Cricket's Historians

The Pioneers of Cricket’s History and Statistics In the Preface to the First Volume, Haygarth inserts the piece by the Rev Henry Teonge concerning cricket near Antioch in 1676, which extract had recently appeared in Bell’s Life . Haygarth reprints two early versions of the Laws, though he does not place a definite date on either version – the first he states is the earliest published set of Laws and the second comes from the border of a handkerchief. Haygarth’s survey of the history and origins of cricket add little to the sum total of Strutt, Nyren and Pycroft. The scores open with Kent v All England, still dated 1746, then apart from the Nottingham v Sheffield 1771 match, jump to 1772 and run continuously thereafter, with copious notes, which like the biographies grow very important as the seasons pass. The notes on the meetings to form County Clubs remain essential material for the historian. The one facet that Haygarth ignores is the ‘cricket record’, both team and individual. There are no ‘averages’ in the biographical paragraphs. He frequently places notes at the foot of score cards pointing out that there are several variations to the version he has printed, but, especially in the case of the 18 th century Hambledon matches, Haygarth fails to comment that the match titles often differ in Britcher or in the newspaper reports. In doing so he was largely responsible for the Hambledon/Hampshire controversies which erupted half a century or more after his death. After several years of ill-health, Arthur Haygarth died in London in May 1903. He had continued to gather together match score cards until 1898 and his manuscript collection remains at Lord’s. Haygarth’s work is laid out in some detail because his 15 volumes remain a basic text book for researchers who delve into 19 th century cricket. Very few major matches played during that century eluded him. In fact he complains at one point that he had made his task too involved because he included too many matches, but historians must be so grateful that he did. The efforts he went to in order to obtain biographies of the vast majority of notable cricketers provide a treasure trove for all those interested in cricket history. He attempted to obtain these biographies if possible direct from the player himself, an added bonus, even if professional players were prone to adjust their years of birth! 27