As Roger Morgan-Grenville prepares for a new season with the White Hunter Cricket Club, he is starting to feel his age, so he embarks on a secret plan of coaching, yoga and psychology to improve his game. Will he emerge as a sporting demi-god, or will his team-mates even notice the difference?

This is the humorous and heartwarming story of that cricket season, as the White Hunters go from disaster to triumph. It is a tale of competitiveness, suspense, excellence, hospitality and incompetence, such as the missing fielder found asleep in the woods and the two opening bowlers whose MG Roadster breaks down on the way to the game.

From the Castle Ground at Arundel to a field next to a nudist camp in France, players such as the Tree Hugger, the Gun Runner, and their wicket-keeper, the Human Sieve, share the dream that this might be their day. Above all, it is the uplifting story of friendship among a team of not-very-good players who find enough moments of near brilliance to remind them why they love the game of cricket.

'Ever self-deprecating, R M-G has nailed his whimsical colours to the mast with his latest volume on the trials of the legendary White Hunters CC. His turn of phrase is without parallel. Who else would or could come up with the line, "Clinging on to my innings like a sloth to the underside of a Cecopria tree"?' - David Gower, legendary former England cricket captain

Autorentext

Roger Morgan-Grenville and a friend set up the White Hunter Cricket Club in 1986 because they weren't good enough for `proper' cricket, but were desperate to go on playing. With a career batting average of 13.46, and a bowling average that is too awful to set down on paper, Roger and his teammates have now become a regular summer sight on some of the most feted grounds in the country, losing with dignity and sometimes winning with astonished surprise.

Roger was a soldier in the Royal Green Jackets for nine years, during which time he served on five continents, and led the first expedition to successfully retrace Shackleton's extraordinary journey across the island of South Georgia. His principal career as manager of a kitchenware company reflects his passion for food, and he was also a founder, and first head fund raiser, for the charity Help for Heroes. He once appeared on Mastermind with the specialist subject Flanders and Swann, without ever troubling the second round. He is a passionate, but talentless, cricketer, and co-founder of the White Hunter Cricket Club, the subject of his books Not Our First Ball and Unlimited Overs. Roger is married and has two sons.