Robert Brooke 1940–2025
It is with the greatest sadness that we announce the death on 15 May of our esteemed colleague and co-founder of the ACS, Robert Brooke, aged 85.
The ACS committee will consider how best to mark Robert’s passing. We will post further news and details here as they become available.
ACS Auction No. 15 – 10–19 May
Our next auction of cricket publications will commence at 8am BST on Saturday 10 May and close at 10pm BST on Monday 19 May.
The auction catalogue includes:
• a collection of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanacks from 1971 to 1990
• a range of Minor Counties Annuals and a large selection of Year Books from across the Minor Counties
• a large range of Women’s Cricket Annuals and Brochures
• several other interesting titles.
Members need to register in advance: the terms & conditions, the registration process and the catalogue of items can be viewed here.
If you have any questions or other issues about the auction, these should be sent to auction_admin@acscricket.com
Women’s International Cricket Year Book
The ACS is delighted to announce the launch of its Women’s International Cricket Year Book – a companion volume to the long-running International Cricket Year Book, which will now deal only with men’s cricket. The Women’s International Cricket Year Book is supported by the trustees of Women’s Cricket Associates.
Further details appear below, along with our other latest publications. Until 30 June 2025, a discounted package of the Women’s International Cricket Year Book plus the Men’s International Cricket Year Book can be ordered at a combined price of £39, a saving of £4.
The Second Eleven Annual 2025, which completes our set of spring annuals, is also now available in the shop.
Hampshire Cricket in the Eighteenth Century
Dave Allen, director of Hampshire Cricket Heritage and an ACS member, has recently published Hampshire Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, a companion volume to Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century, Tim J McCann’s comprehensive chronological collection of references to cricket in that period, which earned him the Statistician of the Year award in 2004.
Tim then embarked on the Hampshire project, and had already done much of the work when, sadly, he died in 2022, leaving it unfinished. After receiving a digital copy from Tim’s wife Alison, Dave has been able to complete it, and it is now available from the Hampshire Cricket Heritage website.
He has already received and accepted various comments and amendments from other ACS members, which he hopes to incorporate into a revised edition; in the meantime, he has provided a PDF bulletin on the amendments he has accepted to date.
AGM 2025
The 52nd AGM of the ACS was held via Zoom on 22 March 2025, and attended by 53 members. A recording of the meeting is now available in the password-protected Members Area, with the Minutes to follow when ready.
Writer, broadcaster and archivist Andrew Radd received the Brooke-Lambert Trophy for his many years chronicling Northamptonshire CCC and their players.
Peter Wynne-Thomas research
on cricketers available online
The late Peter Wynne-Thomas, our long-serving honorary secretary, collected huge amounts of information on first-class cricketers while researching the Who’s Who of Cricketers which he compiled with Philip Bailey and Philip Thorn (first edition 1984), and continued to add occasional notes, newspaper cuttings, photographs, etc after the book was published.
All of this material was kept in a four-drawer filing cabinet at the Trent Bridge Library, and we are grateful to Nottinghamshire CCC for allowing us to digitise it. You can now view 6,890 pages of Peter’s research in our online folders.
What is the ACS?
Who is the oldest man to hit a Test match century? What is the most expensive bowling analysis in first-class cricket? Does a match start with the toss, the call of ‘Play’ or the first delivery?
If you are intrigued by such conundrums, or if you’re interested in the origins and history of the game, you’ll find a group of like minds in the ACS. Founded in 1973, we are an international body represented in over 20 countries, and our members include most of the world’s leading cricket statisticians and several of its most accomplished historians and biographers.
Our principal purpose is ‘to promote and encourage research into the statistical and historical aspects of cricket throughout the world at all levels and to publish the findings’. Members of the ACS have significantly contributed to a wider understanding of the game and have led the way in uncovering many biographical details of first-class cricketers.
We have around 800 members all over the world. Membership is open to everyone – all you need to join us is to share our interest in the statistics and history of the game. The ACS aims to appeal to people with an interest in every form of the game. Although in the past, much of its work has focused on men’s first-class cricket, more recently it has published material on women’s cricket and taken the lead, for example, on developing statistics for the new Hundred competition.
To encourage research work on a broad range of topics which are likely to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, the ACS will:
- continue to invite contributions to its activities from all its members;
- actively encourage new projects related to forms of cricket which have received less attention in the past (including recreational cricket, women’s cricket, disabled cricket etc);
- seek to take the lead in the collection of statistics for these and other under-researched aspects of the game;
- selectively offer financial support to worthwhile projects which are aligned with the ACS’s objectives; and
- make regular use of different social media platforms to engage with a more diverse audience.
Members receive our quarterly journal, The Cricket Statistician, and an annual voucher, currently worth £8, towards the cost of our printed publications. They are entitled to a 33% discount on subscriptions to the Cricket Archive website and to the CSW cricket database. Members can also join our email forum to share information, ask questions and chat about topical cricketing issues. Details about the email forum and discounts are available in the Members Area; any member who does not have the password for this page should contact webmaster@acscricket.com.
We publish a range of titles which are available in the ACS Online Shop.
The website includes several valuable research tools open to all visitors:
- The digitised version of Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game, the magazine which ran from 1882 to 1914.
- The ACS Online Cricket Records Section, which is updated on a daily basis and covers first-class cricket, Test cricket, List A, Twenty20 and women’s international cricket, with some minor cricket records too.
- The archive of The Cricket Statistician up to 2021 in digitised form; copies of more recent issues are still on sale in the shop.
- Our Research Section which contains further resources, including the first two parts of a massive A to Z of Kent Cricketers, compiled by Derek Carlaw and covering all Kent players who appeared between 1806 and 1999, plus County Cricket: Sundry Extras, biographical details compiled by David Jeater on over a thousand county cricketers with achievements in areas of public life away from cricket.
- Our Collaborative Research Projects – if you’d like to get involved in our research, there’s a list in the Research Section of collaborative projects we have set up since March 2020 on topics such as women’s cricket, league cricket, national competitions, county committees, scorebooks, cricketers who died in war, and more; do get in touch if you’d like to join in (contact details on the Collaborative Research Projects page).
- Our answers to a number of Frequently Asked Questions about the statistics and history of cricket
- Ask the ACS, a collection of statistical questions and answers on specialised one-off matters.
You can also follow the Association via Twitter, at @ACScricket; on Instagram, at acscricket; on Facebook, at Association of Cricket Statisticians & Historians; on YouTube, at ACScricket; on Mastodon, at @ACScricket@mstdn.social; on Bluesky at @ACScricket.bsky.social; and on Substack at acscricket.substack.com (more details here).
You can watch a video interview with founder Robert Brooke on the ACS YouTube channel, and read more about the formation and earlier years of the ACS, and about the individuals whose hugely-valued efforts set us on our current path, in Twenty-One Years of the ACS, by our late President, Richard Streeton.
If you are looking for an answer to any question about cricket, seeking clarification about a particular record or feat, or searching for information on a team or a particular player, please send an email to secretary@acscricket.com and the Secretary will point you in the right direction.
Latest publications
Our Second Eleven Annual 2025 is now available in the shop. The 40th edition, which runs to 121 pages, provides details of performances in the 2024 Second Eleven Championship (won by Nottinghamshire) and Twenty20 competition (won by Somerset), along with a Who’s Who of cricketers who played in those tournaments, and updated Second Eleven records. It also includes details of the South Asian Cricket Academy.
The ACS is delighted to introduce the Women’s International Cricket Year Book – a sister volume to the ACS’s long-running International Cricket Year Book – supported by the trustees of Women’s Cricket Associates. As women’s cricket gains year by year in prominence and popularity, this new annual offers worldwide coverage at both international and domestic level, with essential data in the form of player records and biographical details.
The 40th edition of the International Cricket Year Book, now restricted to men, continues to provide detailed information about every current player in men’s cricket (First-Class, List A or Twenty20) worldwide, with basic biographical information, career details, plus statistics for the 2023/24 and 2024 seasons.
Until 30 June 2025, a discounted package of the Women’s International Cricket Year Book plus the Men’s International Cricket Year Book can be ordered at a combined price of £39, a saving of £4.
The Second Eleven Annual 2025 is now available in the shop. The 40th edition, which runs to 121 pages, provides details of performances in the 2024 Second Eleven Championship (won by Nottinghamshire) and Twenty20 competition (won by Somerset), along with a Who’s Who of cricketers who played in those tournaments, and updated Second Eleven records. It also covers the South Asian Cricket Academy. Our cover star is Harry Duke of Yorkshire, winner of the Les Hatton Trophy for Second Eleven Player of the Year.
In Brick by Brick, Max Bonnell explores the Australian tour of 1964. A touring team derided as the weakest Australian side to visit England won the Ashes in a damp and occasionally controversial series, while 13 years of Conservative government were ended by an election presented as a choice between a revitalised country and the class-ridden shackles of the past. Cricket stood at a similar crossroads, having abolished the distinction between amateurs and professionals, and introduced one-day professional cricket.
David Walker is the subject of a biography by Andy Dawson. Sir Pelham Warner believed Walker would have opened for England had he joined a first-class county. Instead, he opted for his native Norfolk, topped their batting averages in seven of his nine seasons in the 1930s. He also captained Oxford, led MCC in Ireland and toured Egypt with HM Martineau’s XI, before his tragic death in 1942, aged just 28, during an RAF operation off the Norwegian coast.
The Cricket Statistician, edited by Jonathan Northall, is sent to members in their quarterly mailings, but extra copies and previous issues are available in the shop. The latest issue includes articles on 18th-century cricket and the stage, ‘the 1864 Experiment’ and reminiscences on Yorkshire cricket
Other recent publications include The Dream That Died: Gwilym Rowland and Welsh Cricket, Andrew Hignell’s account of Gwilym Evans Rowland, a businessman who tried to raise cricket’s profile in Wales by creating a team which played home internationals against Scotland and Ireland and appeared at Lord’s. Gwilym ruffled feathers at Glamorgan CCC, but paid for matches played by the Wales team, and a visit by the United Berlin side in 1930. But after his business went into liquidation, he ended penniless, and his body was found in a ditch in 1938.
Cricket’s Revolution: Its Sudden Leap into Modernity is Eric Midwinter’s analysis of cricket’s transformation from a folk game played in various versions in isolated localities to a singular and recognisable national sport, with agreed laws and an undisputed central authority. This switch in the early 19th century was a part of the equally abrupt emergence of a nation turning to the rationalisation of society and away from the arbitrary confusion of the 18th century.
The 16th edition of the Overseas First-Class Annual is now on sale; covering all first-class cricket worldwide in 2023/24, it includes 559 full scorecards, and brief narratives plus league tables of each country’s first-class tournaments.
Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin: Masters of their Craft is John Shawcroft’s account of the Derbyshire fast bowlers from mining villages who formed the most dangerous new-ball attack in the County Championship in the 1950s, but received little recognition from England’s Test selectors.
In Town v Gown; City v Village: A History of Cricket in Cambridge, Tony Watts examines Cambridge’s rich cricket culture and tradition. The University provided first-class cricket for well over a century, while strong city clubs played on college grounds. But university cricket has lost its status, and the growth of integrated club leagues has shifted the balance from city clubs to surrounding villages. For Oxonians, Michael Stimpson’s The Cricket Professionals of Oxford tells the stories of professional cricketers from the Oxford area over 200 years.
Simon Sweetman’s You Can’t Hurry Us: A History of Cricket in Suffolk which covers the background to county cricket in Suffolk in the eighteenth century, through progress from two to three-day games, to the adoption of one-day and T20 cricket, taking in the club scene, the start of league cricket and women’s cricket.
In Ernest Parker: Not a Love Story, Max Bonnell and Andrew Sproul tell the story of the finest cricketer produced by Western Australia before the Second World War, whose premature death in the Great War was a tragedy that resounded throughout his home state, though hardly anyone really knew or understood him.
All books published in the last year which remain in stock appear under Latest Publications. Many earlier publications are available in the online shop, including extra copies of the ACS Journal, The Cricket Statistician.
If you need to get in touch with ACS Sales, their contact details are here.
Roger Gibbons 1944–2025
The Association is deeply saddened by the news that our much-loved friend and former Treasurer Roger Gibbons has died. He served from 2007 to 2013, and was also President of Gloucestershire from 2019 to 2022.
A short tribute appears in our Obituary section.
We are also sad to learn of the death of ACS author Brian Rendell.
ACS honoured with Howard Milton Award
The ACS was the winner of the 2024 Howard Milton Award for Cricket Scholarship, which is bestowed by the Cricket Society and the British Society of Sports History to a person or persons who have made an outstanding and/or unsung contribution to cricket scholarship. Further details at ACS News, 22 August 2024.
Members’ Marketplace
The ACS has launched a Members’ Marketplace to facilitate members selling cricket-related printed material (books, magazines, scorebooks, scorecards, etc) to each other. The marketplace will operate on a similar basis to small ads, so any transaction will be between the buyer and the seller; the ACS will not act as an agent, will take no fee, and will not guarantee the description or condition of any items. Instructions for using the marketplace are on the webpage.
We have now added an Items Wanted page where members may request items they are looking for, so do look if you think you might be able to help.
ACS Statistics Logistics sub-group
The ACS has created a Statistics Logistics sub-group drawn from the ACS committee, members of the Association, and members of the scoring and umpiring community, to discuss and advise on the recording or calculation of cricket statistics.
The group’s answers to a batch of questions, and explanations of how they reached their decisions, are available in a PDF document here.
The group has also discussed how to treat statistics for the ECB’s 100-ball competition, after consultation with ACS members, ECB officials, Wisden and Cricket Archive. Their advice on how to handle statistics for The Hundred is available in pdf form here.
Diversity and Equality Statement
The ACS Diversity and Equality Statement sets out the Association’s objective of seeking to appeal to people with an interest in every form of the game.
It recognises that, although in the past much of its work has focused on men’s first-class cricket, more recently it has published material on women’s cricket and taken the lead, for example, on developing statistics for the new Hundred competition.
The statement sets out ways in which the ACS will seek to encourage research work on a broad range of topics, designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. These include continuing to invite contributions to its activities from all members, actively encouraging new projects related to forms of cricket that have received less attention in the past, and seeking to lead on the collection of statistics for under-researched aspects of the game.
More ACS news
A summary of recent website updates
Join the ACS
If you are not yet a member of the Association, we very much hope that you will consider joining. Click on Join the ACS and follow the links and instructions there.
We have recently added the option of digital membership, for those who prefer to receive the quarterly mailing in electronic form.
Once you have joined, you will have access to the Members Area and can subscribe to the Members’ Email Forum. Members can obtain the password for the Members Area by sending an email to webmaster@acscricket.com.