Cricket's Historians

116 Differences in Style firm reached an agreement with J.Whitaker & Sons Ltd (publishers of the famous Almanack of that name) that they should take the Wisden Almanack into their stable. After the death of S.J.Southerton in 1935, the editorship had passed to Wilfrid H.Brookes, another partner in the Cricket Reporting Agency and a general sports reporter. He had worked as a sub-editor on Wisden since 1921. He survived the switch to Whitakers, but only for two editions. Brookes died in Putney in 1955 aged 60. At first glance there appear to be radical changes for the 1938 edition, but in reality, although the various sections have been shunted around – Births & Deaths and Obituaries go from the front of the book to the back for example – the actual content is largely unaltered. Births & Deaths have shrunk from 91 pages to 80; obituaries from 27 pages to 15, but on inspection this is due to a tightening up of the linage and a reduction in the type size, rather than a reduction in the number of words. The Record Section fell from 61 pages to 50, but again very little content is lost. Historians and statisticians were thus largely unaffected by these adjustments, however the actual seasonal reports on individual counties and the match reports were reduced, though each match still had its own page and bowling analyses were still printed in tabular form. One new section was ten pages listing cricket books in print. The cover design changed and the few photographic illustrations were printed on art paper. Whether these largely cosmetic exercises were responsible for an increase in sales, or whether it was due to better marketing by Whitakers is open to question. From the historian/statistician viewpoint, the main sections of the Almanack are the Records section and Births & Deaths. Ashley-Cooper who had created the ‘modern’ concept for both had on his death been succeeded by J.A.H.Catton, as has been mentioned, but Catton was more a journalist than statistician and merely tacked the last twelve months’ figures on to Ashley-Cooper’s tables. J.D.Betham, whose details were given in Chapter 6, continued to assist with the Births & Deaths Section. A new name appeared in the credits in the 1934 edition of Wisden , F.J.C.Gustard.