Frederick Lillywhite, son of the Nonpareil, brought out the first edition of his Guide to Cricketers in the spring of 1849. The annual ran for eighteen consecutive editions until 1866, contained fixture lists, club addresses, players' birthdates and laws, and was the model that John Wisden's 1864 almanack was designed to compete with.
Cricket publishing before 1849 was sporadic. Pamphlets and single-season fixture cards had appeared from the 1820s, but no continuing annual existed. The Lillywhite name carried weight because of William's playing career and John's umpiring; Frederick saw that a regular publication could exploit it.
Frederick had been writing for the cricket press through the late 1840s and had access to fixture information through the family's extensive playing connections. The 1849 inaugural edition went to press in March of that year.
Frederick Lillywhite was born in 1829 and trained in his father's bricklaying trade before turning to cricket journalism and publishing. The first edition of his Guide to Cricketers, dated spring 1849, was a 64-page pocket-book listing fixtures for the coming season, the principal cricket clubs of the British Isles with their addresses and secretaries, the laws of cricket, the previous season's principal scores, and a 'Cricketing Calendar' of births, deaths and notable events. It cost sixpence. The Guide established the conventions of the cricket annual: pre-season publication, fixture lists, club directory, laws, retrospective scores, and a chronological calendar. Frederick wrote much of the editorial himself and travelled to most of the major matches with a portable printing press he called the 'Caravan', producing match scorecards on the spot for sale to spectators. The Guide was profitable enough to support him until his death in 1866; after that the family business fragmented, with John Lillywhite continuing the Guide and James starting a separate annual, leaving an opening that Wisden's better-edited annual eventually filled.
1829: Frederick Lillywhite born
Late 1840s: Frederick begins writing for cricket press
Spring 1849: First Guide to Cricketers published, 64 pages, sixpence
Annual editions follow, 1850-66
Lillywhite tours major matches with portable printing press ('the Caravan')
1866: Frederick dies; family publishing business fragments
Spring 1849
First Guide to Cricketers published
1850-66
Annual editions follow
1864
Wisden's first edition appears as a competitor
1866
Frederick Lillywhite dies
Wisden's 1864 first edition was a direct response to the dominance of Lillywhite's Guide. After Frederick's death in 1866 the Lillywhite name continued on John's Companion and James's Annual but lost ground to Wisden through the 1880s.
The first long-running cricket annual; the template against which Wisden's 1864 first edition was deliberately positioned, and the book that established the working conventions of cricket publishing.
The Lillywhite Guide is the founding cricket annual. Wisden borrowed many of its conventions — fixture lists, scores, calendar, club directory — and added the editorial features (Five Cricketers of the Year, editor's notes) that eventually displaced it.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.