Foreword By M.J.K.Smith Former captain of Warwickshire and England At the time of writing I am President of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, a rather forbidding title, but it is an Association which makes a real contribution to the records and to cricket’s history. The biographies are usually of players outstanding in their time, but who have generally not reached the levels of the Graces, Hobbs and Huttons, but who had top class careers, which certainly warranted being recorded for posterity. Similarly books are produced on particular eras in the game, and now John Shawcroft has come up with another subject in the county Bank Holiday fixtures. They were not always the most obvious local derbies, for example in my time Warwickshire would have been expected to play Worcestershire rather than Derbyshire, but they were long standing fixtures, given a little extra spice by being on the Bank Holiday. These were special fixtures in the calendars, since assuming good weather they were quite likely to be the best-attended fixtures of the season which contributed to the atmosphere. The Roses match, Lancashire v Yorkshire, would probably be the first one most people would think of, and I would suggest a good performance in this fixture would come alongside a similar performance in the Gentlemen v Players match that someone was sticking his head above the parapet and taking a step up the ladder towards representative cricket. I consider myself fortunate to have played in the time of uncovered wickets. These produced such an interesting variety of conditions, which of course could change so much from session to session, or overnight. So the potential was there for a major turn-a-round if you were good enough to take advantage and had the nerve to carry it through. There will be a fair selection of these. John Shawcroft has picked out a particular theme for his book – there will be some top games, dramatic changes of fortune and exciting finishes, which indicates excellent subject matter and a very interesting book. Mike Smith 5