Five Five Five by Stephen Chalke

Stephen Chalke's latest offering is a dissection of the events surrounding two days in the summer of 1932 when two batsmen, namely Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe, re-wrote the record books by scoring 555 in a first wicket partnership. Published by Fairfield Books

Despite being 64 pages long, the book is wonderfully descriptive and re creates the tension and events of the 15th and 16th of June effortlessly. There is no doubt that Chalke is a magnificent wordsmith and the book is a testament to his story telling.

While introducing Sutcliffe and Holmes to the reader Chalke relates "It is said that they first met on the upper deck of a Leeds tramcar, travelling to nets at Headingley in one of the last years before the First World War," "They spotted each other's cricket bags, and they fell into conversation. Percy Holmes was the older by eight years, on the verge of breaking into the Yorkshire XI, but in time it would be Herbert Sutcliffe, through his achievements in Test cricket and his greater social bearing, who would become the senior partner."

Played at Leyton, a small unattractive ground surrounded by a huge brick wall in Essex, Yorkshire were clear favourites. Essex had neither the players or the captain to compete with a talented Yorkshire team that along with Holmes and Sutcliffe included Leyland, Verity and Bowes. Essex with the limited resources at their disposal had used 61 players over four summers between 1928 and 1932.

In writing Five Five Five, Chalke visits the ground where a second eleven game between Leyton County and Tennyson in the Second Division of the Lord's International Essex League is taking place. The game, played to a conclusion despite the poor weather, ironically ends in controversy as did the partnership 75 years earlier.

Just as Holmes and Sutcliffe were celebrating the magnificent achievement, posing for photographs in front of the scoreboard that read 555 without loss, the scoreboard back in June 1932 magically deducted a run and the board read 554! No one it seemed could agree what the correct score was with both scorers from Yorkshire and Essex failing to agree with the scorers in the scoreboard.

The history books tell us that 555 stands as the records but I'll let Chalke tell you how it was resolved in his book, needless to say he covers the confusion admirably! Delving deeper and deeper into the scorebook the author leaves no stone unturned in his quest to figure out what really happened!

"It is like doing a giant and deadly Su Doku problem, only with a note underneath saying that, to make it harder, a couple of the numbers have been misprinted," he writes.

The book is packed to the brim with information gleamed from numerous sources including newspaper reports and player accounts helping to piece together the details in the historic match. Not only does Chalke include the complete run down of the innings but a detailed account of history between the two counties, the partnerships that broke the 555 record, Essex's use and neglect of Leyton as a county ground and of course a background to the players of the day.

Five Five Five is a cracking book that, despite the inevitability of the record, delivers a wonderfully tense lead up to the record 555 runs. Highly recommended, a percentage of the proceeds from this book are going to the Yorkshire Archives Committee to support the preservation of the county's cricketing heritage. Stephen also informs me that the book is available post free direct from Fairfield Books, priced at £10

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