Penguins Stopped Play - Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World

Penguins Stopped Play - Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World

by Harry Thompson

John Murray, HK$105

'Harry was obsessive, cheeky, naughty and relentless,' recalled Stuart Murphy, controller of BBC3, in an obituary for Harry Thompson, who died of inoperable lung cancer in 2005 at the age of 45. Thompson, a journalist, novelist and TV producer, was one of that eccentric breed of truly hopeless weekend cricketers. Penguins Stopped Play is an often hilarious account of how the Captain Scott Invitation XI, which he helped found at Oxford with other no-hopers who wanted to play cricket, took on the world. The plan was to play cricket on seven continents, and Penguins Stopped Play opens on the ice off Ross Island in Antarctica. Thompson is 'doing what any right-thinking Englishman should be doing at times of hardship and adversity: I am playing cricket'. He's also not above stealing an all-run four when the fielder is attacked by a giant skua. The Lamma XI and fellow travellers will understand why Thompson was buried with his cricket bat, and a teammate lobbed a ball into the grave. The rest of us can only laugh.