Early Cricket Reporters

Who were the first cricket reporters? From whence did they spring? And why is it that cricket is that most written about, most literary of sports? These are matters addressed in this the sixth monograph in this series. My father loved the literature of the game and in this title delves deep into the roots of the cricket writing and reporting tradition. Meet the pioneers of Cricket Journalism; the men who wrote the rules for practically everything which has followed in Victorian England. Encounter the Pardons, the Wisdens, the Lillywhites, Haygarth, Alcock and others, A.W. Pullin, R.S. Holmes and J.A.H. Catton. Meet the ‘The Wanderer’, and the scandalous ‘Cockney Sportsman’. Characters abound, men who were often closer in their day than practically any modern journalist can possibly be, notwithstanding, possibly because of, the proliferation of technical wizardry available to the mass media, to the great players of the present era. In publishing ‘Early Cricker Reporters’ I am doing what my father would have done had he lived in our marvellously inter-connected age – making it available to the widest possible audience. It is the editor’s hope that the publication of ‘R.S. Holmes’ will amuse and inform ‘cricketing history’ aficionados everywhere. Purchasers of the paperback version of this monograph will be able to download the e-book version for free.