1.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick
2.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
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Wisden Cricketers Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. It is considered the worlds most famous reference book. The description bible of cricket was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a review for the London Mercury, in October 2013, an all-time Test World XI was announced to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers Almanack. In 1998, an Australian edition of Wisden Cricketers Almanack was launched, in 2012, an Indian edition of Wisden Cricketers Almanack was launched. Wisden was founded in 1864 by the English cricketer John Wisden as a competitor to Fred Lillywhites The Guide to Cricketers and its annual publication has continued uninterrupted to the present day, making it the longest running sports annual in history. The sixth edition was the first published under its current title, charles Pardon, with George Kelly King, founded the Cricket Reporting Agency in 1880. Wisden was acquired and published by Robert Maxwells publishing conglomerate, Macdonald, Cricket fan Sir John Paul Getty, Jr. bought the company, John Wisden & Co, in 1993 and in December 2008 it was sold to A&C Black, which is owned by Bloomsbury. The company presented the Wisden Trophy, for Test matches between England and West Indies, in 1963 to celebrate its 100th edition, in 2013, a history of Wisden was published, The Little Wonder, The Remarkable History of Wisden, by Robert Winder. The Little Wonder was John Wisdens nickname, Wisden is a small-paged but a very thick book with a distinctive bright yellow cover that it has carried since the 75th edition in 1938. Prior to that, covers varied between yellow, buff and salmon pink and that edition was also the first to display the famous woodcut of two cricketers, by Eric Ravilious, on its cover. It is published each April, just before the start of the English domestic cricket season, since 2003 the woodcut has been replaced as the main feature of the front cover by a photograph of a current cricketer, but still appears albeit in a much reduced size. It is produced in both hardcover and softcover versions, since 2006, a larger format edition has been published on an experimental basis. This is said to be in response to requests from readers who find the print size of the standard edition hard to read and it is around twice the traditional size and was published in a limited edition of 5,000. It is not a print book as such, as the print will still be of a size found in many standard books. From 2011 an Epub version, The Shorter Wisden, has been available in online bookstores, excluded are the statistics and other cricket reports contained within the Almanack proper. The format has changed markedly over the years, the first edition had only 112 pages yet found space to cover the dates of battles in the English Civil War, the winners of The Oaks and the rules of quoiting. The traditional Wisden Cricketers of the Year awards, which date back to 1889, traditionally the main source for key statistics about the game, although it has never attempted to be comprehensive. Nowadays the records section is intended to be complementary to the more detailed data available online at Wisdens associated website ESPNcricinfo
3.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
4.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
5.
W. G. Grace
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William Gilbert W. G. Grace, MRCS, LRCP was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest-ever players. Universally known as W. G. Right-handed as both batsman and bowler, Grace dominated the sport during his career and his technical innovations and enormous influence left a lasting legacy. An outstanding all-rounder, he excelled at all the skills of batting, bowling and fielding. He is held to have invented modern batsmanship, usually opening the innings, he was particularly admired for his mastery of all strokes, and his level of expertise was said by contemporary reviewers to be unique. He generally captained the teams he played for at all levels because of his skill, Grace came from a cricketing family, E. M. Grace was one of his elder brothers and Fred Grace his younger brother. In 1880, they were members of the same England team, Grace took part in other sports also, he was a champion 440-yard hurdler as a young man and played football for the Wanderers. In later life, he developed enthusiasm for golf, lawn bowls and he qualified as a medical practitioner in 1879. Because of his profession, he was nominally an amateur cricketer. He was a competitive player and, although he was one of the most famous men in England, he was also one of the most controversial on account of his gamesmanship. W. G. Grace was born in Downend, near Bristol, on 18 July 1848 at his parents home, Downend House, and was baptised at the local church on 8 August. He was called Gilbert in the circle, except by his mother who called him Willie. His parents were Henry Mills Grace and Martha, who were married in Bristol on Thursday,3 November 1831 and lived out their lives at Downend, where Henry Grace was the local GP. Downend is near Mangotsfield and, although it is now a suburb of Bristol, it was then a village surrounded by countryside. Henry and Martha Grace had nine children in all, the number as Victoria and Albert –. Grace was the child in the family, he had three older brothers, including E. M. and four older sisters. Only Fred, born in 1850, was younger than W. G. Grace began his Cricketing Reminiscences by answering a question he had frequently been asked, i. e. was he born a cricketer. His answer was in the negative because he believed that cricketers are made by coaching and practice, though he adds that if he was not born a cricketer and his father and mother were full of enthusiasm for the game and it was a common theme of conversation at home. All nine children in the Grace family, including the four daughters, were encouraged to play cricket although the girls, Grace claimed that he first handled a cricket bat at the age of two
6.
Pelham Warner
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Sir Pelham Francis Warner MBE, affectionately and better known as Plum Warner or the Grand Old Man of English cricket, was a Test cricketer. Warner was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and his mother, Rosa Cadiz, was of Spanish origin, his father of an English colonial family. He was educated at Harrison College, and then sent to England to Rugby School and Oriel College, as a right-hand batsman, Warner played first-class cricket for Oxford University, Middlesex and England. He played 15 Test matches, captaining in 10 of them, with a record of won 4 and he succeeded in regaining The Ashes in 1903–04, winning the series against Australia 3–2. However he was successful when he captained England on the tour of South Africa in 1905–06, suffering a resounding 1–4 defeat. He was also to have captained England on the 1911–12 tour of Australia and he was unable to play in any of the Tests, with Johnny Douglas taking over the captaincy. He was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1904 and also in 1921, the second award marked his retirement as a county player after the 1920 season, in which he captained Middlesex to the County Championship title. In the mid 1920s he was Chairman of Selectors, and in 1926 during industrial strife served as a Special Constable, MCC scraped a win in the series by 2 games to one, with one match drawn. He played one more match, in 1929 for the MCC against the Royal Navy. After retiring as a player, he became a tour manager and he was the chairman of the England Test selectors for several years in the 1930s. He later became President of the Marylebone Cricket Club and he was knighted for his services to cricket in 1937. He detailed his Ashes Tests and a history of Lords Cricket Ground and he was cricket correspondent of the Morning Post from 1921 to 1933, and subsequently of the Daily Telegraph. He married Agnes in the summer of 1904 and had two sons, Esmond and John, and a daughter, Elizabeth and he died, aged 89, at West Lavington, West Sussex. His brother Aucher Warner not only captained the first combined West Indies side in the West Indies during the 1896–97 season, marina Warner, novelist and mythographer, is his granddaughter
7.
Jack Hobbs
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Sir John Berry Jack Hobbs was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930. Known as The Master, he is regarded by critics as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket and he is the leading run-scorer and century-maker in first-class cricket, with 61,760 runs and 199 centuries. A right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Hobbs also excelled as a fielder, born into poverty in 1882, Hobbs wished from an early age to pursue a career in cricket. His early batting was undistinguished, but an improvement in 1901 brought him to the attention of local teams. In 1903 he successfully applied to join Surrey, with the support of England batsman Tom Hayward and his reputation grew and when he qualified to play for Surrey, he scored 88 on his first-class debut and a century in his next game. Over the following seasons, he established himself as a county player and in 1908 made his Test debut for England. In county cricket, he developed an attacking, dynamic style of play and was successful up until 1914. When he returned, he was a more cautious batsmen and used a style of play. Subsequently, he became more consistent and scored prolifically in both Test and domestic cricket until his retirement, in this period, he played some of his most acclaimed innings. Hobbs success was based on fast footwork, an ability to play many different shots and he was particularly successful on difficult pitches for batting. An opening batsman, Hobbs established several effective opening partnerships, with Tom Hayward and Andy Sandham for Surrey and with Wilfred Rhodes and his partnership with Sutcliffe remains in 2016 the most effective for the first wicket, in terms of average partnership, in Test history. Contemporaries rated Hobbs extremely highly, and critics continue to list him among the best batsmen of all time, after his cricketing retirement, he also worked in journalism. Knighted in 1953, the first professional cricketer to be so honoured and he died, aged 81, a few months after her in 1963. Hobbs was born in Cambridge on 16 December 1882, the first of 12 children to John Cooper Hobbs, a slater, Hobbs was raised in a poor, run-down area of the city, and he spent most of his childhood in near-poverty. Hobbs senior, a lover of cricket, changed his career to become a professional cricketer, from an early age, Hobbs played cricket whenever he could. His first games were played in the streets near his house and he played cricket regularly for the St Matthews choir team and the York Street school team, and during holidays helped his father at Jesus College. In his final year at York Street, to supplement the family budget, on leaving school in 1895, he worked as an errand boy until his fathers connections at the university secured him a summer job as a college servant, chiefly assisting the cricket team. Aged 16, Hobbs became a gas fitter, and practised cricket on Parkers Piece
8.
Middlesex County Cricket Club
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Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Middlesex. Middlesex teams formed by earlier organisations since the early 18th century always had senior status and so the county club is rated accordingly from inception, the club plays most of its home games at Lords Cricket Ground in St Johns Wood, which is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club. The club also plays some games around the county at the Uxbridge Cricket Club Ground. Until October 2014, the club played limited overs cricket as the Middlesex Panthers, however, on 24 October 2014, the club announced that they would use the name Middlesex County Cricket Club in all forms of the sport, with immediate effect. Limited-overs kit colours are blue and pink quarters and from 2007. Middlesex CCC has a school based in Finchley, the Middlesex Academy. Early references to the game in London or Middlesex are often interchangeable, see, History of cricket to 1696 and History of cricket 1697 -1725 The first definite mention of cricket in London or Middlesex dates from 1680. It is a reference to the two umpires and strongly suggests that the double wicket form of the game was already well known in London. The earliest known match in Middlesex took place at Lambs Conduit Fields in Holborn on 3 July 1707 involving teams from London and Croydon, in 1718, the first reference is found to White Conduit Fields in Islington, which later became a very famous London venue. The earliest known reference to a team called Middlesex is on 5 August 1728 when it played London Cricket Club in the fields behind the Woolpack, in Islington, near Sadlers Wells and this was also the earliest known first-class match involving a Middlesex team. The club was founded on 15 December 1863 at a meeting in the London Tavern. Formal constitution took place on 2 February 1864, Middlesex CCC played its initial first-class match versus Sussex CCC at Islington on 6 &7 June 1864. In the same season, the club was a contender for the title of Champion County, Middlesex played at Lillie Bridge Grounds from 1869 before leaving in 1872 due to the poor quality of the turf. The club nearly folded at this time, a vote for continuing being won 7–6 and they played at Princes Cricket Ground from 1872 to 1876, and began using Lords Cricket Ground in 1877. The Club has produced several noted players, particularly the great batsmen Patsy Hendren, Bill Edrich, Bill Edrich scored 1,000 runs before the end of May in 1938. He needed just 15 innings, with 4 centuries, and every run was scored at Lords, don Bradman gave him the chance to score the 10 runs he needed in the Australian tour match with Middlesex by declaring his teams innings early. Middlesex won the County Championship in 1947 thanks to the run scoring of Compton
9.
County Championship
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The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. The competition consists of eighteen clubs named after, and originally representing, historic counties, seventeen from England, from 2016, the Championship will be sponsored by Specsavers, who replaced Liverpool Victoria after 14 years. In contrast, the term County Champions applies in common parlance to a team that has won the title since 1890. The most usual means of claiming the title was by popular or press acclaim. In the majority of cases, the claim or proclamation was retrospective, the unofficial title was not proclaimed in every season up to 1889 because in many cases there were not enough matches or there was simply no clear candidate. The concept of the title has been utilised ad hoc. The official County Championship was constituted in a meeting at Lords Cricket Ground on 10 December 1889 which was called to enable club secretaries to determine the 1890 fixtures. While this was going on, representatives of the eight leading county clubs held a meeting to discuss the method by which the county championship should in future be decided. A majority were in favour of ignoring drawn games altogether and settling the championship by wins, under this system defeats were subtracted from victories and the county with the highest total were champions. The new competition, which had official sanction, began in the 1890 season and at first featured Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex and it is difficult to know when the concept of a county championship originated. While early matches were often between teams named after counties, they were not the teams the usage would imply today. That may be so re the actual terminology but closer examination of the sources indicate a much earlier expression of the idea. The earliest known inter-county match was in 1709 between Kent and Surrey but match results are unknown until the 1720s. The first time a source refers to the superiority of one county is in respect of a match between Edwin Steads XI and Sir William Gages XI at Penshurst Park in August 1728, Steads XI won by an unknown margin although Gages XI needed just 7 in their second innings. The source says that the game could be called Kent v Sussex as the players were reported as 11 of each county, Sir William Gage was a Sussex landowner and Edwin Stead was a resident of Maidstone in Kent. Evidently Mr Steads Kent team also won two games earlier that season against the Duke of Richmonds XI, the source states that was the third time this summer that the Kent men have been too expert for those of Sussex. This clearly implies that Kent was considered to be the county at that time. In 1729, Sir William Gages Sussex team defeated Kent on 5 September, The latter got in one hand and this may have been the earliest known innings victory
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