Cricket's Historians

The Influence of W.G.Grace a great cricket enthusiast. JamesWilliamArrowsmithwas born inWorcester in 1839, but moved to Bristol and in 1874 published a booklet containing the seasonal Gloucestershire match score cards.The publishing business was founded by his father, Isaac, but it was Arrowsmith who developed it into one of the major firms in Bristol. The annual continued until 1914; in addition Arrowsmith published several books which combined together a number of seasons of scores. He was elected to the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Committee in 1888 and also became Chairman of the Gloucestershire County Ground Company. Arrowsmith died in Bristol in January 1913. A number of other cricket titles published by his firm will be noted in due course. The first of the major County Clubs to publish its own Yearbook with the season’s match scores was Kent in 1878. It is a very neat 4 ½'' by 3 ½'' hardback with a blue cover. The Rules and list of subscribers are followed by the detailed scores – batting on one page, bowling on the facing pages, then finally the seasonal averages. The Rt Hon Lord Harris is given as Hon Sec and recalling the later cricketing publications to which Lord Harris gave encouragement and assistance, one may perhaps speculate that Harris had a hand in this innovation. Hard on the heels of the Kent Annual came a Nottinghamshire annual, though published privately as in the case of Gloucestershire by Arrowsmith, rather than by the County Club. In February 1878, Frank Spybey had published Nottingham County Cricket Matches From 1865 to 1877 . These detailed scores unfortunately followed the early editions of Wisden and gave no bowling analyses. There are no averages and one simple table of ‘records’ – ‘Individual Innings of Three Figures recorded at Trent Bridge’. However at the end of the same year, Spybey published: Spybey’s Annual Register of Nottingham County Cricket Matches. For 1878 these scores do include bowling analyses and end with the season’s averages. The annual ran for ten years and by its final edition included very detailed descriptions of matches and a table of Births & Deaths of Notts Cricketers. Frank G.Spybey was a tobacconist with premises in Long Row, Nottingham. He stood for the County Cricket Club Committee, but failed to gain election. 53