Twenty-One Years of the ACS

Croudy who offered to hold large piles of stock in his attic and who for many years was responsible for all ACS back number mailings at home and abroad. For UK members he acted as agent for several of the overseas annuals. On the research side his lasting monument will be the New Zealand first-class guide, which appeared in 1981. Croudy was an early convert to computers and at present has more than 17,000 names stored so far on an all-time list ofoverseas players that he has worked on for many years. Croudy had a varied clerical and management career, which included 30 years with London Transport. In January,1976, he organised the first ofseveral London meetings he arranged. It was a memorable occasion held at the Drum & Monkey public house, Holloway and enabled many Southern-based members to meet each other for the first time. By then the ACS had its own tie. Tim Neilson, a Worcester teenager, was responsible for the chosen design and its now familiar motif of yellow stumps, with shadow,surmounting a quill pen. Whilst the Association had produced its first book in the County Cricketers series in October 1973 and then decided to research Worcestershire and Somerset for publication in the autumns of 1974 and 1975 respectively, the committee were conscious that a definitive list of first-class matches must be produced,so that all the authors and researchers for the ACS could work from a given data base. At the second committee meeting,Wynne-Thomas agreed to type out a detailed list of English first-class matches.This list was then sent out to all members who requested it. The opinions of these members were analysed and the list was divided into three categories, matches which were unanimously agreed to be first-class, matches unanimously agreed as not first-class and the problem list of matches for which opinions differed. Notable among those in the third category were the pre-1895 Hampshire matches and pre-1891 Somerset matches, also the Worcestershire matches of 1919 and numerous matches with more than eleven men on one side. Brooke went to Lord's and checked through the minute books for all decisions relating to status of matches and his discoveries led to the definitive list of first-class matches involving Scotland and Ireland,specifically those against MCC.The Committee analysed the first-class averages as printed in ihcLillywhiteAnnuals and Wisden and later Cricket and The Cricketer. It was agreed to keep as close as possible to the matches used in those averages and to adhere to all official decisions by MCC. The committee were also agreed that it was useless simply to print a list of 'ACS'first-class matches. Historical reasons had to be given why matches on the borderline were,or were not,first-class. After three years debate,discussion and vast correspondence,Wynne-Thomas wrote the first Guide - to British Isles Matches 1864-1946. It was published in May 1976. Ken Williams, a most 15