Second Eleven Annual 2025
Each year the Association publishes the First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual, giving details of the previous summer’s Second XI Championship and T20 competition, along with a Who’s Who of cricketers involved and updated records for the Second XI competitions.
This year’s edition, the 40th, has been delayed, but we expect to publish it in mid-May. Members will be informed once it is available.
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 Feburary publications include The Dream That Died: Gwilym Rowland and Welsh Cricket, in which Andrew Hignell tells the story of Gwilym Evans Rowland, a Manchester-born 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 the all-amateur Welsh Cygnets, and a visit by the United Berlin team in 1930. But during 1931/32 his business conglomerate collapsed and went into liquidation, and he ended as a penniless man in Anglesey whose body was found in a ditch in 1938.
Cricket’s Revolution: Its Sudden Leap into Modernity is Eric Midwinter’s analysis of the transformation of cricket 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, over thirty years 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. Against this background, Midwinter explores the development of the unified format of cricket’s laws, controls, clubs, competitions, records and statistics.
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.
The latest issue of 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.
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 throughout most of the 1950s, but received little recognition from England’s Test selectors, with only ten Tests between them.
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 in recent years, university cricket has lost its status, and the growth of integrated club leagues has shifted the balance from city clubs to surrounding villages. The reprint of this book has now arrived.
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.
In The Cricket Professionals of Oxford, Michael Stimpson tells the stories of professional cricketers from the Oxford area over 200 years, from underarm bowler Peter Bancalari in the 1820s to Jack Brooks, a recent championship winner with Yorkshire.
We have now sold out of A Game Emerging: Yorkshire cricket before the coming of the All England Eleven, in which Jeremy Lonsdale extended his acclaimed series on Yorkshire cricket back to the 1750s, but you can still obtain the book directly from Jeremy at livesincricket@acscricket.com as well as listen to an interview with him about the book on YouTube.
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 by Douglas Miller appears in our Obituary section.
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.