The launch of Cricket Banter

Not many book launches end up with both authors pissed as farts, sick all over the toilet floor and a post launch fight between the relatives of one of the writers! However, it all happened at the launch of Cricket Banter and a night to remember was held at a packed out Southgate Adelaide Cricket Club in North London last Thursday.

People arrived at the event from all over the UK - Lancashire, Sussex, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, South Wales, as well as numerous locals and the speeches were kicked off by Gill Nuttall from Factor 50. A portion of the royalties from the book will be going to the charity and Gill's speech came straight from the heart, moving the audience. Gill recalled how Factor 50 came about on a day which would have been the 35th birthday of Jon Herron, a young man who sadly died from melanoma and the reason why the charity was formed by Gill.

Marcus Charman from the Cricket Family on Twitter then spoke about the collective of cricket clubs, and the work the boys from the Middle Stump had done to help promote the Cricket Family on Twitter, saying they understood how it worked. and went on to talk about the great work that had been done on Twitter recently, with projects such as Bat4Africa.

From l to r...Gill Nuttall from Factor50, Dan Whiting, Liam Kenna and Marcus Charman from the Cricket Family

Dan Whiting, one half of the Middle Stump then spoke about the book giving glimpses of hilarious stories from the interviews he had conducted with the likes of Jack Brooks, Matt Maynard and Ed Giddins. He described the anecdotes in there such as Cricketers who suffer from piles, and poor behaviour on cricket tours describing his own clubs visit to Hastings in 1996, saying they were the most unwelcome visitors to that town since William the Conqueror and his chums decided to cross the English Channel nine hundred years previously!

Liam Kenna, the other half of the Middle Stump then gave an amusing speech about various people who had helped the chaps get the book off the ground, thanking them profusely. He also regaled the audience with a story about the sellotape he had stolen for the launch!

Liam, Dan and John Thorp who has written some of the articles in Cricket Banter

A great night ensued and even though numerous guests had travelled from

far and wide for the event, the bar did not shut until gone midnight. Everyone had a fantastic evening, including the young gentleman who deposited most of the rioja all over the toilet floor!

The book which reached the top 5 on Amazon's Kindle Cricket books over the weekend is available from the History Press here and is a great read. http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/index.php/cricket-banter.html

Dan and Liam sign for Steve Gale of Hertford CC with the Factor 50 banner in the background

Photos courtesy of Steve Beeston Photography www.stevebeeston.co.uk