While cricket remains popular today, at the beginning of the 20th Century it was THE national game. Cricketers were the sporting icons of their age, as footballers are today. When the call to arms was made in 1914 and the years of war that followed, it was answered in droves by young men, including Test and First Class cricketers. The machine guns and gas of the Western Front and other theatres did not discriminate and many hundreds of these star performers perished alongside their lesser known comrades. The author has researched the lives and deaths of over 200 top-class cricketers who made the ultimate sacrifice. He includes not just British players but those from the Empire. The enormity of the horror and wholesale loss of life during The Great War is well demonstrated by these moving biographies. AUTHOR: Born in 1953, Nigel McCrery travelled extensively during his childhood as his father was in the RAF. They settled in Nottingham. He served in the Nottinghamshire Constabulary between 1978 and 1987. He then read History at Trinity College, Cambridge and joined the BBC graduate entry course. He has written or been responsible for a number of highly successful BBC series and films including Silent Witness, New Tricks and All The King's Men. He has written over a dozen novels. Into Touch - Rugby Players Killed in The Great War, Final Wicket - Cricketers Killed in The Great War , The Coming Storm ? Test and First Class Cricketers Killed in World War Two and The Extinguished Flame - Olympians Killed in the Great War are in print with Pen and Sword Military. Nigel lives in Nottingham. 250 b/w illustrations
