The Cricketers of My Time
Encyclopedia
The Cricketers of My Time is a memoir of cricket
, nominally written by the former Hambledon
cricketer John Nyren
about the players of the late 18th century, most of whom he knew personally. Nyren, who had no recognised literary skill, collaborated with the eminent Shakespearean scholar Charles Cowden Clarke
to produce his work. It is believed that Cowden Clarke recorded Nyren's verbal reminiscences and so "ghosted" the text.
The work became a major source for the history and personalities of Georgian cricket and has also come to be regarded as the first classic in cricket's now rich literary history. Writing in 1957, John Arlott
described it as "still the finest study of cricket and cricketers ever written".
newspaper called The Town in 1832. The following year, the series with some modifications appeared as the second part of an instructional book entitled The Young Cricketer's Tutor, which was also the title of the book's first part. There was a third part called A Few Memoranda Respecting the Progress of Cricket and that is generally referred to as the Memoranda. The first edition of the full book was published by Effingham Wilson of the Royal Exchange, London in June 1833, and was reviewed by the Rev. John Mitford for The Gentleman's Magazine
in July 1833.
John Nyren died in 1837, but there was a second edition of the book in 1840 followed by eleven subsequent editions to 1855. These editions were retitled Nyren's Cricketers Guide. A further edition, with introduction, footnotes and appendices by F S Ashley-Cooper, was published by Gay & Bird in 1902. In 1907, there was another edition produced by E. V. Lucas
titled The Hambledon Men. Lucas' edition included Mitford's review and the interview by James Pycroft
of Billy Beldham, one of Nyren's particular heroes, as well as pieces by Arthur Haygarth
and Mary Russell Mitford
, accompanied by Lucas's own commentary on the source material.
In 1996, during researches for his Hambledon book The Glory Days of Cricket, Ashley Mote
discovered a handwritten manuscript of The Cricketers of My Time which was signed and dated March 1833. A forensic examination was undertaken to determine the age of the manuscript and proved that it was written within a few years at most of that date, which was three months after the serial in The Town concluded and three months before the first edition of The Young Cricketer's Tutor was published. In addition, a handwriting analysis verified that neither Nyren nor Cowden Clarke wrote the manuscript, which is believed to have been the work of a professional copyist using a steel-nib pen. There are a number of differences between the serial and the manuscript, but the version in the book's first edition has only minor differences from the manuscript.
In 1998, Mote published his findings in a new version of The Cricketers of My Time which compares the serial with both the manuscript and the first edition.
, but he also talked about cricketers from Surrey
and Kent
who were Hampshire's usual opponents, sometimes in the form of an All-England team. Nyren is now regarded as a key source for information about these players.
seems to have been his best friend. In his appraisal of John Small senior, Nyren says:
Although the origin of the term "superstar
" in the context of celebrity is uncertain, attestations like "a star of the first magnitude" must have given rise to the concept of "stars" and "superstars". John Small, who scored the earliest known century
in first-class cricket
, was certainly a major reason for Hampshire's success in the Hambledon era.
, who was the Hambledon Club captain, including a description of him as "(the finest) specimen of the thorough-bred old English yeoman". Although John Nyren was at pains to show undue respect, almost amounting to obsequious fawning where social superiors were concerned (especially the unsavoury Lord Frederick Beauclerk
), he tells of his father "maintaining an opinion with great firmness against the 3rd Duke of Dorset and Sir Horatio Mann
and being proved right". But while his father reportedly stood up to aristocrats, John Nyren himself resorted to "social grovelling" via the addition to his text of "ingratiating remarks addressed to the great and powerful".
The Laws of cricket
still stipulate the limit on the width of the bat that was agreed by the Hambledon Club as a result of the "Monster Bat Incident
". While Nyren, a boy at the time of the incident in 1771, may have thought that White was cheating, it is now believed that he forced an issue as the modern straight bats were a recent innovation, replacing the original hockey-stick shape, and no standard dimensions had as yet been agreed.
off-break. Nyren says:
While the "general" way for an overarm
bowler to spin the ball is from off to leg (i.e., an off-break), the opposite was true for the underarm bowlers and Lamborn was thus one of bowling's great innovators. The pitched delivery was still new, having been introduced in the 1760s, when Lamborn played (i.e., his known career was from 1777 to 1781). Until the 1760s, bowlers had always rolled or skimmed the ball towards the batsman so spin bowling
itself was a new skill. Nyren consistently refers to "spin" as "twist".
reminiscing about the great players of the past". Nevertheless, it remains an "extraordinarily vivid, exciting and unique book". Unless new sources of information about Georgian cricket should come to light, "nothing could hope to replace the charm of the account of those great days handed down to us by John Nyren". David Underdown
called it "a wonderfully evocative, nostalgic account of the (Hambledon) Club's great days in the 1770s and 1780s.
Harry Altham
pointed out that the book was written some forty to fifty years after the zenith of Hambledon and so "it is not to be wondered at" that Nyren was often "vague as to detail and very sparing of date and place". Altham calls Nyren the "Herodotus
, and not the Thucydides
, of cricket" and writes of Nyren's ability to "make his characters live more vividly".
Rowland Bowen
, often a prickly critic of other writers, described The Cricketers of My Time as "the locus classicus for late eighteenth century cricket personalities" and added that "the book is outstanding as literature". Bowen was convinced that Cowden Clarke was the author and had used Nyren's spoken reminiscences as his source. Bowen wrote that "Clarke makes us hear the very sound of the old man himself talking". Underdown said that it is "not important" who wrote the actual text as "in either case it originated with Nyren".
Apart from the biographical information for which it is invaluable, the book contains other pieces of information that are useful and sometimes original. For example, Nyren is the first writer to mention boundaries
in a cricketing context, although it meant something different then as they were parallel lines in single wicket
matches used to define the limits of the outfield.
A noted counterpoint in Nyren's work is his eulogy of the Hambledon era against his contempt for the roundarm era
which began a few years before The Cricketers of My Time was published. Nyren made several references to roundarm as "throwing". In short, he "reckoned the game had been ruined by allowing roundarm". According to Altham, Nyren was one of the foremost critics of roundarm along with William Ward
and Thomas Lord
. Altham recounts how Nyren stated in his first edition, in the section headed "Protest", that Nyren prophesied: "the elegant and scientific game of cricket will degenerate into a mere exhibition of rough, coarse horseplay!"
There is no evidence of plagiarism in The Cricketers of My Time itself (or in the short Memoranda) which contains "such qualities of spontaneity that they might almost have been taken from dictation straight onto the page".
In 1801, Thomas Boxall
published Rules and Instructions for Playing at the Game of Cricket and this was "the first attempt to set laws, methods and tactics down on paper". The work, which had less than 6,000 words, was revised and reprinted several times to 1804 and was well-received. In 1816, the writer John Baxter
published Instructions and Rules for Playing the Noble Game of Cricket under the name of William Lambert
. This was also successful and was reprinted a number of times till 1828 with a further listed edition in 1832 that has been lost.
Although Lambert was a major player in the Napoleonic period, he could not read or write and so Baxter was cricket's first "ghost writer".
The Lambert/Baxter book borrowed heavily from Boxall but was longer and had a structured format. In The Young Cricketer's Tutor, Nyren blatantly copied Lambert's structure and attempted to present new content by overwriting Lambert's constructions, generally with longer sentences.
, William Bowra
, William Bullen
, Robert Clifford, Samuel Colchin
, John Edmeads
, William Fennex
and Richard Aubrey Veck
; while other notable players such as Francis Booker
, Robert Robinson
and Thomas Scott
receive only the briefest of mentions.
In the following table, the page numbers given are those in the newest version of the book edited by Mote in 1998. The date published in The Town refers to the relevant sections in which each player was discussed. The essential difference between Mote's version and the original 1833 book is that Mote arranged the parts in the order that they were written: hence, The Cricketers of My Time comes first and precedes The Young Cricketer's Tutor with the Memoranda at the end.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, nominally written by the former Hambledon
Hambledon Club
The Hambledon Club was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England.-Foundation:...
cricketer John Nyren
John Nyren
John Nyren was an English cricketer and author. Nyren made 16 known appearances in first-class cricket from 1787 to 1817...
about the players of the late 18th century, most of whom he knew personally. Nyren, who had no recognised literary skill, collaborated with the eminent Shakespearean scholar Charles Cowden Clarke
Charles Cowden Clarke
Charles Cowden Clarke , English author and Shakespearian scholar, was born in Enfield, Middlesex.-Life:His father, John Clarke, was a schoolmaster in Clarke's Academy in Enfield Town, among whose pupils was John Keats. Charles Clarke taught Keats his letters, and encouraged his love of poetry...
to produce his work. It is believed that Cowden Clarke recorded Nyren's verbal reminiscences and so "ghosted" the text.
The work became a major source for the history and personalities of Georgian cricket and has also come to be regarded as the first classic in cricket's now rich literary history. Writing in 1957, John Arlott
John Arlott
Leslie Thomas John Arlott OBE was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. He was also a poet, wine connoisseur and former police officer in Hampshire...
described it as "still the finest study of cricket and cricketers ever written".
Publications
The Cricketers of My Time was first published in serial form by a weekly LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
newspaper called The Town in 1832. The following year, the series with some modifications appeared as the second part of an instructional book entitled The Young Cricketer's Tutor, which was also the title of the book's first part. There was a third part called A Few Memoranda Respecting the Progress of Cricket and that is generally referred to as the Memoranda. The first edition of the full book was published by Effingham Wilson of the Royal Exchange, London in June 1833, and was reviewed by the Rev. John Mitford for The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term "magazine" for a periodical...
in July 1833.
John Nyren died in 1837, but there was a second edition of the book in 1840 followed by eleven subsequent editions to 1855. These editions were retitled Nyren's Cricketers Guide. A further edition, with introduction, footnotes and appendices by F S Ashley-Cooper, was published by Gay & Bird in 1902. In 1907, there was another edition produced by E. V. Lucas
E. V. Lucas
Edward Verrall Lucas was a versatile and popular English writer. His nearly 100 books demonstrate great facility with style, and are generally acknowledged as humorous by contemporary readers and critics. Some of his essays about the sport cricket are still considered among the best instructional...
titled The Hambledon Men. Lucas' edition included Mitford's review and the interview by James Pycroft
James Pycroft
James Pycroft is chiefly known for writing The Cricket Field, one of the earliest books about cricket, published in 1851. Pycroft mythologised cricket as a noble, manly and essentially British activity James Pycroft (1813, Geyers House, Wiltshire – 1895-03-10, Brighton, Sussex) is chiefly known...
of Billy Beldham, one of Nyren's particular heroes, as well as pieces by Arthur Haygarth
Arthur Haygarth
Arthur Haygarth was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians....
and Mary Russell Mitford
Mary Russell Mitford
Mary Russell Mitford , was an English author and dramatist. She was born at Alresford, Hampshire. Her place in English literature is as the author of Our Village...
, accompanied by Lucas's own commentary on the source material.
In 1996, during researches for his Hambledon book The Glory Days of Cricket, Ashley Mote
Ashley Mote
Ashley Mote was a non-inscrit Member of the European Parliament for South East England. An outspoken critic of fraud in the European Institutions, he himself was convicted of benefit fraud in 2007 for which he served a nine-month prison sentence and was described by the trial judge as "a truly...
discovered a handwritten manuscript of The Cricketers of My Time which was signed and dated March 1833. A forensic examination was undertaken to determine the age of the manuscript and proved that it was written within a few years at most of that date, which was three months after the serial in The Town concluded and three months before the first edition of The Young Cricketer's Tutor was published. In addition, a handwriting analysis verified that neither Nyren nor Cowden Clarke wrote the manuscript, which is believed to have been the work of a professional copyist using a steel-nib pen. There are a number of differences between the serial and the manuscript, but the version in the book's first edition has only minor differences from the manuscript.
In 1998, Mote published his findings in a new version of The Cricketers of My Time which compares the serial with both the manuscript and the first edition.
Value as a source
Much of historical, social and literary value can be gleaned from Nyren's work in which his essential purpose was to provide biographical information about the players whom he knew and remembered. For the most part, they were associated with the Hambledon Club and played for HampshireHampshire county cricket teams
Hampshire county cricket teams have been traced back to the 18th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that...
, but he also talked about cricketers from Surrey
Surrey county cricket teams
Surrey county cricket teams have been traced back to the 17th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. The first definite mention of cricket anywhere in the world is dated c.1550 in Guildford.-17th century:...
and Kent
Kent county cricket teams
Kent county cricket teams have been traced back to the 17th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. Kent, jointly with Sussex, is the birthplace of the sport...
who were Hampshire's usual opponents, sometimes in the form of an All-England team. Nyren is now regarded as a key source for information about these players.
John Small: superstar?
Nyren had great admiration for master batsman John Small, whose son Jack SmallJack Small
John Small junior was an English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club.Jack Small made his debut in 1784, his career continuing until 1811...
seems to have been his best friend. In his appraisal of John Small senior, Nyren says:
the name of John Small, the elder, shines among them (the contemporary players) in all the lustre of a star of the first magnitude.
Although the origin of the term "superstar
Superstar
A superstar is a widely acclaimed celebrity.Superstar or superstars may also refer to:-People:* Warhol Superstar, associates of Andy Warhol* WWE Superstar, the term used to refer to entertainers from the WWE...
" in the context of celebrity is uncertain, attestations like "a star of the first magnitude" must have given rise to the concept of "stars" and "superstars". John Small, who scored the earliest known century
Century (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a batsman reaches his century when he scores 100 or more runs in a single innings. The term is also included in "century partnership" which occurs when two batsmen add 100 runs to the team total when they are batting together. A century is regarded as a landmark score for...
in first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
, was certainly a major reason for Hampshire's success in the Hambledon era.
Richard Nyren
Nyren says much about his own father, Richard NyrenRichard Nyren
Richard "Dick" Nyren was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket during the 1760s and 1770s in the heyday of the Hambledon Club...
, who was the Hambledon Club captain, including a description of him as "(the finest) specimen of the thorough-bred old English yeoman". Although John Nyren was at pains to show undue respect, almost amounting to obsequious fawning where social superiors were concerned (especially the unsavoury Lord Frederick Beauclerk
Lord Frederick Beauclerk
Lord Frederick Beauclerk was an outstanding but controversial English first-class cricketer for 35 years from 1791 to 1825. On his retirement, he served as president of Marylebone Cricket Club in 1826.Beauclerk was the fourth son of the 5th Duke of St Albans and became a clergyman. He was Vicar...
), he tells of his father "maintaining an opinion with great firmness against the 3rd Duke of Dorset and Sir Horatio Mann
Sir Horatio Mann
Sir Horatio Mann, 2nd Baronet was an English MP. He is remembered as a member of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire and a patron of Kent cricket. He was an occasional player but rarely in first-class matches....
and being proved right". But while his father reportedly stood up to aristocrats, John Nyren himself resorted to "social grovelling" via the addition to his text of "ingratiating remarks addressed to the great and powerful".
The "monster bat" incident
The Memoranda seems to have been added hastily and is not generally seen as providing much value, but it does include the following:Several years since (I do not recollect the precise date) a player, named WhiteThomas White (cricketer)Thomas "Daddy" White was a noted English cricketer.White played in the 1760s and 1770s; details of his early career are largely unknown but he retired in 1779. He is known to have appeared frequently for Surrey and All-England since recorded scorecards first became commonplace in 1772...
, of RyegateReigateReigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
(sic), brought a bat to a match, which being the width of the stumps, effectually defended his wicket from the bowler : and, in consequence, a law was passed limiting the future width of the bat to 4¼ inches. Another law was decreed that the ball should not weigh less than 5½ oz, or more than 5¾ oz.
The Laws of cricket
Laws of cricket
The laws of cricket are a set of rules established by the Marylebone Cricket Club which describe the laws of cricket worldwide, to ensure uniformity and fairness. There are currently 42 laws, which outline all aspects of how the game is played from how a team wins a game, how a batsman is...
still stipulate the limit on the width of the bat that was agreed by the Hambledon Club as a result of the "Monster Bat Incident
Monster Bat Incident 1771
The Monster Bat Incident 1771 concerns an attempt to use a bat that was as wide as the wicket, during a cricket match between Chertsey and Hambledon at Laleham Burway that lasted from 23 September to 24 September 1771. Controversy arose when Chertsey's Thomas White attempted to use the bat, while...
". While Nyren, a boy at the time of the incident in 1771, may have thought that White was cheating, it is now believed that he forced an issue as the modern straight bats were a recent innovation, replacing the original hockey-stick shape, and no standard dimensions had as yet been agreed.
Lamborn
One of Nyren's most vivid biographical sketches is his chapter on Lamborn, who was clearly a ripe character. But this chapter has significance for cricket's history and evolution as Lamborn was evidently the originator of the underarmUnderarm bowling
In cricket, underarm bowling is as old as the sport itself. Until the introduction of the roundarm style in the first half of the 19th century, bowling was performed in the same way as in bowls, the ball being delivered with the hand below the waist...
off-break. Nyren says:
He was a bowler – right-handed, and he had the most extraordinary delivery I ever saw. The ball was delivered quite low, and with a twist (sic) ; not like that of the generality of right-handed bowlers, but just the reverse way : that is, if bowling to a right-handed hitter, his ball would twist from the off stump into the leg.
While the "general" way for an overarm
Overarm bowling
In cricket, overarm bowling refers to a delivery in which the bowler's hand is above shoulder height. This is in contrast to a roundarm delivery, where the hand is between shoulder height and waist height; and an underarm delivery where the bowler's hand is below waist height.After roundarm was...
bowler to spin the ball is from off to leg (i.e., an off-break), the opposite was true for the underarm bowlers and Lamborn was thus one of bowling's great innovators. The pitched delivery was still new, having been introduced in the 1760s, when Lamborn played (i.e., his known career was from 1777 to 1781). Until the 1760s, bowlers had always rolled or skimmed the ball towards the batsman so spin bowling
Spin bowling
Spin bowling is a technique used for bowling in the sport of cricket. Practitioners are known as spinners or spin bowlers.-Purpose:The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball with rapid rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch it will deviate, thus making it difficult for the...
itself was a new skill. Nyren consistently refers to "spin" as "twist".
Legacy
The Cricketers of My Time lacks structure and is often disjointed to the extent that it resembles "a couple of old cricketers on Test Match SpecialTest Match Special
Test Match Special is a British radio programme covering professional cricket, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 , Five Live Sports Extra and the internet to the United Kingdom and the rest of the world...
reminiscing about the great players of the past". Nevertheless, it remains an "extraordinarily vivid, exciting and unique book". Unless new sources of information about Georgian cricket should come to light, "nothing could hope to replace the charm of the account of those great days handed down to us by John Nyren". David Underdown
David Underdown
David E. Underdown was a historian of 17th-century English politics and culture and Professor Emeritus at Yale University. Born at Wells, Somerset, Underdown was educated at the Blue School and Exeter College, Oxford...
called it "a wonderfully evocative, nostalgic account of the (Hambledon) Club's great days in the 1770s and 1780s.
Harry Altham
Harry Altham
Harry Surtees Altham, CBE, DSO, MC was an English cricketer who became an important figure in the game as an administrator, historian and coach. His Wisden obituary described him as "among the best known personalities in the world of cricket"...
pointed out that the book was written some forty to fifty years after the zenith of Hambledon and so "it is not to be wondered at" that Nyren was often "vague as to detail and very sparing of date and place". Altham calls Nyren the "Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, and not the Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...
, of cricket" and writes of Nyren's ability to "make his characters live more vividly".
Rowland Bowen
Rowland Bowen
Major Rowland Francis Bowen was a cricket researcher, historian and writer....
, often a prickly critic of other writers, described The Cricketers of My Time as "the locus classicus for late eighteenth century cricket personalities" and added that "the book is outstanding as literature". Bowen was convinced that Cowden Clarke was the author and had used Nyren's spoken reminiscences as his source. Bowen wrote that "Clarke makes us hear the very sound of the old man himself talking". Underdown said that it is "not important" who wrote the actual text as "in either case it originated with Nyren".
Apart from the biographical information for which it is invaluable, the book contains other pieces of information that are useful and sometimes original. For example, Nyren is the first writer to mention boundaries
Boundary (cricket)
Boundary has two distinct meanings in the sport of cricket:# the edge or boundary of the playing field, and# a manner of scoring runs.-Edge of the field:...
in a cricketing context, although it meant something different then as they were parallel lines in single wicket
Single Wicket
Single wicket cricket is a form of cricket played between two individuals, who take turns to bat and bowl against each other. The one bowling is assisted by a team of fielders, who remain as fielders at the change of innings. The winner is the one who scores more runs...
matches used to define the limits of the outfield.
A noted counterpoint in Nyren's work is his eulogy of the Hambledon era against his contempt for the roundarm era
Roundarm bowling
In cricket, roundarm bowling is a style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and had largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowler has his arm extended at about 90 degrees from his body at the point where he releases the ball...
which began a few years before The Cricketers of My Time was published. Nyren made several references to roundarm as "throwing". In short, he "reckoned the game had been ruined by allowing roundarm". According to Altham, Nyren was one of the foremost critics of roundarm along with William Ward
William Ward (cricketer)
William Ward was a noted English cricketer. He came from an affluent family which owned property on the Isle of Wight. He was educated at Winchester College, and then received financial training in Antwerp.-Life and career:William Ward was a prominent right-handed batsman and an occasional slow...
and Thomas Lord
Thomas Lord
Thomas Lord was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1787 to 1802. He made a brief comeback, playing in one further match in 1815. Overall, Lord made 90 known appearances in first-class cricket...
. Altham recounts how Nyren stated in his first edition, in the section headed "Protest", that Nyren prophesied: "the elegant and scientific game of cricket will degenerate into a mere exhibition of rough, coarse horseplay!"
Plagiarism
Mote's 1998 edition of the book begins with an introduction in which he outlines the discovery of the manuscript and the actions that followed up to publication of the new version. In addition, he criticised Nyren's work and pointed out the plagiarism that is evident in the part called The Young Cricketer's Tutor. Mote believes that Nyren included this piece to add bulk to what would otherwise have been a slim volume.There is no evidence of plagiarism in The Cricketers of My Time itself (or in the short Memoranda) which contains "such qualities of spontaneity that they might almost have been taken from dictation straight onto the page".
In 1801, Thomas Boxall
Thomas Boxall
Thomas Boxall was a famous English cricketer of the late 18th century. He was a very successful right arm bowler, believed to have been fast underarm....
published Rules and Instructions for Playing at the Game of Cricket and this was "the first attempt to set laws, methods and tactics down on paper". The work, which had less than 6,000 words, was revised and reprinted several times to 1804 and was well-received. In 1816, the writer John Baxter
John Baxter (publisher)
John Baxter , was an English printer and publisher.Baxter was born at Rickhurst, Surrey, 20 October 1781. Early in life he settled in Lewes as a bookseller and printer. Among the earliest of Baxter's enterprises was the publication of a large quarto Bible, annotated by the Rev...
published Instructions and Rules for Playing the Noble Game of Cricket under the name of William Lambert
William Lambert (cricketer)
William Lambert was an English professional cricketer in the first two decades of the 19th century...
. This was also successful and was reprinted a number of times till 1828 with a further listed edition in 1832 that has been lost.
Although Lambert was a major player in the Napoleonic period, he could not read or write and so Baxter was cricket's first "ghost writer".
The Lambert/Baxter book borrowed heavily from Boxall but was longer and had a structured format. In The Young Cricketer's Tutor, Nyren blatantly copied Lambert's structure and attempted to present new content by overwriting Lambert's constructions, generally with longer sentences.
Cricketers mentioned in the book
Numerous Georgian players are described in the book but, as the newest version's editor has pointed out, there are several omissions including John BoormanJohn Boorman (cricketer)
John Boorman was a famous English cricketer whose career spanned the 1772 season and the 1793 season....
, William Bowra
William Bowra
William Bowra was an English cricketer who played regularly for Kent teams from 1768 until 1788 and then for Sussex until 1792. He had 47 known first-class appearances between 1775 and 1792. His name was pronounced "Borra".In a Hampshire Chronicle report of a 1775 game, his name is spelt "Bower"...
, William Bullen
William Bullen
William Bullen was an outstanding English cricketer throughout the last quarter of the 18th century. Hailing from Kent, Bullen was a great all-rounder, noted in the key sources as a fast bowler and a "powerful hitter"....
, Robert Clifford, Samuel Colchin
Samuel Colchin
Samuel Colchin was an English cricketer who played for Kent in the 1760s and 1770s. He was also selected for All-England in major matches and was often a given man. He was an all-rounder though noted mainly as a bowler, but of unknown type and pace...
, John Edmeads
John Edmeads
John Edmeads was an English cricketer who played for Chertsey Cricket Club, Surrey and All-England....
, William Fennex
William Fennex
William Fennex was a famous English cricketer. He was a noted all-rounder and right arm fast bowler...
and Richard Aubrey Veck
Richard Aubrey Veck
Richard Aubrey Veck was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club....
; while other notable players such as Francis Booker
Francis Booker
Francis Booker was an English cricketer. He was a left-handed batsman who was noted as a fine hitter of the ball and a very good outfielder....
, Robert Robinson
Robert Robinson (cricketer)
Robert Robinson was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire at the time of the Hambledon Club and also for Surrey....
and Thomas Scott
Thomas Scott (cricketer)
Thomas Scott was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire at the time of the Hambledon Club. He was a specialist batsman who may have been a regular opener, but it is not known if he was right or left-handed...
receive only the briefest of mentions.
In the following table, the page numbers given are those in the newest version of the book edited by Mote in 1998. The date published in The Town refers to the relevant sections in which each player was discussed. The essential difference between Mote's version and the original 1833 book is that Mote arranged the parts in the order that they were written: hence, The Cricketers of My Time comes first and precedes The Young Cricketer's Tutor with the Memoranda at the end.
| player's name | | date of section's publication in The Town | | page numbers in 1998 edition |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Freemantle Andrew Freemantle Andrew Freemantle was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire during the Hambledon Era and afterwards... |
9 December 1832 | 100–103 |
| Billy Beldham | 25 November 1832 | 89–92 |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| 4th Earl of Tankerville Charles Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville Charles Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville , styled Lord Ossulston from 1753 to 1767, was a British nobleman, a collector of shells and a famous patron of Surrey cricket in the 1770s. He agreed a set of cricket rules that included the first mention of the Leg before wicket rule. His wife, Emma, was... |
14 October 1832 | 68–70 |
| 21 October 1832 | 75–76 | |
| Charles Powlett Charles Powlett The Reverend Charles Powlett was a noted patron of English cricket who has been described as the mainstay, if not the actual founder, of the Hambledon Club... |
21 October 1832 | 74–76 |
| David Harris | 18 November 1832 | 85–87 |
| 25 November 1832 | 93–98 | |
| 9 December 1832 | 99–103 | |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| E. H. Budd | 25 November 1832 | 95–98 |
| Edward Aburrow | 7 October 1832 | 61–65 |
| Francis Booker Francis Booker Francis Booker was an English cricketer. He was a left-handed batsman who was noted as a fine hitter of the ball and a very good outfielder.... |
21 October 1832 | 74–76 |
| G. Wells | 18 November 1832 | 85–87 |
| 9 December 1832 | 101–103 | |
| George Beldham George Beldham George Beldham was an English professional cricketer who made 3 known appearances in major cricket matches from 1800 to 1805. He was the elder brother of William Beldham.-External sources:*... |
25 November 1832 | 89–92 |
| George Leer George Leer George Leer was a famous English cricketer who played for Hampshire in the time of the Hambledon Club.Leer began playing in the 1760s... |
7 October 1832 | 61–65 |
| 21 October 1832 | 75–76 | |
| 28 October 1832 | 78–81 | |
| Harry Walker Harry Walker (cricketer) Harry Walker was a noted English cricketer who played mainly for Surrey... |
18 November 1832 | 85–87 |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| Jack Small Jack Small John Small junior was an English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club.Jack Small made his debut in 1784, his career continuing until 1811... |
9 December 1832 | 101–103 |
| addition to 1833 edition | 105–107 | |
| James Aylward James Aylward James Aylward was a noted English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club. He was a left-handed batsman.... |
18 November 1832 | 84–87 |
| 9 December 1832 | 101–103 | |
| John Bayton | 7 October 1832 | 65 |
| John Frame John Frame John M. Frame is an American philosopher and Calvinist theologian especially noted for his work in epistemology and presuppositional apologetics, systematic theology, and ethics... |
7 October 1832 | 65 |
| 14 October 1832 | 70 | |
| 3rd Duke of Dorset | 23 September 1832 | 56–58 |
| 7 October 1832 | 65 | |
| 14 October 1832 | 67–70 | |
| 21 October 1832 | 75–76 | |
| 28 October 1832 | 79–81 | |
| John Freemantle John Freemantle John Freemantle was an English cricketer who played for the legendary Hambledon Club.... |
9 December 1832 | 100–103 |
| John Hammond John Hammond (cricketer) John Hammond was an English cricketer of the late 18th and early 19th century. He was one of the greatest early Sussex players.... |
9 December 1832 | 103 |
| John Minshull John Minshull John Minshull aka Minchin was a famous English cricketer during the 1770s... |
7 October 1832 | 65 |
| 21 October 1832 | 73–76 | |
| John Small | 23 September 1832 | 57–58 |
| 7 October 1832 | 63 | |
| 21 October 1832 | 74–76 | |
| 9 December 1832 | 101–103 | |
| addition to 1833 edition | 105–107 | |
| John Wells John Wells (cricketer) John Wells was a famous English cricketer who played for Surrey.-Career:... |
25 November 1832 | 88–92 |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| John Wood John Wood (cricketer) John Wood was an English cricketer who played for Kent. His career began in the 1760s before first-class statistics began to be recorded and his known first-class career spans the 1772 to 1783 seasons.... |
14 October 1832 | 70 |
| Joseph Miller | 7 October 1832 | 65 |
| 21 October 1832 | 74–76 | |
| Lamborn | 14 October 1832 | 67–70 |
| Lord Frederick Beauclerk Lord Frederick Beauclerk Lord Frederick Beauclerk was an outstanding but controversial English first-class cricketer for 35 years from 1791 to 1825. On his retirement, he served as president of Marylebone Cricket Club in 1826.Beauclerk was the fourth son of the 5th Duke of St Albans and became a clergyman. He was Vicar... |
14 October 1832 | 68–70 |
| 21 October 1832 | 75–76 | |
| 28 October 1832 | 81 | |
| 18 November 1832 | 85–87 | |
| 25 November 1832 | 96–98 | |
| 2 December 1832 | 89–92 | |
| Lumpy Stevens | 7 October 1832 | 65 |
| 14 October 1832 | 68–70 | |
| 28 October 1832 | 79–81 | |
| 25 November 1832 | 97–98 | |
| Noah Mann Noah Mann Noah Mann was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club.... |
28 October 1832 | 77–81 |
| 18 November 1832 | 83–87 | |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| Peter Stewart | 7 October 1832 | 62–65 |
| Reynell Cotton Reynell Cotton The Reverend Reynell Cotton was President of the Hambledon Club in 1773 and 1774. It is not known if he played in any of the first-class cricket matches organised by the club on behalf of Hampshire cricket, but he is believed to have been an active player in the period before records were... |
7 October 1832 | 63–65 |
| Richard Francis Richard Francis Richard Francis was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club.Francis is known to have been a Surrey man by birth and he had played for Surrey teams before moving to Hampshire... |
28 October 1832 | 80–81 |
| Richard May Richard May (cricketer) Richard May was a first-class cricketer who was a well-known bowler for Kent in the 1760s and 1770s. May's known first-class career spanned the 1773 and 1780 seasons.... |
21 October 1832 | 74–76 |
| Richard Newland Richard Newland Richard Newland was an English cricketer in the mid-Georgian period who played for Slindon Cricket Club and Sussex under the patronage of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond. He also represented various All-England teams... |
23 September 1832 | 56–58 |
| Richard Nyren Richard Nyren Richard "Dick" Nyren was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket during the 1760s and 1770s in the heyday of the Hambledon Club... |
23 September 1832 | 56–58 |
| 7 October 1832 | 63 | |
| 14 October 1832 | 66–70 | |
| 21 October 1832 | 74–76 | |
| 28 October 1832 | 79–81 | |
| 18 November 1832 | 83–87 | |
| 25 November 1832 | 95–98 | |
| addition to 1833 edition | 105–107 | |
| Richard Purchase Richard Purchase Richard Purchase was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club.He was only 16 when he made his debut in 1773.Born in Liss, Hampshire, he played for his county in 1773 and 1774 but then did not appear again until 1781... |
28 October 1832 | 81 |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| Robert Robinson Robert Robinson (cricketer) Robert Robinson was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire at the time of the Hambledon Club and also for Surrey.... |
addition to 1833 edition | 107 |
| Sir Horatio Mann Sir Horatio Mann Sir Horatio Mann, 2nd Baronet was an English MP. He is remembered as a member of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire and a patron of Kent cricket. He was an occasional player but rarely in first-class matches.... |
23 September 1832 | 56–58 |
| 7 October 1832 | 65 | |
| 28 October 1832 | 79–81 | |
| 18 November 1832 | 83–87 | |
| Thomas Brett Thomas Brett Thomas Brett was one of first-class cricket's earliest well-known fast bowlers and a leading player for Hampshire when its team was organised by the Hambledon Club in the 1770s.-Career:Noted for his pace and his accuracy, Brett was a leading wicket taker in the 1770s and was lauded by John... |
23 September 1832 | 55–58 |
| 7 October 1832 | 60–65 | |
| 28 October 1832 | 80–81 | |
| Thomas Land | 7 October 1832 | 65 |
| Thomas May Thomas May (cricketer) Thomas May was a first-class cricketer who was a well-known batsman for Kent in the 1760s and 1770s. May's known first-class career spanned the 1772 and 1773 seasons.... |
21 October 1832 | 74–76 |
| Thomas Quiddington Thomas Quiddington Thomas Quiddington was a noted English cricketer of the mid-18th century who played for Surrey.-Career:... |
21 October 1832 | 74–76 |
| Thomas Scott Thomas Scott (cricketer) Thomas Scott was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire at the time of the Hambledon Club. He was a specialist batsman who may have been a regular opener, but it is not known if he was right or left-handed... |
addition to 1833 edition | 107 |
| Tom Taylor Thomas Taylor (cricketer) Thomas Taylor was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club. He is generally regarded as one of the most outstanding players of the 18th century.... |
14 October 1832 | 68–70 |
| 18 November 1832 | 84–87 | |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| Tom Walker Thomas Walker (cricketer) Thomas "Tom" Walker was an English cricketer who played for Hampshire in the days of the Hambledon Club and later for Surrey. He was famous for his brilliant defensive batting. He is also credited with introducing, roundarm bowling, the predecessor of modern overarm bowling.-Career:Walker was born... |
18 November 1832 | 85–87 |
| 25 November 1832 | 95–98 | |
| addition to 1833 edition | 107 | |
| Thomas White Thomas White (cricketer) Thomas "Daddy" White was a noted English cricketer.White played in the 1760s and 1770s; details of his early career are largely unknown but he retired in 1779. He is known to have appeared frequently for Surrey and All-England since recorded scorecards first became commonplace in 1772... |
14 October 1832 | 70 |
| Memoranda | 156 | |
| Tom Sueter Tom Sueter Thomas Sueter was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club.... |
7 October 1832 | 60–65 |
| 21 October 1832 | 75–76 | |
| William Barber William Barber (cricketer) William Barber was an English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club in its great days during the 1760s and 1770s. Originally from Walberton, near Chichester, he came to Hambledon to play after being "spotted" .Barber finished playing in 1777... |
23 September 1832 | 56–58 |
| 7 October 1832 | 65 | |
| William Hogsflesh William Hogsflesh William Hogsflesh was an English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club in its great days during the 1760s and 1770s.His career ended in 1775 and he was a well known bowler, probably of quick medium pace, but his best years were before the sport's statistical record begins in 1772 and so most... |
23 September 1832 | 56–58 |
| 7 October 1832 | 65 | |
| William Yalden William Yalden William "The Yold" Yalden was a noted English cricketer. He was a very good batsman but was primarily known as a wicket-keeper.... |
21 October 1832 | 75–76 |