Cricket's Historians

Bowen Bows Out is a book that must be studied in depth to be fully appreciated. In addition to these three major figures, Bowen thanks another 27 for their help in various ways; many of them were, in 1971, the experts in a particular aspect of cricket history and had contributed to the pages of The Cricket Quarterly . Among these were Kenneth Erskine Bridger, who was born in Buenos Aires in March 1920. His major contribution to cricket’s literature is North v South, the history of the major annual match played in Argentina. He also wrote a weekly cricket column for the English language Buenos Aires Herald . A second name to note is Professor John Ferguson, who died in Birmingham in May 1989 aged 68. An educational specialist, his particular cricketing interest was the etymology of words and phrases used in the game. The results of his scholarship appeared in The Cricket Quarterly and other magazines – it was a great pity he did not live to edit an updated version of Lewis’s The Language of Cricket . Diana Rait Kerr, the librarian at Lord’s from 1945 to 1968, had a profound knowledge of the books kept there and, just as important, knew the contents of many of them. She assisted Bowen in the same way as she helped any who sought her guidance. Her major cricketing book, written in conjunction with I.A.R.Peebles, was Lord’s 1946-1970 , being a continuation of Warner’s book on the ground. She was the daughter of the M.C.C. Secretary. Born in Dublin in 1918, she was educated at Perse High School. Donald King was Bowen’s Canadian expert, born in Naramata, British Columbia in October 1916 of American parents. However he was educated in England and, during the Second World War, worked for the Admiralty. He returned to Canada in 1947 and resurrected the Canadian Cricket Association, based in Ontario, in 1950. In 1961 he was described as ‘the organiser around which the (Canadian) national wheel of cricket revolves’. In the course of his work he became well-versed in the history of the game in Canada. King died in Toronto in October 1977. Edward Knight, who wrote articles on Pakistani and Indian cricket for both The Cricket Quarterly and The Cricketer , provided Bowen with data relating to those countries. 203