Cricket's Historians

Biographies Multiply Stephen Harper-Scott made some progress, but it is only in recent years that Willie Sugg has been gradually working his way, line-by-line through the county’s 19 th century newspapers and has so far published three of a series of booklets which will cover the period from 1700 to 1870. In 2006 Tony Percival compiled the standard ACS booklet on the county. Two Minor County histories have emerged in recent years. Cricket in Hertfordshire by R.G.Simons was issued in 1996 and this deals with both club and county cricket. The author was born in Watford in March 1922, educated at Berkhamsted and played county cricket for Hertfordshire from 1939 to 1969. A History of Bucks County Cricket Club , as its title implies, is principally devoted to the County Club. The author, Douglas Miller, was born in Knutsford in October 1937 and educated at Wellington and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. By profession he is a market researcher – and a keen local cricketer. His first cricket book was Cricket Grounds of Gloucestershire in the ACS series, which is an excellent work. He has also written biographies of Don Shepherd, Charles Palmer, Allan Watkins and Jack Bond. Miller retired as Chairman of the ACS in March 2008, after a vigorous term of four years. Another series, instigated by the ACS on cricket below first-class level concerned the ICC Trophy. The first book, which was published in 1989, covered the Trophy matches of the first three competitions and was mainly compiled by Darren Senior; the second volume covering 1990 and 1994 was compiled by Richard Streeton and the third covering 1997 by Peter Griffiths and Darren Senior. The latter was at one time employed at Headingley by Yorkshire C.C.C., but has now moved to the teaching profession The current Surrey scorer, Keith Booth, who worked in retailing and university administration, before retiring to take up county scoring, has been actively researching various aspects of cricket’s history. Following a book on Michael Atherton, Booth wrote Knowing The Score , a history of scoring, in 1999, which focused too much on Surrey and the South East, but His Own Enemy telling the tragic story of Ted Pooley and then The 277