Cricket's Historians

130 Roy Webber and the Society of Cricket Statisticians about Brodribb: ‘One was always excited by the prospect of a visit from Gerald (he was such an engaging character) but one was also a trifle apprehensive. To be interrogated by him was like an extensive session of Mastermind. Questions were asked at an alarming speed on a vast range of topics. It was impossible to keep up with such a human dynamo.’ Brodribb’s second booklet for the Cricket Book Society was Some Memorable Bowling . It was a mirror of his book on Innings, with the obvious and the obscure mingling. Webber used the back cover of this book to print a piece which was headed in block capitals ‘NOTICE!’ and began with, ‘There is a great deal of controversy over the question of the “ranking” of first-class matches prior to 1939.’ This point had exercised minds in the columns of The Cricketer in the 1930s, when Gustard had some interesting comments to make. It has already been noted that Webber’s knowledge of cricket history was superficial and the remainder of the remarks he makes in this ‘Notice’ demonstrate exactly how naïve he was. He appears to consider all matches played in the West Indies of doubtful first-class status, as well as matches by Tasmania and Western Australia; on the other hand also of supposedly doubtful status are matches played by Northants before 1905 and Worcestershire before 1899, when one cannot think of any other ‘expert’ who would remotely believe either county were deemed worthy of first-class status before those seasons. On the other hand, two months prior to Brodribb’s book on bowling, Webber had published The Cricket Season of 1946. A Statistical Review . It is an excellent summary, with an alphabetical list of seasonal averages for all first-class players, plus the figures given on a county by county basis and other useful data – Mr Brodribb’s help is acknowledged. It is however worth noting that the Society of Cricket Statisticians also published an alphabetical list of first-class seasonal averages for 1946 – Tony Weigall being the principal compiler. It would appear that the two organisations were on a collision course, but