Hilltop Publications Ltd, 2004
ISBN 0-9545892-0-3
400pp, softback.
Price: £18.95
This 400 page tome is widely regarded as the authoritative history of Ulster cricket and deals jointly with the development of the game in both the Northern Cricket Union and the North West Cricket Union areas.
It also outlines the social, political and economic scene in which the game was played over the years and goes back as far as 1792 when the first recorded match was played in Dublin.
The author was well placed to write the book having been weaned at the famous North Down Cricket Club in Comber and then playing senior cricket before making a significant contribution to the game as an administrator locally, and within the Irish Cricket Union.
The book is packed with all the great stories and events that have carved the history of cricket in the province and key personalities like Bishop HH Montgomery, the legendary Andy Macfarlane, EDR Shearer, Dermott Monteith, Simon Corlett, Raman Lamba et al are highlighted. There are numerous photographs throughout and the Appendices has a wealth of statistics and records for the cricket historian.
Hiles has also traced the development of the game at international level from an Ulster perspective and lists both international players and umpires that hailed from the province. The book is a must for anyone interested in cricket in Ireland.
Labours of love do not come any more passionate than A History of Senior Cricket in Ulster by J Clarence Hiles.
It would be difficult to think of anyone more qualified to write the definitive history of the game in Northern Ireland. Not only does Hiles have a serious wealth of experience as player and administrator and a commitment to the game spread equally - and unusually - between the NCU and North West areas, but he also has a pen which glides gracefully across 400 pages and 200 years.
Hiles' first words are of his fascination with history and he puts it to telling effect. His portrayal of players, matches, the evolving politics and development of the game are set in real context: there is as much to be learned about the social, economic and political climates of the times as there is about the sport itself. Hiles contends that the development of any sport over 200 years cannot be appreciated without a working knowledge of the prevailing conditions of the day, a truism that has eluded most sports' historians.
Hiles writes with deep affection about his own experiences of the game, first as a lad growing up in Comber with his beloved North Down Cricket Club as his playground then as a "player, sponsor, administrator, alickadoo, journalist and historian". Rather than intruding, the personal pronoun gives the narrative an accessibility and authority that makes for highly rewarding reading.
By and large he writes generously of his contemporaries but his straight from the shoulder observations of some less fortunate souls add to the book's credibility.
From first notion to last sentence, the book was 14 years in the making. Hiles may have gathered his information at a leisurely pace but it added up to an awesome research project that saw him pick the brains of many and comb the relevance of 130 books and a dozen newspaper libraries.
From the first ball bowled in 1800 to the current issues facing the game (whither professionals/Ulster League/all-Ireland League, …). Hiles takes us on a fascinating journey made the more enjoyable by a veritable treasure trove of illustrations. No fewer than 300 pictures and cartoons make the book's price of £18.95 a realistic one although I'm puzzled at the absence of a scoercard in the detailed account of that famous Irish victory over the West Indies in 1969.
Hiles' book is a serious legacy and he deserves the gratitude of all who have the interests of the Game in Ulster at heart. I for one am grateful. My late father often told me how, as a young soldier posted to Northern Ireland, he took 6 for 50 for City of Derry and helped bowl out Sion Mills for 82 in the 1935 North-West Cup final. I always thought he was exaggerating. Page 367 has told me otherwise.
This review first appeared in the June 2004 issue of the Ulster Cricketer magazine and is reproduced here with the permission of the reviewer.