Cricket's Historians

The Pioneers of Cricket’s History and Statistics by an old cricketer’ and was given to the author by William Ward. In this chapter is contained the detailed score of a match between Kent and All England played, so it states, in 1746. (How Ashley-Cooper corrected this erroneous date is noted later). This score predates Epps’earliest scorecard by a quarter of the century. Another paragraph in this manuscript tells how the wicket used to be two feet in width with a hole between the two stumps. In making a run the batsman had to ground his bat in the hole, but for the fielding side to run out a batsman, the ball had to be placed in the hole. The third piece of historical information was the introduction of the minimum width for a cricket bat, caused by White of Reigate coming to the crease with a bat as broad as the wicket, also the introduction of a middle stump, due to ‘Lumpy’ Stevens’ accurate bowling. Historians at first accepted these three pieces of information at face value, but gradually the details have been checked and cross-checked and more accurate data have emerged. In 1838 The Cricketer’s Handbook was published by Robert Tyas of London and J.Menzies of Edinburgh. The first chapter, ‘Origin of the Game’, is about 600 words in length: it quotes Strutt, then launches into a description of tip-cat. The remainder of the book just contains instructions on how to play and the Laws. Tyas issued a second edition in 1841 and a further edition appeared in the United States in 1844. Tyas then went out of business and a similar volume was issued by William Mark Clark, described as ‘a dab hand at paste and scissors journalism, in 1844-45. Clark entitled his book Clark’s Cricketer’s Handbook in Three Parts . The first part is ‘History and Chronology of Cricket’, which then splits into two sections, viz ‘A Brief History of Cricket’ and ‘The Chronicles of Cricket’. The Brief History is some 2,000 words in length. It again quotes Strutt’s reference of 1719, but also introduces ‘creag’ of AD 1300 and Barrington’s Hand-yn and Hand-out of AD 1477. The book repeats the description of the wide low two stump wicket with the hole in between, into which the ball was placed. In the Chronicles section, the detailed score of the 1746 Kent v All England match is printed, but it states that 16