Twenty-One Years of the ACS

league records by Les Hatton. Then there were Robert Brooke's appealing biography of J.E.Shilton, the sad and unknown Warwickshire player; and the ICCTrophy booklet,in which the full scorecards of the first three competitions were seen in print for the first time.Much of the credit for gathering these ICC Trophy details together has to go to Darren Senior,who was a young Yorkshire schoolboy at the time.TheShilton biography was a real departure from the ACS norm in some ways but as Tony Woodhouse, the chairman, explained to the 1985AGM,Tbelieve thatour Association was founded notonly to synchronise the mns and wickets offirst-class cricketers but also to research into the history and dark alleys ofthe game.Such a book as the Shilton biography is worthy of our Association.' No other suitable, off-beat subject has been offered for publication since Shilton and these pages provide a chance to remind members that the committee is always prepared to receive ideas or manuscripts with a view to publication. During the same, significant years of publishing being discussed, the booklets on the Australian states and the English counties were completed,with Sussex in 1990 the last to appear to bring an end to a marathon that had begun with Warwickshire in the ACS's inaugural year. As previously mentioned the reputable overseas guides were also finished in this period and special mention has to be madeofthose for India,Pakistan,Sri Lankaand North America, which, in various ways had presented extraordinary difficulties for the research teams producing them.The start of this astonishing output in 1984 also saw the related appearance of the Hamlyn publishing group's Who's Who of Cricketers, compiled by Philip Bailey, Philip Thorn and Peter Wynne- Thomas.This massive 1,144-page tome, which contains career figures back to 1801 in some cases, was not strictly an ACS book in ordinary terms. It was a venture that holds a special niche, however,for being as close to a sponsorship agreement that the ACS has secured during its first two decades. Hamlyn's first expressed interest in acting as the ACS's commercial publishers in 1982 for certain, agreed books and the committee approved a a)ntract, which brought several benefits in its wake.The Who's Who enriched the ACS coffers by more than £2,000 in royalties and also earned world-wide publicity, reOected by an influx of new members.Similar rewards came when Hamlyn's backed the first two ACS International Year Books in 1986 and in 1987. They also supported the first two ACS Statistician of the Year awards in 1987 and 1988 and the trophy they donated is still presented for this. As the recession started to bite, though, Hamlyn's interest waned. Late in 1989 the ACS's expertise and reputation was invoked similarly by Breedon Books when they planned a series on scores each season between the two world wars.Jim Ledbetter,by now ACS treasurer, produced the initial volume,First-Class Cricket:A Complete Record 1939 but this venture, too, was soon ended by the state of the economy. The series has been continued by Limlow Books Ltd. but the ACS no longer benefits financially.It is not possible to delve into the background ofevery ACS booklet