Mystery Spinner: the Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer Free

FREE MYSTERY SPINNER: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AN EXTRAORDINARY CRICKETER PDF

All rights reserved. By Gideon Haigh. Aurum Press Publication date: April ISBN: Buy ePub. List price:. It is no mystery that Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer the name of Jack Iverson is virtually unknown. For most of his life he was an unexceptional estate agent in Australia. He died in obscurity, by his own hand, at the age of only He was a clumsy fielder, and a hopeless batsman. But for four years he was the best spin bowler in the world. The story of Jack Iverson is one Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer the most remarkable in the history of cricket. Mystery Spinner is more than the beautifully written life of an elusive and forgotten hero who, after his brief burst of celebrity, has left strangely little trace in posterity. It is also the utterly compelling story of Gideon Haigh's quest to solve the enduring riddle of Jack Iverson's life. And above all it is a moving study, for an age that presumes sporting prowess to be the ultimate definition of personal identity, of how skill is half the battle in sport, and how it takes an extraordinary individual to cope successfully with extraordinary achievement. Reviews 0 Specifications Please sign in to review this product. Copy From Text:. Other books by Gideon Haigh. Text Publishing, January Format: ePub. Stroke of Genius Gideon Haigh. Quarterly Essay, November Recently Viewed Products. Gideon Haigh. The Book of Ashes Anecdotes. The Big Ship: Warwick Armstrong and the making of modern cricket. Leather on willow | Books | The Guardian

John William Gleeson 14 March — 7 October was an Australian cricketer who played in 29 Tests from to Gleeson was born in the northern NSW town of Wiangaree 14km north of Kyogle and grew up in the country town of Tamworth. He was the son of a Wiangaree dairy farmerand attributed the finger strength required to bowl with his two-fingered grip to his childhood, which he spent milking cows. He used a grip similar to that of the then unique "bent-finger" action of Jack Iversonusing two fingers: a bent middle finger and the thumb pressing against the ball on both sides in an attempt to find a new variety of bowling tricks. He was one of a small number of Australians who experimented with revolutionary bowling grips in the wake of Iverson's stay in international cricket. Gleeson preferred to Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer downwind on a greenish surface, since pace from the wicket compensated for his not being a large spinner of the ball. His accuracy resulted in his mainly being used for defensive purposes, rather than an attacking one. Under the old lbw law, batsmen could not be given out if they were struck outside off stump, allowing batsmen to safely use their pads without offering a shot to nullify Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer googly. Gleeson was one of the prominent debutants of the —67 Australian cricket season in the Sheffield Shieldtaking 23 wickets in six matches. He was subsequently selected in an Australian "Second" team to tour New Zealand at the end of the year. He was selected for the —68 Test series against India in Australia. He managed less success in the remaining three Tests, taking five wickets to end with nine at an average of The —69 season saw a heavy workload for Gleeson, in five Tests against the West Indies cricket team. The subsequent —70 tour to India was to be Australia's last Test series win there for 35 years. Most of the South Africans were seeing him for the first time and struggled to understand his action. It was Barry Richardsthe most junior of them, who claimed to have worked him out. Not once in seven innings did Gleeson, who took 19 wickets at Gleeson was the top Australian wicket taker in the —71 Ashes seriesbut his 14 wickets cost Gleeson was recalled for the Ashes tour, but was Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer after the first three Tests, in which he managed only three wickets at He had minor skills with the bat, with one first-class half-century and a Test top score of After Gleeson toured South Africa with Derrick Robins ' team in —74, Graeme Pollock helped to organise a position for him in the Eastern Province team for his final first class season. He served on the inaugural governing committee of World Series Cricket. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Australian cricketer. Source: CricketArchive. ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 8 October Cricket the Australian Way. Cricket Australia. The A-Z of Australian cricketers. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 October Cricket Country. Robins' XI cricketers. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Competition Tests First-class Matches Mystery Spinner by Gideon Haigh | Waterstones

Sign in with Facebook Sign in options. Join Goodreads. Quotes tagged as "mystery-of-life" Showing of Throughout the Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer, I looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life. But he couldn't vomit into a bucket or pee into a pot only two feet away. It was one of the great mysteries of life. Without it, Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer is nothing but cheap tricks. But we know that God controls them, as he controls the whole vast cobweb of the mystery of things. When we get too rigid and inflexible, rigor mortis of the soul sets in. For proof of this, we need look no further than to those who choose to stay in a relationship or job long after the soul, or life force, that originally brought it passion and joy has vacated the premises. All we know for sure is what the ancients knew: each succeeding generation forms a link in the braided cord of humanity. Each of our lives is shallower if we do not know and pay homage to where we came from. While the tools of our trades evolve from generation to generation, the way that people behave and the motives behind their behavior remains constant. Each generation must chart the same dangerous territories of the heart. Each succeeding generation must diagnosis the illnesses that imperil their mental, physical, social, and economic wellbeing. Life is brutally painful and extraordinary joyful. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls. Accepting the unknown and unknowable eliminates regret. Sometimes I was simply aware of the mystery. I saw a flash of it during a trip to New York that David and I took before we were married. We were walking on a busy sidewalk in Manhattan. I don't remember if it was day or night. A man with a wound on his forehead came toward us. His damp, ragged hair might have been clotted with blood, or maybe it was only dirt. He wore deeply dirty clothes. His red, swollen hands, cupped in half-fists, swung loosely at his sides. His eyes were focused somewhere past my right shoulder. He staggered while he walked. The sidewalk traffic flowed around him and with him. He was strange and frightening, and at the same time he belonged on the Manhattan sidewalk as much as any of us. It was that paradox -- that he could be both alien and resident, both brutalized and human, that he could stand out in the moving mass of people like a sea monster in a school of tuna and at the same time be as much at home as any of us -- that stayed with me. I never saw him again, but I remember him often, and when I do, I am aware of the mystery. Years later, I was out on our property on the Olympic Peninsula, cutting a path through the woods. This was before our house was built. After chopping through dense salal and hacking off ironwood bushes for an hour or so, I stopped, exhausted. I found myself standing motionless, intensely aware of all of the life around me, the breathing moss, the chattering birds, the living earth. I was as much a part of the woods as any millipede or cedar tree. At that moment, too, I was aware of the mystery. Sometimes I wanted to speak to this mystery directly. Out of habit, I began with "Dear God" and ended with "Amen". But I thought to myself, I'm not praying to that old man in the sky. Rather, I'm praying to this thing I can't define. It was sort of like talking into a foggy valley. Praying into a bank of fog requires alot of effort. I wanted an image to focus on when I prayed. He was too closely associated with all I'd left behind. How delicious is the thought that this mysterious complex creature, chooses to share a life with you? Too many of us undervalue ourselves by digging too deep into the mistakes we have made or dwelling on when we failed at something like relationships, responsibilities, careers, whatever it might be. All those experiences make up the mystery and story of who we are. We are complex beings, all together in this fucked up but beautiful world. All of us have had experiences, good and bad, and those make up the intricate tapestry of who we are. I often feel insecure in so many ways, fragile and easily broken even when I know that is only a self-defeating perception that sometimes rears its ugly head. I am doing what I love, and deeply in love with someone with whom I want to share my future and write our own magical mystery story. Match your energy and vibration with what you envision. You deserve love and success, so go for it. Music stands alone in its ability to communicate the symbols and phases of life, both being and nonbeing. Life is a fantastic dream where we rejoice in the incomparable beauty of this misty world of ethereal sensations and sentiments. To give nothing but all of me- my soul, my heart, my fire. Sometimes the closer we are, the harder it is to see. My life will unfold the way it needs to. Having to know kept me caught in my head. Not needing to know keeps me open to the great mystery of life. Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer the universe withheld things. It was like luck. Luck once meant anything could happen. Now it meant he was Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer. But maybe it didn't need to. Adler and Charles Van Doren. He could not help liking the tall, graceful young man who was standing by him. His romantic, olive-coloured face and worn expression interested him. There was something in his low languid voice that was absolutely fascinating. His cool, white, flower-like hands, even, had a curious charm. They moved, as he spoke, like music, and seemed to have a language of their own. But he felt afraid of him, and ashamed of Mystery Spinner: The Life and Death of an Extraordinary Cricketer afraid. Why had it been left for a stranger to reveal him to himself? He had known Basil Hallward for months, but the friendship between them had never altered him. Suddenly there had come some one across his life who seemed to have disclosed to him life's mystery. And, yet, what was there to be afraid of? He was not a schoolboy or a girl. It was absurd to be frightened. Browse By Tag. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.