Cricket! Riccardo Small is mad about the game. He may not be a great player – he’s only played twice for his local team, the Calypso Cricket Club – but he knows all the facts and figures, especially about the West Indian cricketing heroes. When he does get his chance to play, things do not exactly go according to plan and Riccardo turns to calyspso – his other great love - to express the disasters and then triumphs that being a cricketer can create. All the tension and excitement of cricket is captured in this brilliant mix of prose and poetry.
Riccardo Small lives on the Island. He loves cricket, as well as poetry and songs - especially calypso. When he is dropped from the cricket team after missing a vital catch, Riccardo wanders the island, taking refuge in his poems. He meets Count Crayfish, and together they think of a way in which Riccardo can still help the cricket team...
Bob Cattell has been a cricket fan all his life. His first heroes as a boy were Fred Truman of Yorkshire and Ken Barrington (Surrey), followed later by John Snow (Sussex) and Alan Knott (Kent).
He has always supported Yorkshire (Cambridgeshire, where he comes from, doesn't have a county side) and today he is a big fan of Darren Gough and Michael Vaughan.
Bob is a left-arm spin bowler, playing for Reigate Pilgrims C.C. in south London. He can get quite obsessive about cricket when England are playing and always turns to the cricket reports first when he reads a newspaper. Other sporting interests include playing real tennis, walking in high mountains and watching football and rugby. He has also written football books for children with a friend, David Ross. The series is called 'Strikers'.
