Cricket's Historians

The World of Cricket J.D.Coldham’s book on the County’s history, which appeared in 1959 and these were transferred to the yearbook for 1960. They comprised 39 pages, including career records of all first-class players. Missing for two years, they reappeared in condensed form (14 pages) in 1963; amendments running to nine pages were published in 1965, then records disappeared from the yearbook until 1984, which included 47 pages compiled by L.T.Newell. Cyril Smith died in Wellingborough on January 12, 1994, aged 92. Working for British Railways, he compiled statistics not only on Northants (to whom he presented a complete set of Wisden ), but also on Northampton’s football and rugby clubs, and on Tottenham Hotspur. Detailed scores for both First and Second XI matches were included and the whole was edited by the County Club Secretary, K.C.Turner. Financial problems which bedevilled Northants, meant that the yearbook perished after the 1966 edition (when the cost had doubled to five shillings) and after this the County just issued an annual report along the Middlesex lines, until 1988, when a full yearbook was resurrected. Nottinghamshire The yearbook for 1961 followed the pattern introduced in 1948. The cost was one shilling and the length 100 pages. Detailed First XI scorecards with good match reports were included, but for Second XI matches, the scores were given with no bowling analyses or report. A seven page Record Section was compiled by Roy Webber, but there was no list of past and present county players. The annual also contained details of the local leagues in the county. In 1970 there was a radical change. The editor from 1948 had been a serving member of the County Club’s Committee and in 1969 that was Harry Richards, who was also Sports Editor of the local daily paper, the Nottingham Evening Post . Harry Evers Richards, who had been a useful cricketer in the South Lancs League, died in 1979, having retired the previous year. Mike Carey, born 1936 and a journalist, originally with the Derby Evening Telegraph and then with the Daily Telegraph , the Observer and the Guardian , took over as Editor. Local club cricket disappeared from the annual (there was a separate Notts Cricket Association Handbook); 193