‘Victory Tests’ were triumph for a war-torn world

The editor of Cricket Statistician analyses recent events

Irecently acquired a copy of the News Chronicle Cricket Annual for 1946. This, following a number of changes of publisher, is what is now the Playfair annual.

The 1946 version – a return after the war years – is a slim volume of some 78 pages. For comparison the 2016 Playfair has 335. But it is more of a cultural leap than even that suggests. This was a world just beginning to recover from war, a world without the internet, essentially without television, and with necessary foodstuffs rationed. Watching cricket was as much fun as you could have with your clothes on (you needed coupons for those too).

The match scores it includes are those of the 1945 ‘Victory Tests’, arranged in haste between ‘England’ and ‘Australia’ sides very dependent on who was at this point able to get to the right place at the right time rather than not yet demobbed or otherwise unavailable. They produced magnificent cricket played by men who had not had the chance for some years, or in some cases were too young to have played top-class cricket before the war. England had a more recognisable side than Australia (though Denis Compton was still serving in India), but the series was shared at 2-2 with one draw, with huge crowds at every match.

But the main section was taken up with the names of those contracted to or expected to play for the counties. Most of them were the pre-war stalwarts returning, so English cricket had an elderly look to it.

There were also some who had been outstanding (public) school cricketers during the war, but to start with Derbyshire, the book names nine professionals, of whom only Cliff Gladwin was under 30, and that only by months.

Gloucestershire, in a burst of radicalism and perhaps swept along by the spirit of the 1945 election, announced that the club would show no distinction between amateurs and professionals on the scorecards.

But for each county there is a list at the end of amateurs it was hoped would play in 1946; not so many as before as there were few gentlemen of leisure in England in 1945. Under Northants we are told that FR Brown has become welfare officer to a northern industrial concern and will not be available to play. Indeed Freddie Brown did not reappear for the county until 1949 (though he turned out for the Scarborough Festival most years) but was still to return to captain England in Australia in 1950/51.

The Lancashire section remarks that the stands had been cleared of rubble after Old Trafford was bombed “with the help of German POWs”.

In the Cricket Records section we find mention of massive scoring in India, with the first first-class match in which over 2,000 runs were scored – Bombay 462 and 764, Holkar 360 and 492 in the 1944/45 final. Compton was still there for Holkar at the finish, 249 not out.

Some were struggling. Leicestershire had no ground of their own (though they would play at Grace Road, leased from the LEA), only nine professionals, and had not yet appointed a captain. Les Berry, a professional, took up the role and held it until 1948.

The county finished the season as high as 11th equal, which could be seen as an achievement. Amazingly, all 17 first-class counties survived. Whether that was ultimately good for the game still seems uncertain.