Twenty-One Years of the ACS

or ten stages after the manuscript has first been sent to Peter Wynne-Thomas for sub-editing. The entire process can extend over a month and more as the proofs go backwards and forwards between author, Baggett and typesetter. He confessed he had to guard against nit-picking but to a purist it can be a narrow border. As always fresh errors can creep in when corrections are made and several ACS authors have not helped the cause by submitting poorly presented copy in the first place,or hard to decipher proof markings later. Fortunately the different typesetters and the ACS printers have been tolerant beyond what they might have been. Baggett(born 1933)is a retired computer consultant and is a rarity among regular ACS workers in that he still continues to play and umpire in local club cricket. After around 46 years as a wicketkeeper- batsman he has career aggregates of more than 1,200 dismissals and 20,000 runs. He has represented Derbyshire at over-50 level, and since 1986 has been on the panel for County Second XIchampionship matches. Meanwhile it has been remissful not to have acknowledged earlier in these pages the invaluable contribution to the ACS's success by Michael Tranter, whose firm in Derby has printed every booklet since 1973.In doing so he has met all publishing deadlines on time and has maintained modest pricings in a competitive trade. Tranter was already known to Peter Wynne-Thomas through other printing work in 1973 and it was logical to enlist his help when the Warwickshire cricketers' booklet was produced within months of the inaugural meeting and the link has stayed unbroken.For a long time Tranter had problems with ancient machinery and the trusting nature of an old fashioned craftsman also brought staff problems but the ACS has never once been let down. Wynne-Thomas and Robert Brooke used Tranter's to print CricketNews - the magazine they produced as a private venture between April, 1977, and May,1979 - and this was to have a crucial bearing on how the ACS typesetting was done. After a dozen issues it was clear that the only way Cricket News might break even financially would be if Wynne-Thomas bought a typesetting machine and did this aspect of the work himself. By the time Cricket News was shut down, Wynne-Thomas had acquired a good knowledge of typesetting and artwork and this was now utilized for the ACS's benefit. Wynne-Thomas's in-house typesetting, allied to Tranter's reasonable printing charges, meant that the Journal could be properly printed at about the same cost as duplicating Brooke's hitherto typed pages. These low cost production developments coincided soon afterwards with the start of the pre-1900 matches scores' series and helped to make it a viable proposition. Among other booklets Wynne-Thomas was also able to typeset the Minor Counties and Second XI annuals at a time when they were losing money and thereby ensured their continuance. Sales of other publications boomed fortunately and by the time Wynne-Thomas's typesetting machine in 1988 was coming to the end ol its lite, the ACS could afford to employ commercial typesetters. Michael Tranter recommended an old acquaintance, Peter Brown, 32