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The Rules of Backyard Cricket

Jock Serong

4.06 · Rating details · 1,626 ratings · 247 reviews

It starts in a suburban backyard with Darren Keefe and his older brother, sons of a fierce and gutsy single mother. The endless glow of summer, the bottomless fury of contest. All the love and hatred in two small bodies poured into the rules of a made-up game.

Darren has two big talents: cricket and trouble. No surprise that he becomes an Australian sporting star of the bad ...more

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Paperback, 304 pages

Published August 29th 2016 by Text Publishing

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· 1,626 ratings · 247 reviews

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Jan 12, 2017 Phrynne rated it really liked it

This was a very interesting one! To start with, the main character is telling the story from the boot of a car where he is bound and gagged and shot through one knee. Not a good way to be.
His story begins in the backyard of his childhood home, playing cricket with his older brother and then carries us forward through the life he was living until just before things turned really bad. Hence the kneecapping and the car boot.
It was all quite fascinating! The author writes beautifully about a childho ...more

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Mar 20, 2017 PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: sports fans, crime fans, cricket tragics

Shelves: mystery-crime-thriller, kindle, australian-author, aa, fiction-adult, arc-netgalley-done

4.5★
“Sport goes to the heart of everything. If you can reach inside it and f**k with its innards, you’re actually messing with society . . . Bigger than drugs. Bigger than hookers and porn, because people shy away, they can smell the desperation. But the same people will go on consuming sport long after they know it’s rotten to the core. They’re insatiable.”

It could be any sport, but this is Melbourne and this is cricket. You've probably heard, when someone cheats, “But that’s not cricket!” mean ...more

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May 24, 2016 Marianne rated it it was amazing

“I no longer know where this ritual came from: the bat, the tennis ball, the twelve metres of shorn grass. There’s a line somewhere in any childhood. Before the line, all knowledge and habit is contributed by adults. How to eat with a fork, wash your face, wipe your bum. On the other side of the line, the magpie child starts to gather and collect from everywhere. How to swear. How to kiss a girl. Where you go to die. Backyard cricket must have been absorbed on the parental side of that line”

The “I no longer know where this ritual came from: the bat, the tennis ball, the twelve metres of shorn grass. There’s a line somewhere in any childhood. Before the line, all knowledge and habit is contributed by adults. How to eat with a fork, wash your face, wipe your bum. On the other side of the line, the magpie child starts to gather and collect from everywhere. How to swear. How to kiss a girl. Where you go to die. Backyard cricket must have been absorbed on the parental side of that line”

The Rules of Backyard Cricket is the second novel by Australian author, editor, surfer and former lawyer, Jock Serong. Darren Keefe lies in the boot of a car speeding along the Geelong road towards Melbourne, bound at the wrists and ankles with cable ties, a bullet wound to the knee, sharing the space with a shovel and bags of quicklime. To pass the time as he heads towards his (almost certain and very probably violent) death, he recalls the events of his life that have led to his current, unenviable situation.

“It’s pointless, this. Clinging to memories. Rewinding them, replaying them. But it’s compulsive: I feel them rushing forward to be counted, the people and occurrences whose very existence depends on me recalling them”. Darren’s thoughts turn to where it all began: endless summers in their Altona backyard, bowling to his brother, Wally, older by almost two years, on their carefully mown cricket pitch, with their single mother, Pamela, supporting their every foray into the cricket world.

Darren’s unique perspective on his life (that of someone likely to soon die) ensures honesty, self deprecation and quite a bit of black humour. He acknowledges the differences between the brothers: “It’s the Big Guy who sets us on the paths of our typecasting. Wally as responsible, grave: a leader. Me as a force of nature: a talented freak with no mooring” and “One columnist says he’d pay to watch Darren Keefe because something amazing might happen, but he’d bet the house on Wally Keefe, because the necessary will happen”.

Serong begins each chapter with Darren’s efforts to unbind himself, to effect an escape. As Darren reflects on their lives, their careers successes and failures, plenty of topical issues affecting professional sports are examined from an intimate perspective: corruption and match fixing, the prevalence of drug taking, sledging, Australia’s love affair with cricket and the tolerance of unacceptable behaviour in sportsmen. “It’s a euphemism, larrikin, a kind of willing blindness about character flaws”. Serong also touches on some perennial themes: loyalty, sibling rivalry, violence, sacrifice, infidelity and dementia.

While it is not necessary to be an expert about the game or even a fan to enjoy this novel, a rudimentary knowledge of cricket will add to the appreciation of the story. But, as Serong states in his acknowledgements, the story could have been written with any professional sport as background. And the goings-on he describes are all too believable. Serong gives the reader a plot that at first seems predictable, but unexpected revelations will elicit gasps and a few twists will keep the pages turning to the shocking conclusion.

Serong’s descriptive prose is wonderfully evocative: “…a black and silver knot of photographers and equipment completely obscures the entryway from the arrivals hall” and “…I care a great deal about the idea of a father. A dad. So I collect the little clues she leaves. I go through private drawers sometimes, searching for his identity. I build him painstakingly from these twigs and straws, but the shape he takes always feels hollow” are examples. And another:

“As he waits, he’s a helmeted statue, silent and implacable. I’ve never seen him brush a fly in that state. They could wander over his face, even up his nostrils and he wouldn’t know. It seems like languor if you don’t know what to look for. But it’s the invisible building of energy and focus to a point of detonation, a form of biomechanical perfection only revealed in slow motion”

Fans of Serong’s work will not be disappointed; readers new to his work will want to seek out his first novel, Quota. This is literary crime at its best. Both funny and tragic, this is a brilliant read.
...more

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Feb 01, 2018 Carolyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-author, family, 2018, sport

This is the tale of two brothers, growing up together in Melbourne, playing backyard cricket and going on to International careers in cricket. But they are two very different brothers, Wally serious and conscientious who would go on to be the team captain and Darren the larrikin and party boy who would go on to be the team clown. Unfortunately for Darren, this haphazard life and neglect of the people around him leads to serious consequences and at the opening of the book, he finds himself tied u ...more

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Sep 25, 2016 Brenda rated it liked it

Shelves: 2016-release, mystery, crime, aussie-authors, reviewing-by-request, arc, own-read, sent-by-publisher

3.5★s

Darren Keefe and his older brother Wally had been keen cricketers from a very young age. Hitting the ball backward and forward in their back yard, they learned everything they could while the competition between them was fierce. Their mum was a constant support; a single mother she worked hard to supply them with all they needed to have a happy life growing up.

As the boys grew into men, their propensity for cricket continued. Wally and Darren both ended up in senior teams and while Wally we ...more

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Aug 26, 2018 Andrea rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: australian-author, challenge

You don’t have to be a cricket fanatic to read and enjoy this book, but I think it would help to at least understand a bit about the game. Luckily I went through a cricket-mad phase as a kid, and this helped to pull me through the sometimes-dense descriptions of matches, styles and administration that appeared throughout the story.

Wally and Darren Keefe grew up in a single-parent family in the western suburbs of Melbourne. They had a large backyard and an interested and supportive mum, so both w ...more

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Sep 28, 2016 Cam rated it it was amazing

Shit, that was good. The end

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Aug 29, 2019 Marty Fried rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What an unusual book! It starts off with a bang - a guy tied up in the trunk of a car with a gunshot hole in his knee on the way to some place, presumably his death - calmly telling the story of his life, and hopefully how he ended up where he is. That got my attention, but it was downhill for me for over half the book. It was a lot about cricket, a sport I know absolutely nothing about and thought was much tamer than it appears to be in this book. I skimmed over a lot of it, trying to gleam as ...more

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May 23, 2016 Text Publishing rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, australian, fiction, thriller, sport

‘Readers who have fallen in love with Australian mysteries, thrillers and crime novels have a whole world to discover with fantastic authors bringing the southern hemisphere to life…As in the UK, cricket is a national passion in Australia and Jock Serong delves into the murky world of professional sportsmen in his crime novel, The Rules of Backyard Cricket.’
Jane Harper, Daily Mail

‘Merges my childhood dreamscape of hot days and sporting ambition with a page-turning thriller set within rot of pro ...more

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Oct 06, 2016 Angela Savage rated it it was amazing

The Rules of Backyard Cricket had me in its grip from the first bounce. No amount of sledging from my opponents (read 'family members demanding my time and attention') could distract me from its thrall. Even for someone as disinterested as me in the actual sport of cricket, this novel is an absolute winner.

The back cover blurb that draws a parallel between The Rules of Backyard Cricket and Peter Temple's best work is no exaggeration. Serong pulls off what I consider an Australian crime writer's ...more

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Aug 02, 2016 Paul rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-thrillers, literary

The Rules of Backyard Cricket – Brutal and Brilliant Literary Crime

Jock Serong is the award winning writer of The Rules of Backyard Cricket, which is one of the most brutal and brilliant literary crime novels of the year. Serong clearly is one the boldest new voices in Australian literary circles and The Rules of Backyard Cricket should endear him to a wider audience here in England.

Darren & Wally Keefe are talented cricketers who grew up playing out in the backyard, using anything they could fo The Rules of Backyard Cricket – Brutal and Brilliant Literary Crime

Jock Serong is the award winning writer of The Rules of Backyard Cricket, which is one of the most brutal and brilliant literary crime novels of the year. Serong clearly is one the boldest new voices in Australian literary circles and The Rules of Backyard Cricket should endear him to a wider audience here in England.

Darren & Wally Keefe are talented cricketers who grew up playing out in the backyard, using anything they could for bat and ball. Whether it was using the fence as the boundary, the lazy pet dog as a fielder and the tree stump as the wicket, this was their world. Where there was a fierce sibling rivalry, even though Darren did look up to his elder brother Wally. Brought up by their single mother who works all the hours God sends to provide for all their needs, and especially for their cricket.

From the outset it is clear, that even though the Keefe boys are talented, Darren and Wally are clearly very different people. Darren had two massive talents, cricket and trouble, both came to him easily, whereas Wally was more studious of the game, always calm under pressure and would not cause trouble, ever.

Darren is the sort of character that has always seem to have got away with whatever trouble he caused, until the time we meet him, when he is middle aged, in the boot of a car, gagged, cable tied and with a bullet in his knee. He knows he is heading for the end, as he begins to reflect on his life and that of his brother.

This literary crime is written in a fine tradition of suspense novels, with brilliant and clear prose which brings to life the gripping narrative. Throughout the novel we observe everything from sibling rivalry, winner takes all, masculinity, the trappings of celebrity and humanity. How even as we approach our last breath we are looking for those few extra moments.

An enjoyable and intriguing read that really draws the reader in, Jock Serong really is a new talent we should all be taking note of.
...more

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Aug 12, 2016 Karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, australian, review-books, crime, ebook

When Jock Serong's debut novel QUOTA was released it was the first crime fiction book I could recall using over-permit limit Abalone catches as a central theme. The incorporation of crime and cricket therefore shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise in his second novel, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET. If both of these books are anything to go by, this is an author with a keen eye for an unusual but extremely workable scenario.

The depiction of cricket, from the Keefe brother's backyard cont When Jock Serong's debut novel QUOTA was released it was the first crime fiction book I could recall using over-permit limit Abalone catches as a central theme. The incorporation of crime and cricket therefore shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise in his second novel, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET. If both of these books are anything to go by, this is an author with a keen eye for an unusual but extremely workable scenario.

The depiction of cricket, from the Keefe brother's backyard contests, through to their District, State and ultimately Australian representation is brilliant. The careful use of tactics everywhere, the effects of micro-waving tennis balls for the backyard form, everything about the all consuming nature of the game and it's subtleties is gloriously depicted. The way that this sport provides a way forward for the two sons of a fierce single mother, her involvement, her constant presence behind them, and the dawning realisation that Darren comes to, of the sacrifices that their mother must have made, are perfect.

Which does not sit well with the opening of this novel - starting as it does with a trussed up Darren in the boot of a car, at night, being driven somewhere to pay a hefty price for something. As the novel starts to switch backwards and forwards through the boy's childhood, and Darren's current predicament, a picture starts to emerge of two different and yet similar brothers. Darren's always been a bit of a loose canon. A fierce player, erratic and undisciplined, he had potential and yet, ending up in the boot of a car has some sort of inevitability about it. The older brother, Wally, is a quieter, more reflective boy and man. A less flashy cricketer, he's still good enough to follow the same trajectory. Wally's the brother who makes it to Australian Captain. He's got the big house, the travelling lifestyle, the testimonial dinner on retirement. Darren was the one always in trouble for breaking team rules, the one with nothing much to fall back on when injury takes away his big chance at cricketing fame and fortune.

There's a lot about the tensions between the brothers that come from them simply being brothers, and then there's that which comes from the intricacies of the cricket world. The difference between being a respected Test Player, and a bit of a one-trick showman in the shorter forms for example. Then there's the question marks over the game itself rearing their ugly heads as the two men are stepping away from the game.

All the way along there's Darren's voice - looking back at their childhood and the lives that they lived, and at his present - in that boot with its inevitable sense of doom, approached with determination and a calm level-headedness that's somehow apt. Darren might have been a mercurial customer in his youth, but he's no fool, and he's not prepared to lie in that boot and take what's coming to him without an argument.

Really, everything in THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET is brilliant. As the novel progresses, slowly and steadily, like a tactical battle against a good opposition test team, Darren works his way through his options, playing the timeframe, working the percentages. He's also calmly analysing what got him into this situation, and, as in any good cricket game, sometimes you can see the moves being played out, and sometimes they come straight out of the back of the bowler's hand.

For a cricket obsessed reader, fond of the assertion that test cricket is a metaphor for life, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET made me wonder about that just for a moment. Darren, Wally and their mum used the game as a way out of a difficult background, something that gave them a chance of a better future. What they got was more like a rain-affected draw, in the final game of a tied five day test series. For this reader though, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET was nearly as good as 5 nil whitewash, home series defeat of the old enemy.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi... ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Bridget rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-bookshelves, favorites

This book is great. There. I could just stop there, but I'll attempt more. This is the story of two brothers, Wally and Darren Keefe, cricket obsessed, playing constantly in the hot Australian sun in their backyard throughout their childhood, trying to get into better and better teams and generally just living for the game. Their mum is always there, supporting and helping out, trying to ease the path and always with their backs. Cricket, however, is as rife with dodgy players, scams and all man ...more

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Jun 22, 2016 Kristina rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed, 2016, fiction, netgalley-arc

This book starts out with our protagonist shot in the knee, tied & bound and locked in the trunk of a moving car and alternates between that and everything in his life that led him up to that point. Cricket plays a major role in this story; I know nothing at all about cricket but it really didn't matter, that wasn't an obstacle to reading and enjoying this book. This was a fairly interesting, well-written, worthwhile read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Text Publishing for an advance copy of this in ...more

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Sep 23, 2019 Kim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books

Setting: Melbourne, Australia. This is the tale of two brothers, Darren and Wally Keefe, told by younger brother Darren as, now middle-aged, he is travelling in the boot of a car, tied up, to what he believes is his impending death. Each chapter starts with a short 'update' on his journey followed by an episode of the brothers' development from playing cricket in their own backyard to success in local, State and national cricket sides. However, their rise to fame is at a cost to family and relat ...more

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Nov 21, 2016 Andy Weston rated it liked it

Shelves: crime, australia

I think it is very difficult to write quality sporting fiction and that is evident in that there is so little of it. There have been some outstanding books based around cricket though, Chinaman, Netherlands, and this year, Selection Day. This however, is not one of them.

The book is at its strongest in the first few chapters when the boyhood of Wally and Darren is described. There are several amusing passages and a good insight into the coming of age of two cricket mad boys in the Melbourne subu ...more

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Sep 02, 2017 Suzie rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-readers, australian

4 1/2 stars. Great storytelling with some fabulous nostalgia thrown in.

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Jun 17, 2016 Trevor rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebook, mystery-and-crime, australian, own-copy, netgalley

The story of two brothers growing up, on the surface one upstanding and straight, the other a larrikin, but all is not as it seems. Things are remembered from childhood and resurface when adults, with devastating effect.

This is a great novel, with a strong well paced narrative, and it wasn't until the last chapter or two that I caught onto the twist, which when it eventuated was a confirmation of my thoughts.

Based in the world of cricket, though it could have been Aussie rules or rugby, you do n ...more

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Jul 04, 2017 Calzean rated it it was amazing

Shelves: author-australia, culture-australia, crime-thriller-mystery

The Keefe brothers are extremely talented cricketers who both eventually represent their country. Wally, the older brother, is focused, aloof, ambitious and has a cold, steely public face. Only his younger brother Darren knows the short fuse his brother has. Darren is a more aggressive batsman, a larrikin, and becomes a bad boy known for his drug and alcohol fuelled benders.
The book highlights the pressure of high class sportsman, the way some of them go off the road and into a life of self obs ...more

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Dec 06, 2017 Barbara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, domestic-drama, 5-star-reads-2017

This was an immensely powerful book, which resonates with me still. And this is from someone who knows nothing about cricket. It was marketed as a literary crime book, and I suppose it is, but it is also much more - a meditation on sibling rivalry, the perils of growing up poor and fatherless, the absolute passion that drives boys to succeed (in this case in cricket), and an absorbing behind-the-scenes look at the intrigues that drive the machine that is world cricket. It is so much more than th ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Anne Forrest rated it really liked it

Wow what an eye opener. A look at the lives,relationships, family dynamics & ways of others in the world out there & consequences that follow life style choices & actions taken.
Funny, tragic,suspenseful .... You don't have to be a cricket fan to enjoy this. ...more

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May 04, 2018 Louise rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-setting-author, holiday-reading

An easy, entertaining read charting the rise and fall of an Australian sporting family tragically torn apart by greed, corruption, betrayal and unimaginable disloyality.
This is a title for my 'holiday reading' shelf if ever there was one. ...more

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Sep 03, 2018 Megan Maurice rated it it was amazing

Wow, what a heartwrenching book. It wasn’t at all what I expected, but I loved it all the same. Beautifully crafted from start to finish, with so many twists and turns right to the very last page. Brilliant.

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Jul 31, 2018 Patrick rated it really liked it

As a lover of cricket (and you don't have to be to like this book) I really enjoyed Serong's second novel. Very well constructed with excellent flow throughout. I would have given it 5 stars except for its unnecessary, at times, very poor language. Apart from that this book is a gripping thriller. If you are someone who enjoys dialogue don't be put off with the first 40 pages as the conversations begin to flow after a few dozen pages. Not withstanding that the first 40 pages are excellent. Treme ...more

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Mar 20, 2020 Fran Whiteman rated it really liked it

Great book, though not what I was thinking it would be like (only read it because my cricket mad family rated it so high x) Good flow & hard to put down. I will be interested to read another of this author’s books in hope he writes all his books so well.

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Mar 22, 2020 Denise Simons rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Denise by: Helen Wood

I've just finished reading 'The Rules of Backyard Cricket' and am reeling from the end which I think was inevitable, but why did Jock Serong give such a heavy burden to his main character? Darren was a hapless larrikin with questionable morals but whose devotion to his family is steadfast.

I don't want to give away the end but I need to say that I found the book thoroughly engaging and I became invested in the characters very readily and really cared about Wally and Darren and their mum, the par ...more

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Jan 25, 2018 Craig Sisterson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime, australia

I've often wondered why there aren't more crime novels set in the sporting world; sports spiderweb into the lives of so many people, in ways big and small, and there is so much passion and such an array of competing pressures and conflicting interests (and increasingly in recent decades, big big money), that it seems very ripe for well-written tales at the darker end of the literature spectrum.

I was a bit slow on grabbing a copy of THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET, the second novel from Ned Kelly I've often wondered why there aren't more crime novels set in the sporting world; sports spiderweb into the lives of so many people, in ways big and small, and there is so much passion and such an array of competing pressures and conflicting interests (and increasingly in recent decades, big big money), that it seems very ripe for well-written tales at the darker end of the literature spectrum.

I was a bit slow on grabbing a copy of THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET, the second novel from Ned Kelly Award-winning crime writer Jock Serong. I finally got to it this year, and man, was it a superb, nuanced read that blended crime and sport along with many other fascinating and authentically rendered themes (toxic masculinity, suburban life, coming-of-age stories, and more).

I grew up playing cricket in New Zealand, it was my summer sport. I'd play it on various fields and corners of our school (on the concrete if the grass was too wet), in friends' driveways, in the 'nets' at a local park, and on the field on Saturday mornings. I was never a star, but I loved it. We'd play with full teams of 11-a-side, and as few as three people total, shifting the rules and parameters to fit (walls as back-stops, hit-and-run, six-and-out, shrubs as close-in fielders, one-hand-one-bounce, etc).

So there was a lovely sense of nostalgia for me reading about the Keefe brothers growing up with cricket as a shared and antagonistic passion, how they'd get the backyard set-up for their games, how they'd get ultra-competitive with each other, imagining days when they would play at the highest level (my friends and I would commentate as if we were in a team alongside Martin Crowe, Sir Richard Hadlee, and international greats like Viv Richards, Ian Botham, and Javed Miandad).

Serong captures that sense of antipodean suburban childhood brilliantly, in a very authentic and layered way. He writes in a literary rather than airport thriller manner, with prose that delights as much as the situations and characters it reveals. Darren and Wally Keefe are brothers, but in a Cain and Abel way. Brought up by a single mother in the suburbs, cricket is something they both excel at, driving each other to greater feats even as they try to tear each other apart in the backyard. Darren is the loose cannon, Wally the more circumspect. They both start elbowing their way into representative teams at a very young age, with plenty of success on the pitch and varying successes of of it.

THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET is an absorbing, brilliant read. It build and builds as we discover the path Darren took to being cable-tied and gun-shot in the boot of a car driving out of the city into the Australian bush. A place with plenty of space to bury bodies that'll never be found.

There's plenty here for fans of cricket to love, with tales of on-field heroics and off-field pressures, as well as interesting insights into how the professional game is run, for good and bad. A peek behind the curtain, somewhat. But even if you're not a cricket fan or sportslover, I think anyone who likes a tense crime tale or just a good, beautifully written novel with superb characters and themes, will find plenty to admire and love between these covers. (Cover point and extra cover? Sorry, cricket joke).

Serong delves into the myth-making around sporting heroes, the pressures put on players by themselves and everyone else around them, and the high stakes when a game is more than a game. He has crafted characters that ring so very true as individuals, while being symbolic of greater themes.

THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET triggered lots of questions for me as I read, interesting thoughts about life and the choices we make. What price success? How much do we really understand about what our parents may have sacrificed for us? How important is talent compared to maturity and application? How many chances should somebody get? Is it ever too late to repent?

A brilliant novel that was deservedly shortlisted for the Edgar Awards last year, after being released in the United States. My advice: go and grab a copy, and slap it on top of your TBR pile. ...more

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Mar 10, 2020 Rachel rated it really liked it

Loved this book! It’s marketed saying you don’t need to be a cricket lover to read it. I disagree with this 100%

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Oct 11, 2016 Bruce Gargoyle rated it liked it

Shelves: annoying-characters, bullies, drugs-and-drug-use, death-and-dying, hefty, parenting, secrets, adult-fiction, body-parts, arc-reviews

I received a copy of this title from the publisher via Netgalley.

Ten Second Synopsis:
As he is driven, tied up in the boot of a car, to his probable grisly death, a man reflects on how his life choices led him to this moment. Also, there's a lot of cricket.

Not being known for having a deep and abiding love of cricket, some of you may be wondering why on Earth I would have been interested in reading a book that clearly states that cricket will be involved in the story. Well, Judgey McJudgerson, ev I received a copy of this title from the publisher via Netgalley.

Ten Second Synopsis:
As he is driven, tied up in the boot of a car, to his probable grisly death, a man reflects on how his life choices led him to this moment. Also, there's a lot of cricket.

Not being known for having a deep and abiding love of cricket, some of you may be wondering why on Earth I would have been interested in reading a book that clearly states that cricket will be involved in the story. Well, Judgey McJudgerson, even though I find watching professional cricket interminably boring (except for Big Bash...that's only mildly boring), Backyard Cricket, as every Australian knows, is a far more interesting game. And so I decided to give this one a go.

I am in two minds.

The book flips between Darren's present predicament of being locked, against his will, in a car boot, zooming toward probable death (or at least social unpleasantness), and his entire life story before the present moment, beginning with his and his brother's exploits as young cricketers. As well as dastardly deeds, violence, gambling, untimely death, failed relationships, secrecy and betrayal, there is an awful lot of cricket in this book.

An awful lot of cricket.

From the backyard variety to the professional international circuit, this book is chock full of cricketing parlance.

I did not particularly enjoy the cricket bits. Of which there were a lot.

I did, however, enjoy the suspenseful, stuck-in-the-boot-on-the-way-to-unsightly-death bits and there were enough of these to keep me reading. The redeeming bit of the story for me was definitely the final few chapters which featured only minor cricket symbolism, but a lot of excitement and danger and a hugely satisfying, ambiguous-but-not-really ending that only a mastermind of bookish misery could concoct.

Well played, Jock Serong.

If you enjoy reading about cricket and you love suspense and backstabbing and secrecy and so on as well - my, you'll be in for a treat with this one.

And just in time for cricket season, too. ...more

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Feb 12, 2017 Rob Kitchin rated it it was amazing

The Rules of Backyard Cricket is a brilliant slice of literary Australian noir. The story is told through twin narratives. The first, which opens each chapter, details the attempt by Darren Keefe – a bad-boy of Australian cricket – to free himself from the confines of a car boot. The second charts the childhood and careers of Darren and Wally, his elder brother who secures a place in the Australian national team and eventually becomes captain. Throughout their careers the Keefe brothers experien ...more

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About Jock Serong

Jock Serong

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Jock Serong lives and works on the far southwest coast of Victoria. He was a practising lawyer when he wrote Quota and is currently a features writer, and the editor of Great Ocean Quarterly. He is married with four children, who in turn are raising a black dog, a rabbit and an unknown number of guinea pigs. Quota was his first novel.

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“The outfield's billiard green: no bare patches, no flowers. The things that are painted white-the sightscreen, the pickets around the boundary-are so white it hurts. The hoses and the boundary line are white. The entire playing surface is perfectly flat and level. And in the middle of the ground, across that wide carpet of perfect grass, the holy of holies.
A turf wicket.” — 2 likes

“Rather than taking this as an indication that perceptive people can see my faults, I take it as a warning to avoid perceptive people at all costs.” — 1 likes

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