PREFACE . T he wonderful success that has attended the C ricketers ’ A nnual since its first appearance is no empty boast. In five years it has outstripped com ­ petitors able to bring an elaborate system of organisation to aid their efforts and has taken the foremost position among Cricket records. Profoundly grateful as we are for past favours and for the hearty co-operation of all the leading Cricketers of the day, we venture to suggest that there is much that might be done to render the A nnual still more complete as a statistical volume. A thousand circulars are annually despatched, with forms to be returned by Secretaries, but not more than one-third at the most ever find their wav V 4 * back. In the interest of their Clubs it might be imagined that officers pro­ fessing to have the welfare of their respective societies at heart would take some little trouble to procure some slight degree of prominence, even if they were not actuated with any great devotion to the game itself. To them the Editor would remark that a circular, or any number of circulars, with the requisite information, can always be had on application to the Proprietors of the A nnual , at the address given herewith. % 4, N ewington C auseway , L ondon , S.E. 1st December, 1870, »