Cricket's Historians

Roy Webber and the Society of Cricket Statisticians in 1946 Roy Webber was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Statisticians and the back page advert of his Cricket Book Society publication for May 1947 ( The M.C.C. in Australia 1946-47 ) featured a quarterly magazine The Field of Cricket described as ‘the official journal of The Society of Cricket Statisticians, due for publication on June 20 th ’. Webber was now trying to ride too many horses at once. He was the owner of ‘The Cricket Book Society’, the Assistant Secretary of the Statisticians and had just been appointed the scorer for the B.B.C. The Field of Cricket was Webber’s idea and the committee of the Statisticians seemingly allowed him full rein. He had the 48 page publication printed in Hunstanton, but when it appeared the Statisticians had no money to pay the bill, the printers sued Roy Webber; Webber claimed he was simply acting on behalf of the Statisticians’ Committee. A court case ensued. The Statisticians lost and only a desperate appeal to the membership to loan the Society money paid off the printers and legal team’s bills and allowed the Society to continue. Webber resigned from the Society. While all this turmoil was being played out, Webber’s Cricket Book Society folded. Eight booklets were published in 1947 and at the end of that year six of the booklets were re-issued bound as a single hardback book. By then Kenneth M.Arnott of Hunnington, Birmingham had assumed the role of Assistant Secretary to the Society. The Cricket Book Society Pamphlet no.1 was issued in the spring of 1948. It contained career records of all players likely to appear in first-class county cricket in England in 1948. (Padwick’s Bibliography gives 1949 as the publication date – this is incorrect). A News Sheet issued with the pamphlet contains the following announcement: ‘Programme Publications Ltd have published a Cricket Annual this summer under the name of Playfair Books, the editor being Mr Peter A.West, a member of the Society.’ It would seem that this pamphlet was almost the final booklet by the Cricket Book Society. The pamphlet does list five future publications 131