Cricket's Historians

The Booming Market for Cricket Books series was completed in 1990 with the appearance of Sussex. Whilst on the subject of the ACS it is worth noting that in 1987, the Association elected Richard Streeton as its first President. A keen cricket statistician, he was a cricket correspondent for The Times and was considered by his colleagues in the press boxes of county grounds and, indeed of many grounds overseas, as he toured with England, as the man to turn to for guidance on historical matters, especially those related to ‘cricket records’. His only cricket book, a biography of P.G.H.Fender, won the Cricket Society Literary Award in 1981. Streeton was able to write it due to the prolonged strike which closed The Times for some months. Educated at King’s School, Canterbury, Streeton (born 1931) commenced his journalistic career in the Midlands, notably on the Nottingham Guardian , then moved to Reuters before moving to a permanent spot with The Times . He was President of the ACS for ten years and worked conscientiously for the betterment of the Association, continuing to do so, even after his ten years in office ended. He died in Devon in 2006. Moving from the ACS to the Cricket Society, the latter published no more major works following the issuing of the bibliography. The main publication therefore through the decade was the bi-annual Journal. Jim Coldham announced his retirement as Editor, after a fourteen year stint, in March 1984. The post was taken up by Clive Porter. Educated at Felixstowe Grammar School and Kent University, he was a schoolmaster based in Kent. He had occasionally performed the role of scorer for both radio and television. His only cricket book to date has been The White Horse and the Kangeroo, Kent v Australians 1882-1977 which had been published in 1981. Between 1983 and 1985 he had a monthly series in The Cricketer , each month giving short essays on batsmen who had scored 100 hundreds. He was also an occasional letter writer to both The Cricketer and Wisden Cricket Monthly . Another society which aspired to publications beyond the mundane society news was the Adelaide branch of the Australian Cricket Society. Its magazine Cathedral End was launched in January 1978 and was greatly expanded when Chris Harte became Editor in 1981. Harte then 253