Sundial in the Shade by Andrew Murtagh

Sundial in the Shade (Collectible Barry Richards Cricket Biography in a Rare Hardcover)

The Story of a Batting Genius Whose Test Career Was Ended by Apartheid Isolation

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Sundial in the Shade: The Story of Barry Richards: The Genius Lost to Test Cricket
• Author: Andrew Murtagh
• Publisher: Pitch Publishing, Durrington
• Publication Date: 2015
• ISBN-13: 9781785310102
• Edition Details: First published 2015, hardcover issue.
• Binding: Publisher's dark cloth-covered hardcover boards in a printed dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Octavo hardcover. No plates or maps noted.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good (VG)
• Exterior / Boards: The dark navy/black cloth boards show some visible creasing to the upper board, running diagonally from the spine side, with a small crease near the top of the hinge and another near the lower spine. There is a slight bump at the foot of the spine. The corners are reasonably sharp.
• Interior: The text pages are clean and free of markings. The page edges are toned to the fore-edge and top. The binding is tight.
• The Dust Jacket: Present and bright, with a few light creases to the spine. Protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover, which shows some wrinkling.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Sundial in the Shade is a biography of Barry Richards, the South African batsman widely regarded as one of the most gifted of his generation. Richards made his Test debut in 1970, but apartheid-era isolation ended his international career after a single series, leaving a Test average of 79.14.

The book follows his playing years with Hampshire, Natal and South Australia and his later life, and carries throughout a sense of unfulfilled potential. It is a telling record of how South Africa's political isolation cost world cricket one of its finest players.

The author, a former Hampshire teammate of Richards, writes with first-hand knowledge of the man and the county game. For collectors of South African sporting history and cricket literature, this is a thoughtful account of talent denied its stage.

Author Profile: Andrew Murtagh

Andrew Murtagh, born in 1949, is an Irish former first-class cricketer who played for Hampshire from 1973 to 1977. He then became a schoolteacher, teaching English at Malvern College, and later a cricket historian and biographer.

His other books include A Remarkable Man: The Story of George Chesterton, which was shortlisted for the MCC Cricket Society Book of the Year, and Touched by Greatness, a biography of Tom Graveney, which was longlisted for the same award.