Sweetest Rose 150 Years Of Yorkshire County Cricket Club

'The Sweetest Rose' traces the history of Yorkshire County Cricket Club over its 150 years, from its birth in Sheffield in January, 1863, right up to the present day.

The Rev Edmund Carter introduced the great Lord Hawke to Yorkshire cricket. Although he played only a handful of first-class matches for Yorkshire, he played the game for Oxford University in the 1860s, in Victoria as a young man, and in West London, before the bulk of his life’s work as a clergyman in the shadow of York Minster.

The remarkable tale of one of cricket's most astonishing achievements

In the year marking the 150th anniversary of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, this title rides the ups and downs of a County season through the eyes of Yorkshire CCC's vice captain, Joe Sayers. It provides insight into the Yorkshire dressing room on the team's return to the top flight of English cricket and addresses key issues affecting the game. Though the book takes a naturally chronological approach, the cricketing year is captured in a reflective and somewhat philosophical style, with light-hearted anecdotes and portraits depicting the everymen of County cricket. Cricketing debates within the book address the commercialisation of the modern game; the marriage between T20 cricket and the purist's preference for the longer form; and the game's more technological future. Whilst Yorkshire's elite challenge for the Division One title, brief diversions are made into the lower levels of the game and Club cricket in England's biggest County. The variety and unpredictability of one player's summer makes for fascinating reading.