Cricket's Historians

The Pioneers of Cricket’s History and Statistics the Nottingham Review publishes the career averages for the principal Nottinghambatsmen, giving ‘Average perMatch’ and ‘Average per Innings’. The tabulation is attached to the obituary of a noted Nottingham cricketer, Joseph Dennis, and had been compiled in order to compare his record with those of his contemporaries. This set of averages was discovered by Keith Warsop in the 1960s. In view of the scribbled averages in copies of Britcher for 1793 and 1796, and the publication of both Epps’ and Bentley’s books of scores, it appears odd that these Nottingham averages seem to be the earliest ever printed. ( Sports History No.10 contains a more detailed essay on early cricket averages). From the data for statisticians, back to the historians; in 1833 was published The Young Cricketer’s Tutor, with The Cricketers of My Time by John Nyren, but collected and edited by Charles Cowden Clarke. The book was dedicated to William Ward, the batsman who in 1820 scored a record 278 at Lord’s. The section ‘The Cricketers of My Time’ had been previously serialised in the press. John Nyren was the son of the captain of the Hampshire/Hambledon Club side, Richard Nyren, and was born in Hambledon in 1764. He was a fair cricketer, but in no way could compare with his father. John moved away from Hampshire at the same time as his father in or about 1791. He died in Bromley-by-Bow in 1837. Charles Cowden Clarke (1787-1877) was a well-known authority on Shakespeare, giving lectures and readings on the Bard throughout England. He retired with his wife to Nice in 1856 and they moved to Genoa in 1861 – Charles Clarke died there in March 1877 and his wife in the same place in 1898. After a Dedication and an Introduction, there is a long chapter on how to play cricket and this also contains the Laws (as revised in 1830). In the second major section appears ‘The Cricketers of My Time’, which commences with some 400 words on cricket’s origins, adding nothing of any substance to Strutt. The principal contents of this section are descriptions of players who appeared at Hambledon. However the final section ‘A Few Memoranda Respecting the Progress of Cricket’ claims to be an edited version of a manuscript, supposedly written ‘some years ago 15