History of Bucks CCC

Introduction It was Tony Webb, a founder member of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (‘the ACS’), who first approached me in his characteristically courteous and friendly way. “I hear you are from Buckinghamshire,” he said, introducing himself. I had no reason to suspect that he had a proposal that would radically change the shape of my leisure hours for several years to come, but he soon began to explain. He was forming a team of statisticians who he hoped would unearth the scores of all the matches played by the minor counties since the formation of their championship in 1895. Tony’s unique brand of charm worked. I said I would help and take on the task of seeking out what I could find for Buckinghamshire. So began some years of visiting the County Library in Aylesbury to scour old newspapers and to delight in finding full-length reports and scores of most of the early matches. The County Club, meanwhile, in the persons of Kevin Beaumont, Michael Knox and others, offered every encouragement and support, and I was soon provided with an old suitcase, once the property of Ken Drucquer, in which resided all the score books from 1935. Michael Knox provided an almost complete set of yearbooks going back to 1905. Though these did not provide full scores I was better equipped than many others setting out on a similar journey of exploration and discovery. Despite the implication of its three letters the ACS now includes historians. Within its membership are those to whom the game’s statistics will always be paramount, but others prefer to dabble in the mix of fact and judgment that goes to make up history. It was Robin Peppiatt, at the time president of Bucks County Cricket Club, who first sowed the seed that all these statistics – now the product of 914 matches involving 609 different Bucks cricketers – should be turned into a published history. I am grateful to him for suggesting that the project should be expanded in this way. It seemed only right that he should pen a foreword to his brainchild. I am grateful to him for agreeing to do so. Any history will have faults, real and perceived. That there are not even more in what I have written is due in no small way to the many people who have been involved in the original recording of scores and the processing of the annual statistics that flow from them. I refer to those now anonymous servants of the game who kept the scores in the earliest matches and ensured that what the newspapers published was accurate and comprehensive. I include also those who followed: the many years of Horace Perrin through to the scorers of more modern times, principally Lesley Hawkins, with whom I have sat down to try and reconcile apparent discrepancies, but also Bob Lane, John Goodman, Gilbert Knight and others who have kept the book in recent years. I blush to think how often my computations did not tally with theirs and how often I have had silently to bow to their greater accuracy. Of course earlier compilers of seasonal statistics have made errors, but they have not always had my normal luxury of a second source against which to check. Within the wider ACS project Tony Webb’s checking procedures and reluctance to admit that some fact or figure is unobtainable, which many sadly are, have been a model of thoroughness and dedication, for which the Association has rightly chosen him as its Statistician of the Year for 2006. The cross-checking procedures have also involved those working on the statistics of all Bucks’ opponents. Here I should 6