Lives in Cricket No 17 - Fuller Pilch

to time to play village and club cricket. In 1845 the family tradition was continued when Nathaniel’s son William joined his uncle Fuller in Kent where he also developed into a fine all-round cricketer in his adopted county. Nathaniel and William were naturally very proud of their younger brother Fuller’s outstanding achievements on the cricket field, but after he moved to Kent they could only learn the details second-hand through the columns of newspapers. It may have been that fraternal pride that prompted the brothers to conceive of the idea of recording batsmen’s scores as reported in Bell’s Life during the summer and compiling a list of averages at the end of the season, knowing that Fuller’s figures would feature at, or near, the top. They were published in Bell’s Life for the first time in 1840 and again in 1841, but the idea had proved so popular that from 1842 other readers began to submit their own tables, and disagreement ensued regarding accuracy. The arguments became even more heated after 1843 when bowlers’ figures were included, and in 1846 the publishers of Bell’s Life appointed their own members of staff to produce ‘official’ tables. Cricket statisticians owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Nathaniel and William Pilch for being the first lovers of cricket to draw attention to the value of statistics when comparing the performance of players. The Brothers Pilch 10 This fading page in the Horningtoft parish records notes Fuller Pilch’s birth on 17 March 1804 and his baptism the following day. Church Road, Horningtoft in 2010. The house on the left occupies the site of the cottages where Fuller Pilch was born in 1804. The church where he was baptised by Rev George Norris is just visible through the trees.