Cricket's Historians

Test Match status is defined and Overseas Publications multiply enthusiastic practising cricketer. Playing the game until the age of 60, he claimed he bowled in every game in which he was involved as an adult. A cousin of the famous Walker family of Southgate, much of Ford’s cricket was for the Southgate Club. He began to collect cricket books as early as 1853, but apart from the anonymous ‘Curiosities’ the only other title which he compiled was an Index to Scores & Biographies Volumes s I-XIII. This was published in 1885. Ford died in October 1924 in Lynmouth, Devon, having retired there. A third book of 1897 that commands attention is Scores and Annals of the West Kent Cricket Club , published by Eyre & Spottiswoode and compiled by Philip Norman. It was 395 pages in length and very well produced. Philip Norman was a member of a well-known Kent family: two of his brothers played for both Cambridge University and Kent; his father also represented Kent. Philip Norman himself, born in Bromley, Kent in July 1842, was in the Eton XI in 1859 and 1860. He played for Gentlemen of Kent in one first-class match in 1865 and though invited to play for the full Kent team, he declined. The West Kent history was held up by Ashley-Cooper as a model for anyone wishing to undertake a similar project. Philip Norman was not only a noted antiquarian but also a talented artist, who had exhibited at the Royal Academy. The book contains the detailed match scores of the West Kent Club, as well as short biographies of players, as they made their first appearance. Many years later, Philip Norman was persuaded by Lord Harris to compile a similar work entitled Eton Ramblers Cricket Club 1862-1880 . Norman compiled the work with the same thoroughness with which his early book had been written. What is of great value in the book, aside from preserving the scores, are the biographies of the players, because Philip Norman clearly knew many of them personally. The book was published in 1928. Philip Norman died in London in May 1931. Club histories were becoming relatively common in the final years of the 19 th century. It is beyond the scope of this work to comment on the vast majority of them, but in addition to Philip Norman’s books, one which certainly deserves mention is Annals of the Free Foresters . Its authors are 66