Twenty-One Years of the ACS

available to remind them of the stance taken by the establishment and the explanations - heavily charged with sentimentalism - for reacting as they did. Michael Fordham, an ACS member, was responsible for Wisden's, record section in 1981 and heamended Grace's figures,while RobertBrooke,who was in chargeofbirths and deaths,altered several players' initials.This was the first Wisden under John Woodcock's editorship and their actions escaped Woodcock's eye for this edition. In the following year's almanack Woodcock ruled that everything should be changed back to what it had previously been. Needless to say his decision was deplored by the ACS. Woodcock explained his reasons in the preface and also in an introduction to an article that Fordham was allowed to write explaining why the original alterations had been made. Grace's details had a footnote added, explaining that some statisticians used other figures, to complete an editorial treatment that could never be faulted on grounds of fairness however much one disagreed with it. Graeme Wright, who succeeded Woodcock as Wisden editor, took compromise a short step further in 1988 when the second issue under his charge returned to the subject. Wright, whose editorship was all too short,allowed career figures to be amended when scorebooks showed compilation errors had been made. Writing in the preface he went on to admit that the policy of previous Wisden editors should be adhered to in cases where career records were affected by the interpretation of which matches were first-class before the ICC gave its first guidance on the subject in 1947. Wright added: Tt has been said that history is a hard core of interpretation surrounded by asoft pulp ofdisputable facts ... I both respect and admire the immense and conscientious research that has been done. In a civilised society it should be possible to differ without acrimony ...' In an apposite closing remark Wright added:'However if cricket history is not to be re-written, those who compile it have a duty to ensure that it is written accurately initially - or corrected quickly ...'. Turning the clock back,a chain ofevents that effectively secured the ACS's financial future, began one cold morning in January 1979,when Peter Wynne- Thomas received a letter from a hitherto unknown Scottish member in Glasgow.Wynne-Thomas has never been given to hyperbole but he has always regarded this momentas a crucial turning point in the life ofthe ACS.The letter came from David Main and its contents inspired the pre-1900 match scores series, which, in every respect, has consistently proved more successful than any other the ACS has published. Main's letter never envisaged scores in booklet form: that came later from Wynne-Thomas's fertile brain. What Main did,though,was to point out that the ACS divided into 'the haves and the have nots' in the context ofpeople with access to comprehensive cricket libraries and 17