Cricket's Historians

Biographies Multiply in recent years. Ashley Mote wrote The Glory Days of Cricket , published in 1997, which he followed up the following year with a new version of Nyren’s book, having uncovered an early manuscript whilst researching the history of Hambledon. There are some doubts about the origins of this manuscript. Ashley Mote, born in London, in January 1936, was a journalist who later worked for Unilever. He was elected as an MEP for UKIP, but was imprisoned in 2007 for benefit fraud. In 2000 Start of Play , written by David Underdown, was issued. This is mainly centred on Hambledon, although sub-titled ‘Cricket and Culture in Eighteenth Century England’. References to 18 th century cricket north of the Home Counties are conspicuous by their absence. The author goes to great lengths to describe the class of people who played cricket in the south-eastern corner of England, it is as if cricket was not played outside that area. Underdown, a professional social historian, runs through the 17 th century background of Kent and Sussex with a practiced hand. A year later John Goulstone’s book Hambledon: The Men and The Myths appeared. The author built on the works of Ashley-Cooper, filling in the gaps in the latter’s published researches and correcting errors where necessary. Goulstone’s book is very much a work of reference, unlike the other titles mentioned where the writers’ opinions have floated to the top. A final postscript to Hambledon comes in the form of Neil Jenkinson’s Here’s The Hambledon Club . The book traces the story of cricket in Hambledon from the time of its decline at the close of the 18 th century up to 2000. Jenkinson was also the author of Richard Daft in the ACS biographical series. The second historical monument, W.G.Grace, saw three volumes issued to celebrate the 150 th anniversary of his birth. Robert Low’s W.G. ran to 312 pages; Simon Rae’s W.G.Grace. A Life used up 548 pages. With no major contemporary documents emerging in recent years, the authors had to rely on facts which had been long in the public domain. They also had to decide which of the numerous W.G. stories had any basis in fact. For both Low and Rae, this was the only venture into cricket writing. 279