Girl Power Heads To The Home Of Cricket In Top Of Off By Jason Roche

On The Table Read Magazine, “the best book magazine in the UK“, for all those previously stumped by cricket, Jason Roche’s Top Of Off captures the contemporary zeitgeist of girls encroaching upon a traditionally boys’ sporting pastime.

Top Of Off

But author Jason Roche removes all confusion as his standout novel –Top Of Off – brings into a play a different game … girl power out in the middle.  Less snitches get stitches and more witches on the pitches!  Less damsels in distress and more broads at Lord’s!

The greatest rivalry in sport – the Ashes – is poised at 2-2, the final day of the 5th test on a knife edge, Cricket’s bottom of the 9th, the bases all loaded.  With Australia 9 wickets down and about to chase down England’s total, a top edge goes up … England’s best player, Duane Hanratty, under the ball, ready to take the catch and win the Ashes.

Flash forward and Duane’s youngest daughter Corin has become embroiled in a cricket ball related incident at school, injuring Corkridge’s superstar captain Chad de la Ampelas.  Joined by sister Enid in solidarity to defy all the odds and take on da man, the pair take up the mantle to defend their father’s honour against the might of the most formidable schoolboy cricket team of a generation.

Top Of Off is a moving and hilarious tale of a girls’ cricket team taking on the manly might of the incumbent champion public schoolboy side to defend the honour a fallen hero father.  Armed with an eclectic wagon wheel of ragtag misfits from multiple cultures and led by sisters Enid and Corin, the Shaky High XI grapple with a host of risible challenges, culminating in an action-packed and life-affirming spectacle on the biggest stage of all … the home of cricket, Lord’s.

Jason Roche

Top Of Off is an uplifting, funny, underdog story for anyone who has ever been told they couldn’t achieve something remarkable.  The book attempts to shine a light on the emergence of girls excelling in sports traditionally more synonymous with boys, capturing the blurring of ability, endeavour and the approach to cricket between the genders.  I’ve written this book to make readers laugh and cry in succession, the story of a sibling relationship between two close-knit sisters immersed in the foibles and etiquette unique to cricket, underpinned by the class hierarchy layered across the English schooling landscape.  Top Of Off is dedicated to my two cricketing daughters.

Whether you are a cricket fan or not, this novel will educate and elucidate, the story and screen potential for this popular global game not fully explored and ripe for an escapist and explorative exposé. It’s a fresh take on success and failure, an authentic story of two sisters attempting to channel gender inequality in sport to overcome outlandish challenges with a uniquely contemporary voice, vivid colour and irrepressible energy.  Like The Queen’s Gambit picked up by Netflix, this novel aims to change the perceptions of girls dominating competitive pastimes and introduce the wider world to the game of cricket.

-Jason Roche

Jason Roche is the Award-Winning author of The Boyband Sandwich Trilogy, including the novels How to Murder a Boyband, Smug Dad and How NOT to Murder a Boyband.  His short story ‘The Garden’ was published in multiple national newspapers and received literary accolades including winning the Alan Paton Creative Writing competition.

Find more from Jason Roche now:

X account – @TopOfOffCricket

YouTube – JALEE Productions

Insta – @jasonrocheauthor

Paperback: https://amzn.to/49bUxh1

Hardcover: https://amzn.to/3UACJYs

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