# The Cricket Society

The Cricket Society is a charitable organisation founded in 1945 as the Society of Cricket Statisticians at Great Scotland Yard, London. It has grown steadily to be the largest body of its kind in the cricket world. The Cricket Society now has over 1,500 members in the United Kingdom and the cricket playing countries of the world. Its current President is John Barclay.

## Activities

The Wetherall Awards began in 1967 and presently several Awards are presented at the Society's Autumn Lunch, among them:-
* Most promising male cricketer
* Most promising female cricketer
* The Ian Jackson Award for Services to Cricket
* The Sir Jack Hobbs Silver Jubilee Memorial Prize
* The Charlotte Edwards Award
* The Don Rowan Trophy
* The Perry Lewis/Kershaw Memorial Trophy
The Cricket Society instigated an Annual Book of the Year Award in 1970 that now, in association with the MCC, hosts an Awards Evening in the Long Room at Lord's each spring.
In 2020 the Society instituted the Howard Milton Award for Cricket Scholarship, which is given to an individual or institution that has contributed a significant body of work to the history of the game. Recent winners include Ramachandra Guha in 2022, Clem Seecharan in 2023 The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians in 2024.
Throughout the calendar year, The Society holds monthly meetings, featuring famous names from cricket, for members and guests at diverse locations in Central London, usually the Union Jack Club or the Civil Service Club.
Through its Charitable Trust, it raises money to coach underprivileged children in the skills of cricket. They link up with various organisations such as the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation to achieve these aims.
The Society has a cricket team which plays at a number of venues each season. It also holds meetings for the members in London (as detailed above), Bath and Birmingham at which invited speakers address the audience. These activities are held to maintain an interest in cricket and both inform and entertain its members and guests through the off-season.
The Cricket Society publishes a journal, bi-annually and a regular news bulletin for its subscribed membership.
The Society commissioned E.W. Padwick to compile a comprehensive bibliography of cricket literature under the title A Bibliography of Cricket. The first edition, published in 1977 by the Library Association had 8,294 entries. A revised edition, published in 1984, extended this to over 10,000 entries (ISBN 978-0853659020). A second volume, published in 1991 as Padwick's Bibliography of Cricket, Volume 2, was compiled by Stephen Eley and Peter Griffiths and covers works published between 1980 and 1990 (ISBN 978-0853655282).

## The Cricket Society/MCC Book of the Year

The Cricket Society began naming a book of the year in 1970. Since 2009 the award has been made in partnership with MCC. It carries a prize of £3000, which is presented at an awards evening each spring in the Long Room at Lord's.
* 1970: "My Dear Victorious Stod": A Biography of A. E. Stoddart by David Frith
* 1971: Nottinghamshire Cricketers 1821–1914 by Peter Wynne-Thomas
* 1972: Thanks to Cricket by J. M. Kilburn
* 1973: Sort of a Cricket Person by E. W. Swanton
* 1974: The Story of Warwickshire Cricket 1882–1972 by Leslie Duckworth
* 1975: Learie Constantine by Gerald Howat
* 1976: On Top Down Under: Australia's Cricket Captains by Ray Robinson
* 1977: Spinner's Yarn by Ian Peebles
* 1978: Sir Donald Bradman: A Biography by Irving Rosenwater
* 1979: The Best Loved Game by Geoffrey Moorhouse
* 1980: Barclay's World of Cricket by E. W. Swanton and John Woodcock
* 1981: P. G. H. Fender: A Biography by Richard Streeton
* 1982: Phoenix from the Ashes by Mike Brearley
* 1983: Australian Cricket: The Game and the Players by Jack Pollard
* 1984: C.B.: The Life of Charles Burgess Fry by Clive Ellis
* 1985: The Art of Captaincy by Mike Brearley
* 1986: Hedley Verity: A Portrait of a Cricketer by Alan Hill
* 1987: Pageant of Cricket by David Frith
* 1988: The Players: A Social History of the Professional Cricketer by Ric Sissons
* 1989: A La Recherche du Cricket Perdu by Simon Barnes
* 1990: History of Indian Cricket by Mihir Bose
* 1991: Herbert Sutcliffe: Cricket Maestro by Alan Hill
* 1992: England Expects: A Biography of Ken Barrington by Mark Peel
* 1993: Beyond Bat & Ball by David Foot
* 1994: Arlott: The Authorised Biography by David Rayvern Allen
* 1995: David Gower: A Man Out of Time by Rob Steen
* 1996: Bradman: An Australian Hero by Charles Williams
* 1997: The Glory Days of Cricket: The Extraordinary Story of Broadhalfpenny Down by Ashley Mote
* 1998: The Chronicle of W. G. by J. R. Webber; W. G. Grace: A Life by Simon Rae (shared)
* 1999: The Social History of English Cricket by Derek Birley
* 2000: Mystery Spinner: The Story of Jack Iverson by Gideon Haigh
* 2001: At the Heart of English Cricket: The Life and Memories of Geoffrey Howard by Stephen Chalke
* 2002: A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport by Ramachandra Guha
* 2003: The Ross Gregory Story by David Frith
* 2004: Jim: The Life of E. W. Swanton by David Rayvern Allen
* 2005: Red Shirts and Roses by Eric Midwinter
* 2006: Cricket's Burning Passion: Ivo Bligh and the Story of the Ashes by Scyld Berry and Rupert Peploe
* 2007: George Lohmann: Pioneer Professional by Keith Booth
* 2008: No award with this date. Before 2008 the award was for books published in the year of the award; after 2008 the award was for books published the previous year.
* 2009: Life Beyond the Airing Cupboard by John Barclay
* 2010: Of Didcot and the Demon: The Cricketing Times of Alan Gibson by Anthony Gibson
* 2011: Slipless in Settle by Harry Pearson
* 2012: Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography by Chris Waters
* 2013: On Warne by Gideon Haigh
* 2014: The Great Tamasha: Cricket, Corruption and the Turbulent Rise of Modern India by James Astill
* 2015: Field of Shadows: The English Cricket Tour of Nazi Germany 1937 by Dan Waddell
* 2016: Fire in Babylon by Simon Lister
* 2017: A Beautiful Game: My Love Affair with Cricket by Mark Nicholas
* 2018: Connie: The Marvellous Life of Learie Constantine by Harry Pearson
* 2019: Steve Smith's Men: Behind Australian Cricket's Fall by Geoff Lemon
* 2020: The Great Romantic: Cricket and the Golden Age of Neville Cardus by Duncan Hamilton; The Final Innings: The Cricketers of Summer 1939 by Christopher Sandford (shared)
* 2021: The Unforgiven by Ashley Gray
* 2022: Who Only Cricket Know: Hutton's Men in the West Indies 1953/54 by David Woodhouse
* 2023: An Island's Eleven: The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket by Nicholas Brookes
* 2024: The Tour: The Story of the England Cricket Team Overseas 1877-2022 by Simon Wilde

## Current officers

* President: John Barclay
* Vice President: Charlotte Edwards
* Vice President: Chris Lowe
* Vice President: Vic Marks
* Vice President: Sir Tim Rice

## Executive Committee

* Chair: Peter Hardy
* Vice Chair: Raf Nicholson
* Secretary: Geoffrey Levett
* Treasurer: Phil Reeves
* Membership Secretary: Matthew Stevenson
* Derek Barnard
* Annie Chave
* Nigel Hancock
* Barry Kitcherside
* Nick Tudball

## Presidents since 1945

1• 1945-1946 F. A. Mackinnon, The Mackinnon of Mackinnon 2• 1947-1959 Hubert Preston
3• 1960-1961 H. S. Altham
4• 1961-1962 Lord Birkett
5• 1963-1968 A. A. Thomson
6• 1969-1973 Lt-Gen Sir Oliver Leese
7• 1974-1975 A. M. Crawley
8• 1976-1983 E. W. Swanton
9• 1983-1998 G. H. G. Doggart
10• 1998-2008 C. D. A. Martin-Jenkins
11• 2008-onwards J. R. T. Barclay

## Chairs since 1945

1• 1945-1946 A. Weigall
2• 1946-1947 Capt. J. A. Bayliss
3• 1947-1953 G. A. Copinger
4• 1953-1960 A. R. Whitaker
5• 1960-1965 Dr R. W. Cockshut
6• 1965-1966 L. E. S. Gutteridge
7• 1966-1983 C. C. W. Box-Grainger
8• 1983-1992 R. N. Haygarth
9• 1992-2003 D. Allsop 10• 2003-2008 W. R. Allen
11• 2008 I. R. Jackson
12• 2008-2012 D. E. Barnard
13• 2012-2021 N. Hancock
14. 2023 - to date P. M. Hardy