SJS
Hall of Fame Member
Most people who haven't had a long and loving relationship with them, associate the Wisden Cricket Almanacks with
So your average cricket fan would prefer to give the bulky and unwieldy Wisden a miss for one or more of all those reasons - all true but not the complete truth.
It is also generally assumed that Wisden's are bought by collector's who have money to throw around and buy the Wisden's just as conversation pieces and rarely sit down to read the stuff. Again partly true.
I do not buy the Wisden's for most of those reasons but would gladly buy them if they were not such a bad value for money (except if one was a collector and I am not). So I have struck a comfortable mean. I have bought all volumes of the Wisden Anthologies. The Five volumes cover the entire 142 year period between 1864 to 2006 and cost me USD 80 plus postage. They are still unwieldy but they are value for money and I can actually read all of them.
What I intend to do on this thread, is to post nuggets (both for their size and my liking for them) from these anthologies and would welcome the other owners of Wisdens here (we have some true blood collectors as well) to chip in please. I will type in the first one after I finish my breakfast for which the missus has been hollering for some time now
- Score cards of all cricket matches played during the year and other such statistical data which can be had from the world wide web so much more conveniently anyway. OR
- Records of births and deaths of cricketers, most of whose names do not ring the faintest of bells in the remotest corner of a cricket fan's head OR
- Reports on first class cricket games held during the English cricket season which have very limited interest months (let alone years) after the stumps were drawn on them AND
- Reports on the International games held during the twelve month period which a genuine cricket lover would have already dealt with through other media and the more particular one would get from the spate of tour books published after most of them
So your average cricket fan would prefer to give the bulky and unwieldy Wisden a miss for one or more of all those reasons - all true but not the complete truth.
It is also generally assumed that Wisden's are bought by collector's who have money to throw around and buy the Wisden's just as conversation pieces and rarely sit down to read the stuff. Again partly true.
I do not buy the Wisden's for most of those reasons but would gladly buy them if they were not such a bad value for money (except if one was a collector and I am not). So I have struck a comfortable mean. I have bought all volumes of the Wisden Anthologies. The Five volumes cover the entire 142 year period between 1864 to 2006 and cost me USD 80 plus postage. They are still unwieldy but they are value for money and I can actually read all of them.
What I intend to do on this thread, is to post nuggets (both for their size and my liking for them) from these anthologies and would welcome the other owners of Wisdens here (we have some true blood collectors as well) to chip in please. I will type in the first one after I finish my breakfast for which the missus has been hollering for some time now