He played cricket too: John Wisden’s 200th birth anniversary

Shoppers at Brighton’s Primark doubtless don’t realise its significance in the world of cricket; after all, there’s no blue plaque. The building that occupies the corner of Western Road and Crown Street replaced some small terraced houses, in one of which, on September 5, 1826, John Wisden was born.

Cricket was not a family priority. William, a builder and carpenter, was busy providing for a growing brood – John had nine siblings, of whom two died in infancy – though there are mentions of him playing. Young John’s interest was probably piqued by visits to Temple Fields cricket ground, run by the Lillywhite family, who would later be business partners, then rivals.

The first record of Wisden the cricketer is from 1838 when, on his 12th birthday, he played for Brighton Under-14 alongside John and JamesLillywhite. By 1844, he was a club regular, and the following year appeared in what is now considered a first-class match, for Sussex against Kent. Opening the bowling, Wisden took 6-46 and 3-39; more unusually, he also opened the batting in Sussex’s first innings.

Despite being 5ft 4in and weighing seven stone – hence “The Little Wonder” – Wisden was soon one of the leading bowlers of the day. He started as a round-arm bowler: not until 1864 were overarm deliveries permitted. William Caffyn, another top player of the day, summarised Wisden’s style in his book Seventy-One Not Out: “Wisden was the best fast bowler I ever saw for so small a man. He was a grand bowler, with, I think, the easiest delivery I ever saw. In the days when the bowler was compelled to bowl level with the shoulder, Wisden was always spoken of as being remarkably ‘fair’. Indeed I think he never gave the umpire any trouble as to the doubtfulness of his delivery at any time. He had a great command of pitch, was very straight, and likely to slick a batsman out even on a good wicket, however well set, as his ball came in quick off the pitch, and he bowled many shooters.”

Wisden continued to play with great success, mainly for Sussex, before helping establish the United All England XI – a group of touring professionals – in 1852. This was a breakaway from the original All England XI, which he also represented. His seasonal hauls improved as he matured. In all matches in 1848, he took 250 wickets, then 267 in 1849; that became 340 in 1850, and a remarkable 445 in 41 games in 1851. For most of his career, he averaged over ten a match, often two-innings games against teams of more than 11 players.

The 1850 season featured his most remarkable performance, still unique in first-class cricket 176 years later: all ten wickets, all bowled, in a match at Lord’s between the North and the South that was done and dusted in one July day. Wisden – though a Sussex regular – was playing for the North, because he was living in Leamington (Warwickshire) at the time. That helped even up the sides, since the South included many of the best-known players of the day: Box, Caffyn, Jemmy Dean, Nicholas Felix, the “Lion of Kent” Alfred Mynn, and Wisden’s frequent team-mate John Lillywhite, whose green-covered Cricketers’ Companion would be a competitor to his own Almanack for 20 years from 1865.

Wisden warmed up with six wickets in the South’s first innings of 36, before making 22 from No.9, as the North reached 131. Then came a succession of rapid deliveries that unerringly hit the stumps: sadly, the exact figures have not survived but, as the South managed only 76, to lose by an innings, Wisden’s all-ten probably cost around 35. There’s no Wisden match report to consult, but Scores and Biographies, a contemporary record book, enthused: “Wisden bowled down all the wickets… His performance is more wonderful as the batsmen opposed to him were nearly all first-rate. The feat has been done by a few others, but never in a great match or against such good players. Without exaggeration, his balls turned in a yard from the off, he delivering from the Pavilion. It is a pity no analysis was preserved.” He took another first-class ten-for the following season, for All England against Yorkshire, but they had 14 players. He continued to be almost irresistible on the less-manicured pitches of the day, taking more than 130 wickets in all matches every year until a hand injury sustained playing rackets cost him the entire 1860 season.

The previous year, he had been part of a historic tour of North America by a team of professionals: Wisden, now bowling underarm, had the remarkable figures of 16 wickets for 18 runs (including six with successive balls) and 13 for 44, as a combined Canada and USA team comprising 22 players were skittled for 36 and 62 at a chilly Rochester in New York. Fred Lillywhite’s account – cricket’s first tour book – paid tribute: “It will be seen that the slow bowling of Wisden was very destructive. The players had to field in muffs and greatcoats … It was really like playing a match in the depth of winter; and the batsman very appropriately exclaimed, when his wicket was lowered by a ball from Wisden’s end – ‘Shiver my timbers, I’m out!’ The most agreeable innings on such a day could only be obtained indoors with a hot dinner before you, and a bottle of old port to follow.”

He retired after 1863, when he was still good enough to take 7-30 against Middlesex. He finished with 1,109 wickets in matches considered first-class, and around 3,500 all told. He was a reasonable batsman too, making two first-class centuries for Sussex: 100 against Kent a few weeks before his all-bowled ten-for in 1850, and 148 against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane in 1855.

Business started to occupy his mind, though it would be some time before he became a publishing phenomenon. The first edition of his Cricketer’s Almanack came out in 1864; the apostrophe would move in 1869. It was one of several similar publications at the time – the Lillywhite family alone produced three – but it was Wisden which survived.

John Wisden & Co., by now based in central London, sold bats and balls, and much else besides, including the ingenious Catapulta, a sort of early bowling machine. A series of advertisements in Bell’s Life from around 1860 indicated that, apart from cricket equipment, the company stocked “Rackets, footballs, dumb-bells, boxing gloves, quoits, foils, bowls, lawn billiards, skittles, marquees, tents, nets and all articles for British sports.”

The Wisden business had its ups and downs, and in 1872 it moved to premises in Cranbourn Street, near Leicester Square in London. John Wisden died of cancer in his flat upstairs on April 5, 1884, aged 57. The company’s logo can still be seen today in the tiles above the old shop front.

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