Cricket's Historians

Ashley-Cooper, Pentelow and their Contemporaries His notion that first-class cricket commenced in 1878, based purely on the Australian tour of that year, has caused much comment over the years, and few statisticians would agree with him. Whatever the criticisms that can be levelled at Home Gordon’s statistics in his 1902 book, it must be pointed out that he was a pioneer in his creation of mass first-class career records. Lester, in his book, had given the career records of 100 leading batsmen in first-class cricket and fifty leading bowlers, but he had taken his figures back to 1864 for the batting and 1866 for bowling, it is very difficult therefore to compare Lester’s figures with Gordon’s. Lester does state that his tables are only a portion of the total number of career records which he had prepared. Lester includes eleven-a-side matches by English teams in Australia, which Gordon does not. At this early stage in the creation of first-class records therefore the year from which these should be calculated is controversial – it remains so to the present time! In 2000 Sir Home Gordon, Bart. – An Affectionate Retrospect was published by Christopher Saunders, Irving Rosenwater was the author. Readers who wish to discover more of Home Gordon’s cricketing life should consult that work. Home Gordon published two further updates on his Form At A Glance book, in 1924 and in 1938, but he acknowledges that these works were not financially viable – unfortunately they do not seem to increase much in accuracy either. 83