Cricket's Historians

A Spate of County Histories There were, however, books for the more erudite students of cricket history. David Rayvern Allen’s volume Early Books on Cricket appeared in 1988 and gave more detailed descriptions of the early volumes listed in ‘Padwick’. Ronald Willis researched the origins of the Ashes urn and his book Cricket’s Biggest Mystery: The Ashes had been published in Australia in 1982 and in England the following year. Willis, born in North Yorkshire, worked as a journalist on the Yorkshire Evening Post , before emigrating to Australia in 1976. He researched the background of Florence Morphy and the family for whom she worked, as well as the Earls of Darnley. Breedon, the Derby-based publishers, decided to issue a series of books providing the detailed scores of first-class matches played in the inter-war period. The compiler was Jim Ledbetter and the series began with the 1939 season. After the initial book, the series was taken over by Limlow Books, but then the ACS assumed publication with the 1930 edition. Jim Ledbetter, born in Nottingham in September 1933, was educated at High Pavement School and Hatfield College, Durham University. He was latterly a history lecturer at Nottingham Trent University. He joined the Committee of the ACS in 1990 as Honorary Treasurer and was Chairman from 2002 to 2004. Ledbetter also compiled two books in the Famous Cricketers series – F.H.Tyson and C.V.Grimmett. In Australia, statisticians and historians, no doubt due to the influence of Roger Page, were increasingly active. Yet another attempt was made to float a national Australian cricket annual. This time it was a purely solo effort, with no commercial backing. Allan’s Australian Cricket Annual first appeared in 1987-88. Allan William Miller, the proprietor, compiler and editor, was born in April 1967 in Whyalla, South Australia and educated at Newton Moore School, Bunbury. The page size of the new annual was A4 and the early editions were typed out on a Canon typewriter. The end product looked home-spun, as indeed it was, however the data Miller gathered for all the major matches played in Australia was more comprehensive than anything before attempted. Information such as the times of play and the times of any weather interruptions, the attendances and receipts, names of the 12 th men and of the scorers was included. The 271