Playfair Cricket Annual

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Playfair Cricket Annual 2007
Playfair Cricket Annual 2007

Playfair Cricket Annual is a compact cricket annual. It is a reference book primarily covering First class cricket in England. Its small size (3⅞ in by 5½ in, 10 cm by 14 cm) makes it ideal for taking to cricket matches. The core of the publication is the 'register' of current First class cricketers playing in England.

The decision as to which cricketer is on the front cover attracts some interest as there is a belief that there is a 'hex' or 'jinx' associated with it.

The 'Playfair Cricket Annual' is one of a series of similar sized sporting annuals published under the Playfair name. Other annuals have included 'Playfair Football Annual', 'Playfair Rugby Football Annual' and 'Playfair Racing Annual'. A number of tour brochures were also produced under the Playfair name.

Contents

[edit] Origins

The Playfair Annuals were devised by the company which published various horse racing titles under the imprint of Raceform. There is an idea that the name Playfair came from name of the actor Sir Nigel Playfair.

[edit] Numbering of editions

The current 2007 edition is stated as being the 60th edition but the annual has only been in its current compact size since the 1963 edition (the 16th edition in this numbering scheme). From 1948 to 1962 the annual was a larger size (4¾ in by 7¼ in, 12 cm by 18 cm) and had a different style. After the publication of the 1962 edition the Playfair titles were taken over by Dickens Press. In 1962 Dickens Press had published 'The Cricket Annual', by Roy Webber and for 1963 they published the new 'Playfair Cricket Annual' which took its name from the earlier larger format publication but took its size, format and price from 'The Cricket Annual'. Because of this many regard its true precursor as the 1962 'The Cricket Annual' rather than the 1962 'Playfair Cricket Annual' and therefore adopt a different numbering scheme since 'The Cricket Annual' can be traced back, albeit with a large number of different titles, to the 'Star and Leader Cricket Manual' of 1895. In this numbering scheme 2006 was the 100th edition; 6 years being missed out in both world wars (2006-1895+1-6-6=100).

[edit] Current contents

The current contents are:

  • Preface and Acknowledgements
  • Current Season
    • Details of England's records against the touring teams
    • Register of the touring teams
    • County register, averages and records
    • Umpires register
  • Previous Season
    • Touring teams and university register
    • Statistical highlights
    • First-class averages
    • Competition results and tables
    • Cricketer of the year awards
  • Career Records
    • First class and limited overs
    • Test and limited overs internationals
  • Cricket Records
    • First class
    • Test and limited overs internationals
    • Women's Test cricket
  • Test Match Scores
  • Fixtures

[edit] County register, averages, and records

Since the first compact edition of 1963 the core of the publication has been a section giving a county by county list of current cricketers, their county averages in the previous season together with some introductory notes on the county and the major county records. There has always been a list of the abbreviations used and the counties have always been listed in alphabetical order with Derbyshire first and Yorkshire last.

The introductory notes section has expanded, largely because of the introduction of limited overs cricket competitions. A much longer list of officials is now given; originally only the secretary and captain were listed.

The Who's Who section has also greatly expanded because of the limited overs cricket competitions. Other details like the player's schools and height have been added. The number of chatty comments has been reduced (e.g. 'one of the fastest outfielders in game'). The treatment of new and released players has varied somewhat over the years.

The main change to the county averages section has been that since 1986 the averages have just been for County Championship matches rather than for all First class cricket played by the county.

The records section is largely unchanged except for the introduction of limited overs cricket records.

Up until 1972 most years listed potted scores in home championship matches but lack of space caused this to be removed.

[edit] Eleven cricketers of the year

From 1950 to 1962 the annual produced a list of its Eleven Cricketers of the Year for the previous season. Tony Lock was selected 7 times, Peter May 6 times.

[edit] Status of matches

As one of the leading statistical cricket publications 'Playfair Cricket Annual' has to decide on the status of Test, One day international, first-class and domestic one-day (i.e. List A) matches. Together with Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and the ACS it has to respond to official rulings of the International Cricket Council and its members.

As regards the long standing debate about the first-class figures for W. G. Grace and Jack Hobbs; 'Playfair' has consistently used the 'traditional totals' and not those of the ACS.

Bill Frindall has not been afraid to ignore official rulings. The ICC ruling that South African rebel tours between 1981/82 and 1989/90 were not to be first-class was referred to as 'inane' and 'outrageous' and ignored. More recently he has referred to the decision to give Test status to a match between Australia and an ICC World XI (part of the ICC Super Series) as 'witless' and ignored it. Similar One-day International matches are also not regarded as worthy of that status.

[edit] Larger edition

Year Editor Price Pages
1948 Peter West 3s 6d 144
1949 Peter West 3s 6d 144
1950 Peter West 3s 6d 176
1951 Peter West 3s 6d 176
1952 Peter West 5s 184
1953 Peter West 5s 192
1954 Gordon Ross 5s 176
1955 Gordon Ross 5s 176
1956 Gordon Ross 5s 176
1957 Gordon Ross 5s 176
1958 Gordon Ross 5s 176
1959 Gordon Ross 6s 176
1960 Gordon Ross 6s 176
1961 Gordon Ross 6s 176
1962 Gordon Ross 6s 176

In each case there was a 16 page photographic section in addition to the numbered pages.

The 1948 annual was actually called 'Playfair Books Cricket Annual' but subsequent years were simply called 'Playfair Cricket Annual'. There were two editions of this 1948 annual which differed in the back cover. One had a Playfair logo, the other a Schweppes advertisement.

The 1958 edition was more cheaply produced than the other years and is most likely to become loose.

[edit] Compact edition

Year Editor Cricketer on Front Cover Price Pages
1963 Gordon Ross Frank Worrell 2s 6d 192
1964 Gordon Ross Bob Simpson 2s 6d 224
1965 Gordon Ross Ken Barrington 2s 6d 224
1966 Gordon Ross Wes Hall 3s 224
1967 Gordon Ross Brian Close 3s 224
1968 Gordon Ross Basil d'Oliveira 3s 6d 224
1969 Gordon Ross Alan Knott 3s 6d 224
1970 Gordon Ross John Edrich 4s 224
1971 Gordon Ross John Snow £0.20 224
1972 Gordon Ross Geoff Boycott £0.22 224
1973 Gordon Ross Tony Greig £0.25 224
1974 Gordon Ross Bishen Bedi £0.35 224
1975 Gordon Ross Dennis Amiss £0.50 212
1976 Gordon Ross Clive Lloyd £0.50 224
1977 Gordon Ross Dennis Lillee £0.60 224
1978 Gordon Ross Mike Brearley £0.65 224
1979 Gordon Ross Ian Botham £0.75 224
1980 Gordon Ross Graham Gooch £1.10 240
1981 Gordon Ross Geoff Boycott £1.00 240
1982 Gordon Ross Allan Lamb £1.10 256
1983 Gordon Ross David Gower £1.25 256
1984 Gordon Ross Viv Richards £1.50 256
1985 Gordon Ross Paul Downton £1.75 256
1986 Bill Frindall Allan Border £1.75 256
1987 Bill Frindall John Emburey £1.75 256
1988 Bill Frindall Graeme Hick £1.75 256
1989 Bill Frindall Jack Russell £1.75 256
1990 Bill Frindall Angus Fraser £1.99 256
1991 Bill Frindall Robin Smith £2.50 256
1992 Bill Frindall Phillip DeFreitas £2.99 256
1993 Bill Frindall Alec Stewart £3.99 256
1994 Bill Frindall Mike Atherton £3.99 256
1995 Bill Frindall Darren Gough £4.50 288
1996 Bill Frindall Wasim Akram £4.99 288
1997 Bill Frindall Shane Warne & Graham Thorpe £4.99 288
1998 Bill Frindall Nasser Hussain £4.99 288
1999 Bill Frindall Mark Ramprakash £4.99 288
2000 Bill Frindall Andrew Caddick £5.99 288
2001 Bill Frindall Steve Waugh £5.99 304
2002 Bill Frindall Marcus Trescothick £5.99 304
2003 Bill Frindall Andrew Flintoff £5.99 304
2004 Bill Frindall Michael Vaughan £6.99 304
2005 Bill Frindall Steve Harmison £6.99 304
2006 Bill Frindall Andrew Flintoff £6.99 320
2007 Bill Frindall Ian Bell £6.99 320

[edit] References

Peter Wynne-Thomas wrote two articles on the 'Playfair Cricket Annual' for 'The Cricket Statistician' which were published in 1989.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ The Cricket Statistician, no. 67, pages 21 to 25 The Statistician's Library - Playfair Cricket Annual 1963-1989 by Peter Wynne-Thomas
  2. ^ The Cricket Statistician, no. 68, pages 14 to 16 The Statistician's Library - The 'Original' Playfair Annual by Peter Wynne-Thomas
  3. ^ The Cricket Statistician, no. 77, Letters to the Editor, page 4 Playfair Annual, Peter Wynne-Thomas