ANTHONY Gibson, from Langport, has won this year’s Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year award for his edited selection of cricket writing by his father, Alan Gibson.

Alan Gibson was a West Country broadcaster and journalist who reported cricket for The Times from 1967 to 1986 with wit, observation and erudition.

John Arlott called him “quite the most amusing sports writer of his time”, but the public success concealed much private grief, and in his biographical commentary, Anthony Gibson recounts dispassionately his father’s marital problems, the ending of his career as a test match commentator for the BBC and his eventual descent into alcoholism.

“Of Didcot and the Demon – the Cricketing Times of Alan Gibson”, is available on amazon.co.uk, Waterstones or direct from Fairfield Books on 01225-335813.