Twenty-One Years of the ACS

first three year books but has been responsible for all those since virtually single-handed. In spite of Bailey's multifarious responsibi- lities for the ACS, he agreed to follow Stockwell as editor of the Journal and has maintained the quality established by his two predecessors.Bailey(born 1953),a quiet,retiring man,and a perfectionist by nature,would be nominated by most of his peers as possessing the most phenomenal brain for cricket statistics in the business. Bailey's mind invariably seems more agile than anyone else's wherefigures are eoneerned and his memory is extraordinary. He has had a hand in the majority ofthe statisties in ACS booklets and has also revelled in tracing birth and death eertificates and other sources for previously unsuspected information. Bailey was about 12 when he first discovered the mental stimulation to be had from bringing up to date Roy Webber's books.He gained a degree in mathematics at Cambridge University and by profession is a computer programmer for the London Borough ofLewisham,dealing mainly with poll tax rebate and housing benefit systems. Bailey's other hobby is bridge and he has been chosen for England trials and might well have progressed further if his cricket work had permitted him to devote more time to the game.Bailey's ambition is to produce a world-wide who's who of all first-class cricketers in history - with photographs where feasible - and also a list of corrected scores for Wisden since it first appeared. Anyone who knows Bailey would rule these mind boggling tasks being achieved. In addition to the year book 1986 also saw the start of the Famous Cricketers' booklets and these have sold extremely well, not least to non-members.They have the additional merit of providing opportunities for new ACS authors and,at the time of writing, this series Derek Lodge has hega the last the ACS has launched. Jack Hobbs was an appropriate No. 1 in every respect as the first subject to have his career detailed innings by innings and there was an element ofchance about how the ACS came to be its publisher. Derek Lodge, the author, originally intended that this should be published by the Cricket Society, whose Journal does not usually carry such detailed, statistical offerings. Publication by the Cricket Society, however, proved to be impracticable and this was to be the ACS's good fortune. Lodge(born 1929) joined the ACS committee late in 1989 and is best known for his work as the Cricket Society's statistical officer since 1974. He is currently the society's