Complete History of the Perth Cricket Club
Martin Chandler |Published: 2024
Pages: 632
Author: Sievwright, William
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3.5 stars
I have to concede at the outset that this is not a review as such, if for no other reason than at this stage I have read less than 10% of the content of this mighty tome. That said there are compelling reasons to ‘review’ the book now given that the only opportunity to purchase a copy is now, before instructions are sent to the printer.
The book is being published by our old friend and industrious republisher of ancient Scottish cricket literature, Richard Miller, a number of whose previous forays into the field have been reviewed on the site. But this is an unusual one given the size of the undertaking, the cost of producing what will certainly be a ‘niche’ product and the sheer size of the finished product. Richard has therefore made the sensible decision that he is going to print only the number of copies for which he has orders, and that will be that. So for anyone tempted by this one the message is ‘do not delay’!
The story of the book begins in the Perth Museum where, currently, the single existing copy reposes. The bulk of the work is written in Sievwright’s own hand, for some reason the title page, which confirms no other copy exists, is the only printed page.
As the title page confirms Sievwright’s handwritten account takes the story to the end of 1881, and after that there are some 50 pages of season-by-season extracts from the local newspaper moving the story forward from 1882 until 1888, and then there are a few articles covering other aspects of the history of cricket in Scotland with an emphasis on Perth. A comprehensive manuscript index of some 23 pages completes the work.
Despite its antiquity and the way it is put together the book contains photographs of the author plus 25 individual portraits of prominent players of the period and a group photograph of the 1876 team that defeated MCC. There is also a short introduction from Richard and, rather longer, the closing pages reproduce an article he recently wrote for the Journal of the Cricket Society which gives a great deal of biographical information about Sievwright.
If the name and subject sound familiar that is because, last year, Richard republished another Sievwright book on Perth cricket, that I reviewed here. The content of the new book is however rather different. This time there are no individual player profiles and while there are plenty of statistics and averages there is much more in the way of narrative of the matches and, importantly, the background to incidents. Included here are extracts from letters between the Perth club and their opponents and from the club’s Minute Books and Scorebooks which all seem to have been available to him at the time Sievwright was compiling his history.
Thus we can read that a match against Grange was not played out in the second innings as the Perth players had to leave to catch an open boat back across the River Forth in stormy conditions before it became impossible to cross safely, an action of which the Grange Secretary disapproved!
In fact there is a good deal of acrimonious correspondence with Grange on a variety of subjects. The club who considered themselves the MCC of Scotland refused to play Perth for several years after claiming that Charles Lawrence* was a pro when Perth were adamant that he never received any payment from them.
The results of matches between Perth and each of the main clubs of Scotland are given their own sections, and I also noticed some material on the subject of Surrey wicketkeeper Ted Pooley which appears to have escaped the attention of both of Pooley’s biographers, Keith Booth and Rodney Ulyate
Having been given the opportunity to look through a pdf version of the book I am looking forward to getting to grips with the print version, but it must be conceded that this is not a book for the casual observer. At times the narrative is not easy to read. Richard has tried to transcribe the those passages that deterioration has rendered difficult to read, but there are a very small number of pages where the text has been so badly impacted to make it all but impossible to read.
It is also going to be a very heavy and unwieldy book, coming in at almost 3kg and will be expensive to print hence Richard’s decision only to produce the number of copies for which he has advance orders, so as at this moment it will be a limited edition of 15. If you want to add your name to this select group please email Richard at rwsmiller@btinternet.com. The cost of the book will be £110 inclusive of UK postage.
The book will also be accompanied by a Memory Card that will contain the book in electronic format along with images of each page individually. The card will also include an electronic copy of the previously published Sievwright volume and, if space allows, scans of two or possibly three of the existing copies of that book to enable any reader interested to chart the differences between the versions.
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