Cricket's Historians

The Cricketer Magazine had been in control for 35 years when he died on November 30, 1925. His final edition (1925) was over 900 pages in length, twice the size of his first edition in 1891. Stewart Caine, whose details are given in Chapter 3, took over the editorial chair. While Pardon had seen Wisden transformed, Caine, whose reign lasted until 1933, was content to continue the format developed by Pardon. His successor was to see the issuing of just two editions. Sydney James Southerton, the younger son of the famous England cricketer, James Southerton, was born in Mitcham in 1874. He acted as official scorer for the 1893 Australian touring team to England, before joining the Cricket Reporting Agency the following year. Tragically he died during a dinner at The Oval in 1935, having just proposed the toast to ‘Cricket’. Like Caine he was happy to retain the trusted format. The Athletic News Cricket Annual had a change of editorship in 1925 when J.A.H.Catton left and Ivan Sharpe was appointed. Sharpe, a well- known soccer player, had represented Great Britain in the 1912 Olympics and finished his soccer League career with Leeds United in 1923. As a journalist with the Athletic News newspaper he covered a number of sports including soccer and cricket. Historians do not seem to appreciate the mass of information which the Athletic News Annual contained. Its spread was far wider, in terms of English cricket, than Wisden . Looking at the 1928 edition, for example, the following cricket leagues are featured: Bassetlaw, Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Central Lancs, Durham Senior, Glossop, Huddersfield, Lancashire, Liverpool, Lancs & Cheshire, Manchester, North Staffs, North Yorks & South Durham, Ribblesdale, Tyneside, South Lancs, Ulster, West Lancs, and Yorkshire Council. Not only is each of the League tables printed, but in many cases the league averages and/or individual club averages, also the fixtures for the coming season. None of this appears in Wisden and exceedingly little in The Cricketer . Ashley-Cooper’s ‘Feats, Facts and Figures’ section for 1927 is included and supplemented by 14 pages of first-class records and a Who’s Who of the 1928 West Indian tourists. The main rival to the Athletic News publication was the Daily News 109