Minor Counties Championship 1913

was Michael who stepped forward to fill the gap, temporarily in this case using the newspaper collection for the years up to the start of the Great War. Over the course of the next 20 years I got to know Michael well. He was an MCC member and regularly attended most of the cricket at Lord's. Cricket was his abiding passion and he possessed an enormous collection of books on cricket which had enabled him to contribute to Padwicks 1 and 2, the well-known bibliographies of cricket. This interest also involved him in teaming up with John Per to produce the much admired Surrey Cricket - A Guide for Readers , published by Christopher Saunders in 2014. Another interest had been hockey and he played in goal on occasion for Richmond Hockey first team and wrote a history of the Club. Apart from contributing match scores for Surrey 2nd XI and Wiltshire, Michael took a close interest in the Minor Counties project and was only too willing to comment on drafts, where his deep knowledge and eye for detail proved invaluable in enhancing our work. [I was always well received when visiting his home in Roehampton and usually would be offered a slice of Valerie's lovely self-baked cake.] On one occasion when some vital information was missing and copy was due to the printer, it was Michael who knocked on our door and provided it, paper in hand! When our Minor Counties group decided early on to hold annual gatherings to review the progress of the project, Michael attended regularly and always made valuable contributions. Other Acknowledgments Thanks are due to Roy New for retrieving information from the Wiltshire newspapers. Tony Percival continues to provide additional biographical information on players in the course of his research for the series of Cricketers books by County. We must also continue to acknowledge the significant contribution of the former editor Tony Webb who supplied many of the original draft scorecards and much other information on the 1913 season. The appreciation of colleagues for the assistance given by the County Record Offices and County Libraries up and down the country must be recorded, as must that of the National Archive at Kew and, also the staff at the British Library in London and Boston Spa, from where the national collection of British newspapers is administered. The scores produced by the project are recognised as the official scores for the championship by both the Minor Counties Cricket Association and the Association of Cricket Statisticians. For the first six issues, the compilation of the averages was done “by hand” by the County Statisticians supported by Andrew Lowe. From 1901 to 1912 the scores were put on the CricketArchive computer database by Peter Griffiths . For 1913 this task was carried out by Julian Lawton Smith . The use of this database has considerably reduced the work burdens on the County Statisticians for the compilation of the averages, whilst continuing to ensure high standards of accuracy. As the previous year, Philip Bailey managed the generation of the vast array of statistics that are a major part of the book production. Peter Griffiths vitally continues to be responsible for the preparation and typesetting of the books. As with the 1912 book, this volume has been the result of a team effort, with Julian Lawton Smith overseeing the efforts of Peter Griffiths , Colin Munford and Stephen Musk . Julian has taken charge of the production of the book through its lifecycle while Peter has been the recipient of all the scorecards and compiled all the other elements of the book into its final version ready for the printer. Colin has yet again compiled the County summary pages and applied his meticulous attention to detail to identify gaps and correct errors in the scores while Stephen reviewed the available MCCA minutes and newspaper reports relating to the 1913 18