SIX AND OUT has been acclaimed by noted cricket authorities as a classic, but even those who have lavished such praise on the book could not have envisaged the improvements in this first fully revised edition. More than 40,000 words have been added, extra photographs and cartoons, and dozens of refinements made after consultations with contributors.

When SIX AND OUT first appeared, nobody could quite understand the format. It was such an unusual grouping of fiction, non-fiction, cartoons, long pieces, small bits, that it was hard to categorise. But when people read the book they invariably ended up with a tremendously satisfying portrait of what cricket is all about. Those dull tour accounts, those bulky encyclopaedias of the game had never conveyed the charm of the game half so effectively.

SIX AND OUT is a book which has succeeded because cricket-lovers relished every word of it. For it is, as one cricketer put it, a book that even people who have never been to a cricket match can enjoy and giggle about. It has enjoyed a wider overseas circulation than any other Australian sporting book since the war and seems certain to become a standard Australian and New Zealand gift book.

Conceived by a man who had doted on cricket since his days in Sydney in "Paddo minor grades", SIX AND OUT has been heavily influenced by readers of the first edition, thousands of whom wrote making suggestions for inclusion. Many of these have been incorporated in this edition. The result is a book of many items but one of unflagging interest. It is a delightful entertainment.