Welcome to the ACS

AGM 16 March 2024

The 51st ACS AGM will be held virtually via Zoom at 10am (GMT) on Saturday 16 March 2024. Details were sent to members on 1 February, and those planning to attend are asked to contact the Secretary by 9 March.

Auction of Tony Webb collection, 16–24 March 2024

The fourth auction of cricket publications and memorabilia from the collection of Tony Webb will commence at 8am GMT on Saturday 16 March 2024 and close at 10pm GMT on Sunday 24 March 2024.

The auction will be of particular relevance to members with an interest in Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Australasian cricket.

Members must register in advance to participate in the auction. The terms & conditions, the registration process and the catalogue of items can be viewed here. We hope you find something of interest and look forward to receiving your bids.

The ACS celebrates its half-century!

ACS members and guests at Grace Road after the Golden Jubilee lunch in October 2023.

Last year was the ACS’s 50th anniversary. On 3 March 1973, 30 cricket-lovers gathered at the Edgbaston ground in Birmingham and voted – by a majority of one! – to form a new ‘Association of Cricket Statisticians’ (‘Historians’ was added to the name 20 years later).

On 14 October, we celebrated our Golden Jubilee at Grace Road in Leicester – our first in-person meeting for four and a half years.

A fuller report on the event, including toasts and tributes from leading members and a video recording of John Barclay’s talk, is available in the password-protected Members Area.

You can also 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.

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 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 2020 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, currently covering all Kent players who appeared between 1806 and 1939, and 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).
  • 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; and on Bluesky at @ACScricket.bsky.social.

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.

Jim Ledbetter, 1933–2023

Jim Ledbetter (photo from Mark Bentley)

News has belatedly reached us that Jim Ledbetter died in October 2023. Jim served the ACS as treasurer and later chairman, and edited the series First-Class Cricket: A Complete Record. Jim’s successor as chair, Douglas Miller, has written a short tribute to our fondly-remembered colleague.

Diversity and Equality Statement

The ACS has issued a Diversity and Equality Statement setting out clearly its 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 a number of 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 ways 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.

Introducing the 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.

Latest publications

The Cricket Professionals of Oxford by Michael Stimpson. Photo shows Merton College, the Cricketers' Arms at Temple Cowley, Neville Rogers (batting), George Brown (posing with bat) and Jack Brooks (bowling).

In The Cricket Professionals of Oxford, Michael Stimpson tells the stories of professional cricketers from the Oxford area over 200 years. These include underarm bowler Peter Bancalari in the 1820s, fiery roundarm bowler David Burrin in the 1850s, and fast man ‘Brusher’ Rogers at the end of the Victorian era; between the wars, George Brown and Johnny Arnold batted for England, and more recently Jack Brooks was a championship winner with Yorkshire.

First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual 2024 39th Edition. Edited by Paul Parkinson. Compiled by Howard Clayton with Keith Gerrish. Photo shows Josh Blake of Surrey in blue training gear taking a white ball in his left wicketkeeper glove

The Second Eleven Annual provides potted scores for all Second Eleven Championship and Twenty20 matches in 2023, with comprehensive averages, players’ biographies and statistical highlights, a detailed listing of grounds used, plus the fixtures for 2024.

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.

ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2023 Compiled by John Bryant 15th Edition

The 15th edition of the ACS Overseas First-Class Annual contains full scores of every first-class match worldwide in 2022/23 – 551 scorecards in total. It also includes brief narratives for each country’s first-class season, together with league tables for the various tournaments.

Outside the Tent: Free Enterprise in Australian Cricket, 1912-1987, by Stephen Musk. Photos show (top, left-to-right) Robert B Benjamin, Edgar Mayne, (bottom, left-to-right) Arthur Mailey, Bruce Francis

In Outside the Tent, the third book in our series on Cricket Tours, Stephen Musk analyses how Australian cricketers rebelled against the Board of Control by joining unofficial international tours, or playing as professionals in England – and draws attention to some forgotten tours to North America, India and South Africa.

First-Class Matches Pakistan 2004/05 to 2006/07

The eleventh volume of our ‘Hard to Get’ series, providing scorecards of first-class matches difficult to obtain in print, covers three seasons in Pakistan 2004/05 to 2006/07, during which 245 matches were played. We also have a few copies of the tenth volume, Pakistan 1987/88 to 1989/90, still available.

In Best of Enemies, John Shawcroft explores the keen cricketing rivalry between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire – whose contests in the 1930s, when both vied for the County Championship, sometimes eclipsed even the Roses matches – as well as that of their football cousins, Derby County and Nottingham Forest.

Cricket Grounds of Northamptonshire, by Andrew Radd

Cricket Grounds of Northamptonshire completed the ACS series covering grounds in all 18 first-class counties. Written by local expert Andrew Radd, this book investigates the history of all Northamptonshire’s first-class grounds – and some ‘home’ grounds outside the county boundaries as well.

In our new series on Cricket Tours, No Picnic: The historic first MCC tour of India and Ceylon 1926/27, Jeremy Lonsdale tells the story of a naively-planned and gruelling tour led by Arthur Gilligan. (This book is no longer available from the shop but can be ordered directly from the author.)

The ACS International Cricket Year Book 2023 provides detailed information about every current player worldwide, listing all men who appeared in any First-Class, List A Limited-Overs or Twenty20 match in the 2021/22 and 2022 seasons, as well as women taking part in international matches.

A Game Emerging: Yorkshire cricket before the coming of the All England Eleven extends Jeremy Lonsdale’s acclaimed series on Yorkshire cricket back to the 1750s; it is also is available in a discounted package with A Game Taken Seriously, on the second half of the 19th century. You can listen to an interview with Jeremy on YouTube.

Our sales offers include The Minor Counties Championship 1895-1914, which rounded off our series on the early ‘second-class’ competition by summarising the first 20 years of the Minor Counties Championship; A Tall Story, the life of Nigel Plews; and Cricket’s Four Epochs, Eric Midwinter’s examination of how cricket reflects civil society.

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.

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.

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.