Cricket's Historians

The Formation of the Association of Cricket Statisticians Surrey in 1937 and educated at Banstead Grammar School. He specialised in tracing biographical details of cricketers and his first letter to The Cricketer on that subject was published in 1951. Soon after that he began forwarding obituary notices to Wisden . In 1955 he informed the editor of the death of F.L.Fane. Unfortunately after it had been printed, it was discovered that the person who died was not the England Test cricketer, but his cousin. Wisden’s editor, Norman Preston, declined to accept any further information from Thorn. Thorn continued his researches and in 1970, Bowen published in The Cricket Quarterly a very long list of cricketers’ deaths that Wisden had missed, including many missed since Preston declined Thorn’s help. Thorn tended to see everything in black or white – there were no shades of grey and therefore if he fell out with an individual, the falling out was absolute. An insurance consultant, Thorn was to continue to ferret out players’ biographical details for the ACS until his death, which occurred in Colsterworth in May 2006. He built up a large collection of reference books such as public schools’ registers and Army and Navy lists, as well as extensive telephone directories for both the U.K. and Australia as well as some West Indian islands and South Africa. His knowledge on biographical matters was formidable, but a softer approach to some of his fellow researchers might have made the ACS a more comfortable band. Another original member of the ACS Committee was David Gallagher. He contributed to The Cricket Quarterly almost from its inception and had a particular interest in West Indian cricket. Due to his family commitments he was unable to devote sufficient time to the ACS and therefore resigned from the Committee in its first year. He resides in Whitchurch, where he is employed in the printing industry. A regular contributor to The Cricket Statistician from August 1974 was Brian Hunt, born in Bishop Auckland in 1947. His initial article was on wicketkeepers, but in 1975 he provided biographical data for many Minor County cricketers and this area of expertise was to remain his principal interest, the emphasis being on Durham’s players. Since 1976 he has been the scorer for Durham, initially jointly, but from 1991 solely. He also 221