Fergie

Martin Chandler | 8:42am BST 08 June 2025

Published: 2025
Pages: 24
Author: Goodman, Toby
Publisher: Private
Rating: 3.5 stars

For me the name ‘Fergie’ conjures up thoughts of leg spin. There was the Indian genius from the 1950s, Fergie Gupte, who no less a judge than Garry Sobers considered to be a better leggie than Shane Warne. And there’s one more that I can readily think of, Wilf Ferguson, the Trinidadian leggie whose eight Test career began after the Second World War and ended a couple of years after Gupte’s began.

But this Fergie is neither of that pair, although he does share an initial with Wilf. This one never played a single First Class cricket match in his life, but his 1957 autobiography bears the title Mr Cricket, and he had a remarkable career in the game for over half a century.

As far as his actual skills are concerned the second part of the sub-title sums him up in three words; Scorer, Baggage Master, Confidant. Fergie, a New Zealander by birth and Australian by location of his formative years, first performed those functions on the 1905 Australian tour of England. His final employment was then with the West Indian tourist who came to England in the same year his autobiography was published. Sadly Fergie died at the age of 77 two weeks after that tour ended, taken by prostate cancer.

By then Fergie was living in Bath in Somerset, and was buried there. Over the years his grave fell into a state of disrepair until local resident and cricket lover Toby Goodman re-discovered his last resting place. Goodman then began a campaign to raise funds to renovate the grave something which has now been done and, judging by the before and after photographs in this delightful monograph, it is a job that has been done very well.

And the monograph itself tells the story of Fergie’s life and times, how he escaped a tedious clerical job to get that job with the 1905 Australians and how he created modern scoring with the preparation of the ‘wagon wheels’ that we are so used to today, but which were revolutionary when he started creating them.

In the end Fergie sat through 208 Test matches, and saw every single one of Donald Bradman’s 6,996 Test runs. Against that background his story is, of course, full of interest and well worth its modest cost £10* including UK postage and packing. For those in Australia and New Zealand the monograph is on its way to Roger Page and, as there are only 85 copies in this signed and numbered limited edition, early ordering might be wise if disappointment is to be avoided.

*Toby Goodman can be contacted by email at tgkiwi@hotmail.com