Ashley Gray's book, The Unforgiven, won the cricket book of the year at The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Awards in London.

It's Britain's premier sports book awards, held at The Oval in London - a very posh, black tie event that features the who's who of sports publishing in the UK.

The judges said it was the book they felt "needed to be written the most".

Sir Tim Rice - the lyricist for Andrew Lloyd Webber - presented the cricket gong to Ashley, whose pre-recorded video acceptance speech was played at the ceremony.

Ashley and Newcastle Herald journalist Scott Bevan played together many moons ago in the grand-final winning under-14 Merewether District Cricket Club team in the 1978-79 season.

Ashley told Scott that winning the award was "a great honour for a former Merewether High School boy".

"Most of all, I am glad the award has helped publicise the plight of the West Indies rebel cricketers," Ashley said.

"Writing The Unforgiven was a lot of hard yakka. I interviewed over 150 ex-cricketers and their families and travelled all over the Caribbean - so it's wonderful to be acknowledged. And it's lovely to be recognised in the home of cricket, not something I could have ever imagined as a Merewether DCC youngster fielding on the boundary at Myamblah Crescent."

And it's this fielding on the boundary issue that reignited the cricket banter between Scott and Ashley. You see, Scott was captain of the under-14 team.

Scott bantered to Ashley that "the reason you have become the brilliant writer and observer of cricket you are is because I had you fielding on the boundary, thus giving you time to think and to observe".

"I could have put him in slips. But he would have been so busy watching the ball, he wouldn't have had time to dream and imagine one day becoming a writer," Scott quipped to Topics.

Ashley's book covers the human fallout from West Indies players who embarked on two tours of South Africa during apartheid.

When they returned home, the players were shunned.

As Ashley wrote, some "coped with ostracism by deserting their homelands, others sought refuge in drugs and religion".

As for Scott and Ashley, their friendship has stood the test of time. In some ways, they're still the young lads they once were in that under-14 team.

It's been more than 40 years since the pair won that premiership, but Ashley still calls Scott skipper. Nice that.

We received an alert on Wednesday of a cane toad "brazenly crossing the road" at Mayfield. We wondered whether it was a toad or a frog, or a Frenchman looking for ScoMo. So we sent up a drone.

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