Tony Hannan spent what turned out to be the penultimate Minor Counties campaign in the company of Cumberland CCC, and as goes with such terrain, it's a story of ups, downs and one or two surprises. The Wicket Men draws stumps on one small but fascinating aspect of a pastime whose arcane rhythms and rituals are rooted in English folk tradition.
A timely and comical look at a county that is by turns friendly, uncompromising, boastful, blunt and maddeningly self-aware. Tony Hannan digs beneath the ehh bah gum cliches of whippets, clogs, flat caps and moth-eaten wallets to explore what really makes Tykes tick."
Shortlisted for the 2018 General Outstanding Sports Book of the Year One of the founder members in 1895 of what became the Rugby League, Batley was once a thriving centre of commerce, one of the bustling mill towns in the Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire.