Cricket's Historians

Differences in Style dates of the foundations of the major cricket grounds and the major counties were an important feature of this new section. Readers might amuse themselves by comparing this first ‘Dates’ with the one published in the 2007 edition. The comparison shows how the emphasis has altered over the years. In the 1942 edition, Hubert Preston writes a brief history of the County Championship. In view of the present regulation allowing players to be loaned between counties, it is notable that Preston announces that the County Championship began in 1873 when ‘the farce of men playing for more than one county in a season having been stopped…’ Preston makes no attempt to research the oddities in the ‘official’ list of Champions, but does point out some defects without going to first- hand sources to try and remedy the faults. Preston however does rather criticize the expansion of the Championship after 1890, since the increase in numbers meant that each county could no longer play all the opponents twice. Another new section in 1942 was a complete list of all Test cricketers and every series in which each played. Norman Preston compiled this, whilst E.L.Roberts added an appendix which listed all Test captains. A list of the 244 centuries scored by Jack Hobbs is another interesting compilation, but no author is credited. It was in 1944 that Hubert Preston took over as Editor from Haddon Whitaker; at the same time the publishers changed from Whitakers to Sporting Handbooks. Haddon Whitaker had taken over for the 1940 edition when Brookes resigned, but he was happy to stand aside for Hubert Preston, who was the senior partner of the Cricket Reporting Agency. Preston, born in 1868, had spent 50 years helping in the compilation of Wisden and was now a venerable 74. Profoundly deaf, he was naturally a man of few words and could be considered a safe pair of hands. He was assisted by his son Norman Preston, another partner in the Reporting Agency. In 1944 the first official Index to Wisden was published, by Sporting Handbooks. The compiler was Rex Pogson, who was an expert on Lancashire cricket. Pogson had issued in 1938 Australia v The Counties 123