John Wisden (5 September 1826 – 5 April 1884) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

teams, Kent, Middlesex and

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

.John Wisden
CricketArchive He is now best known for launching the eponymous '' Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' in 1864, the year after he retired from first-class cricket.

Early life

Wisden was born in Crown Street,

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

.Eric Midwinter, ‘Wisden, John (1826–1884)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 201
accessed 13 September 2013
/ref> His father, William, was a builder. He attended Brighton's Middle Street School (formerly the Royal Union School, founded as a charity school in 1805). He moved to London after his father died, and lived with the wicket-keeper

Tom Box Thomas Box (7 February 1808 – 12 July 1876) was a famous English cricketer who is remembered as one of the most outstanding wicketkeepers of the 19th century. Player Box played in important matches from 1826 to 1856. Although he played seve ...

.John Wisden
ESPNcricinfo
ESPNcricinfo, July 1992

Cricket

In July 1845, aged 18, only 5 ft 4 in and weighing just , he made his first-class debut for Sussex against MCC, taking 6 wickets in the first innings and three in the second. He joined the All-England Eleven in 1846, moving allegiance to the United All-England Eleven in 1852. He was engaged to marry George Parr's sister Annie in 1849, but she died before the wedding, and he never married. Initially a fast

roundarm bowler In cricket, roundarm bowling is a bowling style that was introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century and largely superseded underarm bowling by the 1830s. Using a roundarm action, the bowlers extend their arm about 90 degrees from thei ...

, before overarm bowling was permitted, his pace slowed in later years so he bowled medium pace; he also bowled slow underarm. While bowling fast, he took on average nearly 10 wickets in each game. In 1850, when he was playing for the North against the South at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

, his off-cutter technique won him 10 wickets in the second innings, all clean bowled (still the only instance of all ten wickets being taken "bowled" in any first-class match). He was also a competent batsman, and scored two first-class centuries, the first, exactly 100, against Kent at Tunbridge Wells in 1849, and in 1855 he notched up 148 against Yorkshire, the only first-class century scored in 1855. He played almost all of his cricket in England, mostly for Sussex, but once for Kent and thrice for Middlesex. He travelled with a touring team led by George Parr to Canada and the US in 1859, where eight matches in Montreal, Hoboken, Philadelphia, Hamilton and Rochester were won easily. Of moderate height, he was nicknamed the "Little Wonder" after the winner of The Derby in 1840, and later the "Cardinal". He was said to be the best all-rounder of his day. In all, he took 1,109 first-class wickets with a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 10.32. He scored 4,140 first-class runs with a batting average of 14.12, an average which was very good for the time.

Business career and legacy

J Wisden & Company, 21 Cranbourn Street, London 03

Wisden began a cricket-equipment business in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

in 1850 and five years later opened a "cricket and cigar" shop in Coventry Street near The Haymarket in central London, in partnership with Fred Lillywhite until 1858. He was also the cricket coach at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

from 1852 to 1855, and owned ''The Cricketers'', a public house at

Duncton Duncton is a village and civil parish in the Chichester (district), District of Chichester in West Sussex, England. The village is in the South Downs south of Petworth on the A285 road. The civil parish is about long north – south and less t ...

in Sussex. He retired from cricket in 1863 at the relatively early age of 37 as a result of rheumatism, and started publishing his annual ''Cricketers' Almanack'' the following year. For many years there has been some doubt among cricket historians as to whether in fact the 1st edition was all Wisden's own work. Following the recent discovery of a manuscript written in 1863 by Francis Emilius Cary Elwes it now provably was not all Wisden's own work. The 1st edition of Wisden contains a page entitled "University Matches." This is a virtually verbatim carbon copy of the same table written in the manuscript but entitled "University Matches From Their Commencement" This table in the manuscript has most probably been sourced from the table of University Rowing matches published by the Cambridge University intelligencer. The exact same changes to the layout, text and mistakes as made by Elwes in 1863 have been repeated by Wisden in the 1st edition of 1864. He also published in ''Cricket and How to Play It'' in 1866. In retirement, he developed his business into a manufacturer and retailer of equipment for many sports, not just cricket. The shop moved to Cranbourn Street near

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...

in 1872. After his death the business grew into a major international sports brand, receiving a

Royal Warrant A royal warrant is a document issued by a monarch which confers rights or privileges on the recipient, or has the effect of law. Royal warrant may refer to: * Royal warrant of appointment, warrant to tradespeople who supply goods or services to a r ...

in 1911 as "Athletic Outfitters to the King". The business went into receivership in 1939, and was acquired in 1943 by a

Co-operative society A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

, which sold it on to

Grays Grays or Greys may refer to: Places * Grays Bay, Nunavut, Canada * Grays, Essex, a town in Essex, England ** Grays railway station ** Grays School * Grays, Kent, a hamlet in Kent, England * Rotherfield Greys or Greys, a village in Oxfordshire, En ...

of Cambridge in 1970. Grays then ceased to use Wisden as an equipment brand, but re-established John Wisden & Co as the publisher of the ''Cricketers' Almanack''. It is now an imprint of Wisden's owner, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Death

Wisden died of cancer, at the age of 57, in the flat above his Cranbourn Street shop (next to Leicester Square tube station). He was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. In 1913, 29 years after his death, he was the subject of a "Special Portrait" in the 50th edition of Wisden, replacing the usual Wisden Cricketers of the Year feature which was dropped from that edition. In 1984, a headstone was placed at his grave to mark the centenary of his death.

References

External links