Simon Hughes, by his own admission, was a journeyman cricketer. Although he was once very nearly considered good enough to play for England, he spent most of his time touring round the English county cricket grounds for Middlesex. A Lot of Hard Yakka is his recollection of his time as a county cricketer, taking in memories of his Middlesex debut, pre-season training, twelfth man duties and living in digs. All in all, it's well-written, anecdotal and very amusing as you'd expect from a man who has now gone on to better things as a cricket columnist and as Channel 4's cricket analyst. The best thing about this book, as with Garry Nelson's "Left Foot Forward", is that it's written by someone who was never a star, never thought he'd play for England in front of 100,000 people and can show you the reality of playing professional sport. Away from the glitz which can surround the top international players, the life of the journeyman is portrayed as quite dour and decidedly unglamorous. Hughes' stories of having to look after the jock strap of Wayne Daniel (Middlesex's big West Indian fast bowler) as part of his twelfth man duties makes you realise this. Even if you don't normally buy sports auto-biographies, ir even if you're not that into cricket, you should have a look at this. You'll never watch a cricket match in the same way again.
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