George

Great batting often has the beauty of blast or the grandeur of the gale. In Headley’s art there is no noise. But it answers the test of greatness. As he walks down the pavilion steps you expect, in hope or fear.

                 – R.C. Robertson Glasgow, 1939

Ron

He came with a slight handicap in that he had to live up to the fact that he was ‘the son of a famous father’. This he has done magnificently… now, in his prime, one sees a cricketer of great skill and character performing with such satisfaction for so many people…the speed at which the ball travels to the boundary through the covers is a sight that many of us will remember for a very long time.

  – Geoffrey Dorrell Worcs CCC Chairman, 1972

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Dean

Dean was a wholehearted cricketer who never gave anything less than 100%. When he was hot he was red hot with his match-winning spell at the MCG in 1998 being the perfect example. He was a captain’s dream – always wanted to bowl and would run in all day. He was deceptively sharp with a good bouncer. A great team man – never shy of a word or two and always keen to offer an opinion on anything and everything. Injury cruelly cut his career short…

– Alec Stewart,  2021.

In the late Sixties and early Seventies the Essex circus, led by Brian ‘Tonker’ Taylor and featuring three spinners, was, for cricket fans, as bewildering and beguiling as its contemporaries Sergeant Pepper and Monty Python.

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In 1970 David Frith published his first book – My Dear Victorious Stod. It won the inaugural Cricket Society Book of the Year award and set a new standard for cricketing biographies. Now, 45 years (and 34 books) later, the world's pre-eminent cricket writer and historian returns to his 'first love' with a new edition entitled 'Stoddy': England's Finest Sportsman.

How to assess a great innings? How to measure it in relation to others? How to find, or attempt to find, the 100 greatest Test centuries?

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These were the questions confronting an intrepid band of researchers, digging into all manner of documents, books, newspapers and websites for information that would help find the answers...

First and foremost, it is a seaside ground, a mixture of the regency and the raffish, from which, almost alone in England (or anywhere else for that matter) you can actually see the sea. Not much of it, it’s true, but you are always conscious of it, in a quality of light, in the feeling of the air. The sea has shaped Sussex cricket and Sussex cricketers, it has given both an alternating exhilaration and fallibility.
At Hove, sun and sea-mists, heat and cold, follow one another with bewildering rapidity, and Sussex fortunes on the field bear witness to this elemental instability. The Downs, too, are another physical factor, separating Hove from the flatness of southern England, a protective arm flung across the whole county. 

– Alan Ross

On 15 January 1921 in Adelaide a startling new development in Test cricket was observed. For the first time a side fielded two genuine fast bowlers and, what’s more, they were captained by a man who had the temerity to let them share the new ball. The impact wasn’t immediate but within 11 months Gregory and McDonald had been central to establishing their side’s position as unquestionably the best in the world.

Frith's Encounters covers over 100 years of cricket. The author’s contact with players and writers spans a period which takes in Wilfred Rhodes, who told him about bowling to W.G.Grace and Victor Trumper, through to the tragic David Bairstow and Peter Roebuck of the modern era

On New Year’s Day 1912, the Times published a rallying editorial which highlighted the possibility that Britain might by the end of the year ‘have been wiped out of politics altogether and have become dependent on the will of others’. Against this background of fear and pessimism, that summer would see the first great world championship of cricket – the Triangular Tournament.

Wilfred Rhodes was, is (and always will be) the most prolific player first-class cricket has ever known. No-one played more games, took more wickets or batted more often. Yet war took four seasons from him. 

A Wisden cricketer in his debut season, he represented England for the last time 32 years later at the age of 52. In his first game he bowled to Grace and in his last to Bradman: he was ‘The Triumphal Arch’ between the game’s two most famous players. 

The man from Kirkheaton was a giant of the game, and not just for the records he broke and still holds. Through his achievements and longevity he became a part of the fabric of society in Yorkshire and beyond for 32 years. Forty years after retiring he was still giving interviews, totally blind and having outlived all his contemporaries.

Every follower of England cricket has a view on who should be in the England Test team. In pubs, sports bars, and around family dining tables, lovers of cricket argue about nothing more than the selectors’ choices for the next Test or the next tour. The debate will be informed by the print and other media, not least, in the 21st Century, by online blogs. 

How to assess a great bowling performance? 

How to measure it in relation to others? 

How to find, or attempt to find, the 100 greatest Test ‘five-fers’? 

These were the questions confronting an intrepid band of researchers, digging into all manner of documents, books, newspapers and websites for information that would help find the answers.....