This is an interesting and, in many places revealing book, which describes, in detail in some places and broad outline in others, the development of Canadian cricket from the earliest times until the present day.
There is much here which is new and valuable, for example the early development of some Canadian clubs and Mr Adams' surely correct shattering of the old myth of the British and French playing cricket on the Heights of Abraham after the former had taken Quebec from the latter in 1759.
Mr Adams also, effectively, I think , demolishes claims that, but for the American Civil War, cricket rather than baseball would have become the national game of the United States and clearly shows why cricket in Canada is in serious decline.
The author, who has strong connections with Canada - notably as he tells us several times, his wife - also describes in detail some early tours to and from Canada. Perhaps he spends over much time on the 1859 tour by a team of English professionals, the details of which are fairly well known, but, using little known publications as his sources, is excellent on the Canadian overseas tours of 1880 and 1887.
The first - to England - was a disaster and we learn about the arrest of its captain T Dale, who was a British Army deserter as well as his subsequent life and times. The 1887 tour landed in Lough Foyle and played its first match against Ireland in College Park. There is a good description of what else the Canadians got up to while in Dublin, but unfortunately John Dunn, by far the best batsman in Ireland at the time is described as having been an "Australian student at Trinity College." He was indeed an Australian but was an Army officer stationed in Ireland. Followers of Irish cricket will regret that little other mention is made of Ireland's long established cricket contacts with Canada.
Much space in the book is given over to describing the long established series of matches between Canada and the United States. Mr Adams is very interesting on its origins and shows that its first year - 1844 thirty three years before England played Australia - was bedevilled by a match fixing scandal, but he probably spends over long on this section of the book with a match by match account until the contest appeared to have died a death in 1912. The series has already been the subject of a highly regarded book The International Series by John Marder (1968) and, while Mr Adams challenges, probably correctly, several of Marder's assumptions about the matches, the descriptions are possibly not needed in such detail, as Marder's book is far from unobtainable.
Further while Mr Adams correctly stated that the match was restarted in the 1960s, he has the wrong year for this and neglects to tell us that Marder was mainly responsible for the fixture's rebirth.
I also found it rather grating, elsewhere in the book, to see the Laws of Cricket referred to as Rules, but perhaps this is simply being pedantic.
Additionally, however, while Mr Adams correctly spends sometime discussing Canada's contribution to the ICC Trophy and World Cup, he has little to say about the Intercontinental Cup. Here Canada's performances are certainly worthy of some attention, mostly being far removed from September's debacle at Rathmines.
The book concludes with very useful biographies of leading Canadian players over the years and has a workmanlike index.
In all, despite the reservations expressed above, it is a valuable addition to any cricket library.
A History of Canadian Cricket 206pp is published in paperback at £6.99. Further details and a free download of the entire book are obtainable from www.lulu.com
Edward Liddle November 2011
