframe of just one season Ratings: Goodreads: 3.8/5 (42 ratings) Amazon UK: 4.2/5 (15 reviews) One reader noted: "Moorhouse captures the essence of cricket at all levels without getting bogged down in numbers." Another commented: "More a meditation on cricket culture than a sports book." Some readers mentioned the book shows its age but remains relevant for understanding cricket's social history.

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🏏 The book won the prestigious Cricket Society Book of the Year award in 1979, establishing its place among cricket literature's most respected works. 🖋️ Geoffrey Moorhouse was a renowned Guardian journalist for 27 years before focusing on book writing, bringing his journalistic precision to this cricket narrative. 🌏 The Packer Crisis, which forms the book's backdrop, revolutionized cricket by introducing colored uniforms, day-night matches, and significantly higher player salaries. 📅 The book's fourteen matches were specifically chosen to represent each month of the 1978 cricket season, creating a complete calendar-year perspective of English cricket. 🎭 Moorhouse's work influenced future cricket writers by establishing a new template for cricket literature that combined match reporting with social commentary and personal observation.