"Bat and Pad" is a collection of writing on Australian cricket and cricketers over the last 200 years (starting in 1804 with the first known reference to cricket in Australia and ending with a poem dedicated to leg spin).

As with most collections some are better than others (cricket fiction and poetry alays tends to bore me stupid so I skipped over the many examples of these) but those which were good included stories by the Banjo Paterson on the cricket of his youth, a whole sections on the immortal Victor Trumper and the Don and the great piece covering the fist fight between Australian selectors Clem Hill and Peter McAlister where McAlister was almost thrown through a second floor window.

I guess "Bat and Pad" is now somewhat rare but it's worth the few dollars if you find it in a 2nd hand bookstore. ( )