Cricket's Historians

Roy Webber and the Society of Cricket Statisticians final one in 1953 for the Australian tourists. The brochures gave good pen pictures of the tourists and the possible candidates for the England Test side of the year, as well as photographs of each player. One of the projected books by the Cricket Book Society which seemed destined to remain the author’s pipe dream was entitled The Blue Book of Cricket Records . In 1951, under the Playfair banner, Webber’s dream turned to reality. The Playfair Book of Cricket Records was published in the Spring. It ran to 320 pages, 9½'' by 6'', hardback bound on very good quality paper. The retail price was 25 shillings – an ordinary cricketing biography of 1951 cost half that amount, on the other hand Parker’s new history of cricket (to be described in the next chapter) cost 30 shillings. The Cricketer review of the new book was effusive: ‘No doubt Mr Webber will receive letters from critics pointing out this and that; some of their suggestions may be of use, much of their criticism will arise from the unhappy feeling that this remarkable book has rendered all their private researches useless. Indeed, no one will henceforth dare to refer to any new record without a quick glance at one of those numerous pages; all disputes and arguments can be settled in a flash, and there will be no excuse for the publication of inaccurate statements.’ John Arlott in the 1952 edition of Wisden is more cautious: ‘All books of statistics contain their errors and this one is not free from them. Thus, the eventual standing of the book must depend on the issue of further editions, which should correct the errors and keep the information up to date. In these circumstances the book’s bulk and ambitious scope will make it both authoritative and unique.’ Under Webber’s name in the Introduction appear two separate dates viz: Hunstanton, Norfolk, August 1946, and Finchley, Middlesex, September 1950. From other sources it seems clear that the bulk of the book was completed in 1946 and the next four years involved updating, with some 135