Cricket's Historians

The Pioneers of Cricket’s History and Statistics Guide to Cricketers , edited by Frederick Lillywhite jun, who describes himself as cricket reporter to Bell’s Life in London . The section in the book on how to play was by ‘William Frederick Lillywhite’ (the father with his christian names reversed.) The brief historical piece in the early Guides does not deviate from Strutt. This was the start of the most popular cricket annual to date – it was to continue until Frederick Lillywhite’s death and then was merged with John Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Companion in 1867 – the latter will be discussed in the next chapter. For cricket statisticians, the Guide contains a three- page section giving ‘The Average Runs etc of Players’ with a note that the figures have been collected together by Lillywhite ‘a task of great labour’ for the express purpose of publishing in Bell’s Life . The batting columns comprise: ‘Matches, Innings, Runs, Average each innings, Number over’. The bowling columns are: ‘Matches, Wickets Bowled, no. Caught, Caught From, Stumped From, Leg before wicket From, Hit Wicket From, Total, Average, Over’. W.Ward and W.Dorrinton each have a page to themselves giving career batting match by match. Fifteen pages are devoted to a brief Who’s Who of some 150 well-known current players, and there are sixteen pages on ‘Celebrated Ground Grounds’. The remainder of the book consists of the Laws and Instructions on how to play – it was not until the 1851 edition that potted scores of the principal season’s matches were introduced into the work. The earlier Guides never gave detailed scores of matches. There was a reason for this, which is found in an advertisement in the 1851 edition, viz: ‘J. & F. Lillywhite’s Register of Cricket Matches states that for a £2 subscription, match cards of about 60 games will be sent to subscribers DAILY – by post i.e. up to 180 match cards in all.’ Frederick Lillywhite had a portable printing press, usually based at The Oval, but also travelling to other grounds on which major three-day matches were staged, and the sale of his cards at matches was one of his main occupations. Reprinting the full scores in the annual would harm the 23