In a different league - Jim Carnegie

A beamer in Middlesex is someone who flashes his teeth in a broad smile. In Yorkshire, it is a delivery designed to ensure that you have no teeth left to smile with. Crickets north-south divide comes to life in this unique collection of fresh, entertaining stories gathered over nearly 50 years by a Manchester-based cockney cricket enthusiast.Most cricket followers concede that a Surrey-bred, mediocre pie chucker with an Oxbridge degree and four initials is traditionally more likely to be selected for England than any world class seamer from north of Luton. Few, however, until now, would be able to fully appreciate the chasm between a sociable friendly in rural Berkshire and going to war in League cricket on either side of the Pennines. The odds on the largely talentless, often pulseless, Old Quintinians ever winning were on a par with producing quadruplets, at 600,0001. Those on emerging unscathed when being as well protected as a soft-backed turtle, after skirmishes with the fearsome Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Roy Gilchrist and Andy Roberts were similar. In keeping with its general tone, In a Different League presents any relevant cricketing trivia light-heartedly, rather than in the stuffy manner of conventional almanacs. Some opinions could even be considered controversial.Those featured range from amateurs who couldnt bat an eyelid or catch someones name to dozens of big names, including three captains of England.