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

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played 187

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches for three English

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

teams,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

and

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

.John Wisden
CricketArchive He is now best known for launching the

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

ous ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' 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 in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

.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 Charity schools, sometimes called blue coat schools, or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England. They were built and maintained in various parishes by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to ...

in 1805). He moved to London after his father died, and lived with the wicket-keeper Tom Box.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 English cricket since the first half of the 18th century, various ''ad hoc'' teams have been formed for short-term purposes which have been called England (or sometimes "All-England"; i.e., in the sense of "the rest of England") to play against ...

in 1846, moving allegiance to the

United All-England Eleven The United All-England Eleven (UEE) was an English cricket team formed in 1852 by players breaking away from William Clarke's All-England Eleven (AEE). Key UEE players included John Wisden and Jemmy Dean, who became joint secretaries of the tea ...

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, before

overarm bowling In cricket, overarm bowling refers to a delivery in which the bowler's hand is above shoulder height. When cricket originated all bowlers delivered the ball underarm, where the bowler's hand is below waist height. However, so the story goes, Jo ...

was permitted, his pace slowed in later years so he bowled medium pace; he also bowled slow

underarm The axilla (: axillae or axillas; also known as the armpit, underarm or oxter) is the area on the human body directly under the shoulder joint. It includes the axillary space, an anatomical space within the shoulder girdle between the arm and ...

. While bowling fast, he took on average nearly 10

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

s 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 List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

, 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

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Hoboken Hoboken ( ; ) is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's popula ...

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Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

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 Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 14.12, an average which was very good for the time.

Business career and legacy

Wisden began a cricket-equipment business in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...

in 1850 and five years later opened a "cricket and cigar" shop in Coventry Street near

The Haymarket Haymarket is a street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Piccadilly Circus in the north to Pall Mall at the southern end. Located on the street are the Theatre Royal, His Majesty's Theatre, New Zealand H ...

in central London, in partnership with

Fred Lillywhite Frederick Lillywhite (7 July 1829 – 15 September 1866) was a sports outfitter and cricketing entrepreneur, who organised the first overseas cricket tour by an English team and published a number of reference works about cricket. Cricketing dyn ...

until 1858. He was also the cricket coach at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

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 ...

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. The first edition may have been based on a diary written in 1863 by Francis Emilius Cary Elwes, which came to light in 2016. According to Robert Winder, who wrote a history of the almanack, evidence from the diary indicates that there was a connection between the two men and that Wisden saw Elwes' work, but no definitive conclusion on the matter can be reached. 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 town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...

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

, which sold it on to Grays 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 Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

Death

Wisden died of cancer, at the age of 57, in the flat above his Cranbourn Street shop (next to

Leicester Square tube station Leicester Square () is a London Underground station in the West End of London, within walking distance of Theatreland and Chinatown, as well as the southern reaches of Soho. It is located on Charing Cross Road, a short distance to the east of L ...

). He was buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is since 1852 the first (and only) London cemetery to be Crown Estate, Crown property, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington a ...

, 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 The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

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