Review — The Three Quicks by Trevor Auger

English batsman Mike Gatting infamously labelled the Hadlee-led New Zealand test bowling attack of 1986 as "like the World XI at one end, and the Ilford Second XI at the other". It perhaps wasn't the wisest thing to say — Gatting's side went on to lose the series, our first series win touring the UK, after valuable contributions from every one of the Kiwi bowlers in the team.

But Gatting's comment undeniably had some truth to it. In the past, New Zealand's fast bowling stocks have often lacked world-class depth. Instead, New Zealand's trademark 'dibbly dobbly' units routinely featured canny slow-medium-pace workers — Martin Sneddon, Chris Harris, Gavin "The Postman" Larsen — stepping in to fill the void.

For those who vividly remember those fallow periods, The Three Quicks takes on an added resonance and poignancy. This thorough, well-researched, and well-written book by Trevor Auger, serves as a timely reminder that having not one, but three fast bowlers ranked amongst the best in the world at the same time has been something rare and special, with the Black Caps now at the tail end of a golden age in our test cricketing history.

Auger keeps the central narrative thread squarely focused on reporting matches throughout, with The Three Quicks subsequently aimed more at the patient test cricket purists over casual white ball enthusiasts with shorter attention spans. Heavily results and statistics-focused, it follows Boult, Southee and Wagner's performances, game by game, series by series, and harks back to a time when cricket almanacs were poured over, and test cricket wasn't staring down the existential threats it now faces.

The Three Quicks doesn't really dwell on personal details (salacious or otherwise). One passage stands out, as Tim Southee describes how he felt after being left out of the third test on the ill-fated 2019 tour of Australia:

"You never want to miss a test match, and I was disappointed. But I did my best not to show it in front of the team and to contribute as best I could."

It's an intriguingly candid admission that adds a bit of spice, but other personal accounts are few and far between elsewhere in the book.

That's surprising, considering the author had access to his subjects, as he describes in the introduction. But the views and anecdotes they presumably shared don't really emerge. Instead, The Three Quicks relentlessly analyses the games the bowlers contributed to almost exclusively throughout its 290 pages, leaving the performances of Boult, Southee and Wagner almost to speak for themselves. (And because it's so clearly aimed at test aficionados, the reader will know so much of this detail already.)

This means we're not left with any new insights about these special players, unlike the raw and revealing recent biography of Ross Taylor, Black and White.

Despite this, The Three Quicks remains an enjoyable read because it reminds you of the enormity of this holy trinity's almost unprecedented achievements, from their central roles in our inspirational rise to the World Club finals of 2015 and 2019 (played at Lords, a ground which Boult dryly observes 'used to be' his favourite), through to some iconic home and away test series wins, a brief stint as the top ICC test team in the world and of course, that inaugural World Test Championship triumph.

It is ultimately a chance to bask again in the glory of this extraordinary era of consistent success, providing a level of exacting detail that brings memories rushing back. And that experience is all the more relevant as Wagner calls time and relegates this imperial era of NZ fast bowling to the history books.

Let's hope in his wake, we've also left the Ilford XI comparisons behind.

Reviewed by Chris Long