Cricket's Historians

More County Histories and The Cricket Society grows Australian Bowlers was published in 1953 and its companion volume on batsmen the following year. The books, instead of an alphabetical listing of the ‘Greats’, treat almost all the Australian Test players in chronological sequence with a little background to the Tests played in their era. Both books were deservedly praised in the press and display Moyes’ talent as an author and sound observer of the cricketing scene as well as being a knowledgeable historian. It is no surprise that his Australian History, which runs to 615 pages, is a worthwhile textbook. Moyes traces cricket from its earliest roots in each of the six states. The history of the Sheffield Shield is portrayed in stages between international tours, both to and from Australia. There are many illustrations, quite a number of which had not been seen in any English publication. Moyes acknowledges the help of historians from the various states, including the late Ernest Henry Hutcheon, whose book History of Queensland had first been published in 1946. Hutcheon died in Brisbane in June 1937 and his manuscript was eventually completed by Victor Gerald Honour. Honour, born in Bierton, Bucks, in 1910, emigrated to Australia in 1927 and played for Queensland in 1935-36 (Hutcheon had played for the state soon after the First World War). The book is crammed with information, but is a trifle pedestrian in the presentation, perhaps overwhelmed by the facts. Reverting to the English county scene, the Convoy series saw four more titles issued in 1952, Glamorgan by J.H.Morgan, Lancashire by Rex Pogson, Middlesex by T.C.F.Prittie and Worcestershire by Roy Genders. They followed the identical pattern to those earlier described, which had been issued the previous year. Rex Pogson was a solicitor and one time deputy Town Clerk of Lytham St Annes. He wrote regular pieces on league cricket in Lancashire for The Cricketer and also had cricket reports published in the Manchester Guardian , though considering his cricket writing as a hobby. In 1944 his Index to the Wisden Almanack had been published. His Convoy history was the first hardback book to relate the story of the County Club, but it 159