Cricket's Historians

The World of Cricket published ‘ The Story of Canterbury Cricket Week , an 80 page book which follows a rather familiar path. R.L.Arrowsmith had written a very long essay in the 1948 Yearbook, commemorating the Centenary of Canterbury Week and back in 1892, E.Milton Small had published The Canterbury Cricket Week: Its Origins, Career and Jubilee. Indeed, the first book on the Canterbury Festival came out in 1865, and is valued today primarily for its inclusion of real photographs of contemporary players – believed to be a ‘first’ in cricket publishing. Warner had previously published a history of Beverley Cricket Club. He had been a Kent member since 1930 and made a regular appearance in the correspondence columns of The Cricketer , as well as helping Langford by providing club cricket details from Kent. Warner died in 1991. Commencing in 1954, the Association of Kent Cricket Clubs published an excellent handbook, entitled Cricket in Kent . Compiled and edited by H.A.W.Daniels the book gave a comprehensive coverage of clubs based in Kent and at the time without equal. The Kent County yearbook continued through the 1960s unchanged. Lancashire The Lancashire Yearbook at 200 pages in 1961 was second in size only to Yorkshire’s. The Record Section by C.M.Oliver (see Chapter 9) ran to 56 pages; he also provided season-by-season statistics. It is most informative to compare the records in the Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire books of 1961. Derbyshire provide, as has been noted, a good Births & Deaths section, but no career records; Lancashire combine years of birth and death with a career record, but there are many more ‘gaps’ in the B&D than in Derbyshire. Yorkshire has two separate sections, but rather ominously the career records are by Sir Home Gordon. The Lancashire first-class match scorecards have no reports and the Second XI matches are only very briefly summarised. The editor of the 1961 Lancashire Yearbook is the County Secretary, C.G.Howard. By 1970 the price has dropped from two shillings to 1s 6d; the format is unchanged and the editor is Robert ‘Bob’ Warburton, the County’s Assistant Secretary. 191