Cricket's Historians

A Spate of County Histories in England and Wales. Information on how to travel to each ground was given, as well as the basic ground records and a short history. These histories were written by Alex Bannister, a well known cricket journalist with the Daily Mail and a regular contributor to The Cricketer . He retired from journalism in 1979 and died in December 2006. The book was expanded in a second edition in 1992; this included grounds in Scotland and Ireland and some Minor County venues. Powell also wrote the ACS Grounds books on Middlesex and Surrey. In 1994 Cricket Grounds Now and Then used some of the information in Powell’s Guide, but its principal feature was photographic, giving mainly aerial photographs of grounds at the present time and in the inter-war period. The finest book on first-class cricket grounds came, not from the ACS series, or indeed another English writer, but from Richard Christen. Some Grounds To Appeal was published by the author in 1995. A4 in size and 240 pages, plus 64 pages of colour plates, the book gives detailed histories of the 39 Australian grounds used for first-class cricket to 1995, as well as details of several other ‘important’ venues. There are many historic photographs and maps, but the author also took the numerous aerial photographs. An eight page supplement adds the two most recent grounds and some addenda. The work gives historians for all the other cricket playing countries something to which they might aspire. Richard Christen was born in Sydney in November 1941 and educated at Parramatta High School. He was a member of the Australian Regular Army until retirement. He also proposed a similar work on South African grounds, but this unfortunately did not materialize. The promotion of Durham to first-class status prompted three books – Durham – The Birth of a First-Class County by Ralph Dellor, From Minor to Major by Simon Hughes and Past, Present & Future by Jack Bannister and David Graveney. Dellor, a journalist by profession, had been involved in editing the programmes that were issued to accompany Sunday League matches.Hewas born inEssex andeducatedat BrentwoodandPortsmouth University. For several years he assisted with the annual The Cricketers’ Who’s Who and since 2003 has been connected with Sportsline Media 267