Cricket's Historians

Chapter 18 A Spate of County Histories An attempt had been made in the 1950s to publish histories of the first-class county clubs by Convoy Publications Ltd; in the 1970s Arthur Barker Ltd also began a county history series. Both these have been noted in Chapters 11 and 14. Neither series reached even the halfway point. In 1983 NatWest Bank sponsored a history of Gloucestershire, entitled Gloucestershire Road . The author, Grahame Parker, had played for the county and then been Secretary-Manager from 1968 to 1976. The main criticism of the work was that it tended to concentrate on the period, from 1932 onward when Parker was personally involved with the county. The early history was rather sketchy with no new research involved, however the book was well-illustrated and largely error-free. Gloucestershire’s western neighbours, Somerset, were the next county to be described. Sunshine, Sixes and Cider published by David & Charles, was written by the well-known journalist, David Foot. Born in East Coker, near Yeovil, he began his career with the Western Gazette before moving to various national papers, principally The Guardian . Foot was editor of Ton- Up for Somerset 1875-1975 a 64-page publication celebrating the county’s centenary, but his first landmark cricket book was Harold Gimblett: Tormented Genius of Cricket , issued by Heinemann in 1982. This showed a side of Gimblett of which the general public was oblivious. Foot’s Somerset history concentrates on the personalities of the players rather than the records and feats they achieved or performed – the book is certainly alive, but a different book might have centred on the actual 261