Cricket's Historians

The World of Cricket pages is reduced to 136, though with a slight increase in page size. The Record Section, now by Michael Fordham, remains very slim. Season- by-season figures are shown for all current players and full scores of the Surrey Young Cricketers matches are still featured. Sussex The yearbook is produced by the Pepper organisation and it is very feeble. Even the First XI matches only shown as potted scores; no record section appears. However local clubs and leagues are listed and this is undoubtedly the best section in the publication. With 108 pages the cost is one shilling. Through the decade there is little material change in this state of affairs. The book is compiled by the ‘Handbook sub-committee’ – curiously the list of officials divides into seven sub-committees, but not one headed ‘Handbook’! Warwickshire The 1961 annual, 112 pages in length, no price given, is edited and compiled by W.G.Wanklyn and E.A.Davies. The First XI scorecards are printed with reports, but only potted Second XI scores. There is an extensive Record Section of 19 pages. This publication ceased in 1963 and the County Club then reverted to an enlarged Annual Report with Leslie Deakins, the County Club Secretary, as editor. There were no full match scores, but a remarkable feature was the obituary section which included many personalities with only a passing affiliation to Warwickshire cricket. William G.Wanklyn was born in Worcestershire in 1916. He was appointed Cricket Correspondent of the Birmingham Evening Mail in 1947, retiring in 1978. In 1980 he suffered a severe stroke and he died in Milford Haven in August 1982. Worcestershire From 1958 Worcestershire created a yearbook sub-committee, the leading light of which was the Rev W.R.Chignell (see Chapter 10). This yearbook contained the full First XI match scores with reports – it was enlarged in the County Club’s centenary year of 1965 and the Record Section included a feature unique among yearbooks of the 1960s. Each 195