Cricket's Historians

204 Bowen Bows Out S.J.Reddy was one of a well-known family of journalists who reported on non-European cricket in South Africa from the 1950s. His father, J.J.Reddy, edited Cricket Souvenir which appeared in 1950 and 1951, whilst S.J.Reddy edited its successor, the South African Non-European Cricket Almanack from 1953. S.J.Reddy was also Secretary of the Eastern Province Cricket Federation. He provided Bowen with information on cricket in South Africa. The leading historian on Danish cricket was Douglas G Steptoe, born of English parents in Copenhagen in 1923. He had served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. After the war he returned to Denmark and played an active part in cricket there. He died in Copenhagen in June 1994. This might be an appropriate moment to mention the publication of The Story of Continental Cricket which was published in 1969. The three authors, Piet Labouchere, Tom Provis and Peter Hargreaves, the last two based in Denmark, are absolutely castigated by Bowen in a two page review in The Cricket Quarterly . The authors quoted and mis-quoted the magazine extensively, but declined Bowen’s offer to check the finished manuscript. It is unnecessary to add that Douglas Steptoe does not receive a mention! Roger Page and S.S.Perera, two most valuable members of Bowen’s ‘team’ will be mentioned later; A.M.C.Thornburn and A.H.Wagg have been noted earlier. Keith Warsop, born in Nottingham in 1935, was a journalist on a number of provincial newspapers, finally with the Yorkshire Evening Post . His cricket research for The Cricket Quarterly covered detailed statistics for Sir Julien Cahn’s Team and much on pre-1864 English cricket. He is also a notable football historian, in particular on Notts County F.C., having several historical works on soccer published. He compiled E.G.Wynyard in the ACS Famous Cricketers series. More recently he has been engaged in extensive research into major 18 th century cricket matches and the players involved. In 1968 and again in 1969, Bowen had indicated that he wished to close The Cricket Quarterly , but admirers pushed him to continue. In 1968 he made the newspaper headlines in a story that claimed he had tried to