The Cricket Statistician No 195

47 by Peterborough, despite the latter being dismissed for 15 in their first innings. There was an earlier reference to a match at the Race Ground in June 1809 between the gentlemen of Oakham and the neighbourhood of Ufford but no details have been found. It would be nice to think that there is hidden away in these old towns’ records further information awaiting discovery. There were a number of well-known matches (seven involving teams such as England, Hampshire, and Surrey, between 1790 and 1793, are shown in Volume I of Haygarth’s Scores and Biographies for example) played at Burghley Park from 1790 but none of these involved the cricket club and it is not until 1854 that a definite reference to the Burghley Park Cricket Club has been found in a report from the newspaper of 14 April. Before that there was certainly a Stamford cricket club and Mr. Patience has established that a number of players from that team appeared for the Burghley club. The paper often headed their match reports such as ‘Grantham v Burghley Park’ and then titled the Park eleven in the score as Stamford. These facts however, in the opinion of this reviewer, provide insufficient evidence to link the two clubs but readers may disagree. There have been many big matches at the ground involving several great players of the Victorian age and earlier. WG Grace played there on more than one occasion as did the All England Eleven. These encounters are well documented in many books but it is useful that some of those relating to Burghley Park are recorded here together with other new discoveries. The recent history of the club is covered in the second half of the book and will be of wider social interest in its description of the problems cricket clubs face nowadays, including player unavailability, difficulty in finding volunteers, professionalism and regrettable instances of vandalism, the latter in this case being particularly shocking. The bibliography is very short but this in itself points to the lack of relevant information on the book’s subject matter – an invitation to further research, perhaps? Altogether, I find this a useful reference work for both historians and statisticians of the game. Roger Heavens Great Days in Lancashire Cricket By Stuart Brodkin, Red Rose Books, paperback, pp28, £7.99, limited edition of 100 copies available from redrosecricketbooks.com As a Yorkshireman, I cannot honestly admit to taking great pleasure generally in Lancashire victories, though I certainly do not wish for their defeat – except, of course, in Roses matches! But I do enjoy reading about great cricket matches, and about the notable players and events that made them great. This little book consists of personal reminiscences by Stuart Brodkin, a Lancashire cricket fan, of eight unforgettable county matches he has witnessed and enjoyed. It starts with the famous twilight Gillette Cup match where the David Hughes assault brought victory over Gloucestershire in 1971, and concludes with the county championship match against