Twenty-One Years of the ACS

enthusiastic Australian member,was responsible for the editing and final draft of the Australian Guide; Brian Croudy wrote the New Zealand Guide; Philip Bailey edited the notes of Denys Heesom to produce the South African Guide; Dennis Lambert did much of the early research on the Indian Guide, which again Philip Bailey completed; the pre-1864 Guide was edited by Wynne-Thomas with notes from Herbert Scheele; Sri Lanka also came under the guidance of Bailey. Pakistan was compiled by Ken Trushell. The most difficult of all, America, North and South, was compiled by Chris Clynes, a diligent researcher from Wiltshire, who,through correspondence with experts in both the United States and Argentine,became the English authority on major cricket in those countries. It was not until 1989 that this vital series was complete. For the first time in the history of the game a comprehensive list of every first-class match in the world was easily and readily available. The original ambition had been courageous and to complete such a stupendous undertaking was a scholarly triumph for the research teams concerned. There was never any wish to re-write history, and certainly none to debunk it, but as the work progressed,agreat many,previously accepted facts about matches and their status proved to be wrong. Simultaneous examination of career figures also showed that numerous mistakes had been perpetuated over the years from inadequately researched sources. What the ACS unveiled were factual errors and omissions and these should never be confused with tampering with history. Like innovators in many areas, though,the ACS,predictably, found that many people were positively opposed to changing the long established thinking. In a nutshell the prospect of discarding the cherished beliefs of a lifetime jarred on those responsible for making the necessary alterations and, for the most part, they duly rejected them. There is neither the need nor the space to go into the nitty gritty. Most ACS members will not need reminding, for instance, that good arguments exist for believing that W.G.Grace scored 124 first-class centuries and not 126 and that Jack Hobbs's record number of career centuries should total 199 rather than 197. Even more incontrovertible were the inaccurate or incomplete initials for bygone cricketers disclosed by original birth certificates. This evidence, too, was spurned as the arguments raged. Initially there was not the slightest whiffofcompromise in the air and the ACS had to absorb a lot of flak before some of the heat evaporated.These days more and more reference books include explanatory footnotes alerting readers to the alternative figures compiled by the ACS,which itself has gained respect by not harping on the disputatious subject. It is this writer's belief that in a hundred or more year's time the ACS amendments might have become more widely accepted than they are now. Historical truths have never been shirked permanently by responsible archivists and attitudes could change in future eras when legends like Grace and Hobbs are less emotive names than they are at present. Fortunately posterity will always have the 1981 and 1982 Wisdens 16