Cricket's Historians

108 The Cricketer Magazine mentioned in Chapter 5. He enthusiastically embraced the creation of The Cricketer . In the 1922 and 1923 editions he supplied the detailed annual first-class cricket statistics, then after a few seasons, gap produced similar figures after the 1931 summer. By now Arthur Langford had the problem of coping with Home Gordon’s efforts and later commented: ‘He was a real problem. His copy was extremely difficult to read, and he left no room for corrections, which made things exceedingly awkward as he was alarmingly inaccurate. I hope it is not unkind to say that although he mixed with all the great players, English and overseas, covering a period of more than 50 years, he knew very little about the game…He was, too, injudicious, and I do not think it is any secret that the members of the Sussex Committee were fearful of expressing any views within his hearing in case they appeared inaccurately recorded in his articles.’ Returning to the major national cricket annuals, Wisden remained as the dominant publication for cricket statisticians. It had continued to appear through the war years, mainly featuring Public Schools matches. Ashley-Cooper remained in harness, looking after the Births & Deaths section, but with virtually no first-class cricket, the Record Section was put in abeyance. There was, due to war casualties, a very much enlarged Obituary Section. E.B.Noel covered Public Schools, having assumed this role in 1913. Evan Baille Noel was born in 1879; educated at Winchester and Cambridge, he was in the school eleven for three years, but only played for the Freshmen at Cambridge. On coming down he moved into journalism and from 1903 to 1909 was Sporting Editor of The Times . His principal cricket book, entitled Winchester College Cricket , was published in 1926. A 250 page hardback, in the main, it concentrates on Winchester matches against Eton and Harrow. He gave his wife a copy for her birthday! Noel died in London in 1928, he had been Secretary of the Queen’s Club since 1914. The long standing editor of Wisden was still Sydney H.Pardon and he