Cricket's Historians

Chapter 9 Roy Webber and the Society of Cricket Statisticians The Edwardian era has been designated the ‘Golden Age’ of cricket; however in terms of spectators attending Test and County matches in England the ten years directly following the Second World War were the most popular. The crowds who flocked to the matches arranged by the overseas tourists were quite extraordinary, especially the Australians of 1948 under Bradman, but even the rather lower key New Zealanders of 1949 attracted the public in huge numbers to both their Tests and County games. In 1947 three million people watched first-class cricket; in 1948 the Australians made a profit of £75,000 – more than double that of any previous tour and, most tellingly, the New Zealanders made a profit of £15,000, despite only having four Tests, each restricted to three days. Every previous New Zealand tour had recorded a loss. The publishing of cricket books boomed. A simple measurement gives an idea in comparison to the 1930s. The Australian tours of 1930, 1934 and 1938 resulted, according to Padwick, in 14, 14 and 11 titles respectively. The tours of 1948 and 1953 created 31 and 29 items. The South African trip of 1935 had just three items listed in Padwick; the 1947 tour realised 12. Many of the books and booklets in these numbers were simply popular works of only passing consequence to the serious statistician or historian – though every publication contains something of value, even if the value is a negative. Its very existence is worthy of note. The previous chapters have featured the handful of cricket historians and statisticians whose 125