Cricket's Historians

The Pioneers of Cricket’s History and Statistics is correct cannot be said for certain. The matches in his book were copied from those of the M.C.C. These latter were, however, afterwards accidently burnt with the pavilion.’ The fire referred to was that which destroyed the Lord’s pavilion on July 28, 1825, immediately after the Harrow v Winchester match. Britcher was the M.C.C. Scorer; if Bentley supposedly copied the scores from the books kept in the M.C.C. pavilion, why are there so many differences between Britcher’s printed scores and those of Bentley? An interesting point, but not one which can be entered into here. Henry Bentley was born in Westminster in 1782 and died in Hereford in 1857. His playing career in major matches spanned 1801 to 1822. Outside cricket’s heartland of London and the South East, the first book of published scores was issued in Nottingham in 1830. The author, William North, a member of the Nottingham Eleven, does at least make clear his source: ‘In order that the following collection may be found to be as complete and correct as possible, I have spared no pains, nor shrunk from any exertions that appeared to me to be necessary for the completion of a work that may be referred to with confidence. Should some trifling errors or imperfections be detected, I humbly entreat the candid reader to excuse them; of which I entertain no doubt, when it is considered that some have been almost unavoidable, from the mutilated state of many of the papers to which I have been compelled to refer.’ The book contains the match scores of games played by the Nottingham Club from 1771 to 1829, its actual title reads A Correct Account of all the Cricket Matches played by the Nottingham Old Club from 1771 to 1829 inclusive. The book runs to 52 pages. William North, by profession a school teacher and later Inspector of Corn Returns for Nottingham, died in 1855 aged 48. It is of significance that the following year on November 18, 1831, 14