Peter Wynne-Thomas BEM (30 July 1934 – 15 July 2021) 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 ...

writer, historian and statistician who was for many years the

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...

and librarian of

Nottinghamshire CCC Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called th ...

.Francis, Tony.
Facts and figures are food and drink; Far Pavilions This week's Test venue is home to statistics wizard Wynne-Thomas.
Daily Telegraph ondon, England 11 Aug. 2003. Gale OneFile: News. Accessed 11 Aug. 2021. The library at Nottinghamshire's Trent Bridge cricket ground is named ''The Wynne-Thomas Library'' in his honour. He was one of the Nottinghamshire general committee members, and in 2016 he was elected President of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.

Life

Peter Wynne-Thomas was born on 30 July 1934 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

to Daniel Wynne-Thomas, an architect, and Melrose (née Booth), a solicitor, and was educated at Belmont School and

Lancing College Lancing College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18 in southern England, UK. The school is located in West S ...

in West Sussex. He was trained as an architectural consultant at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

but, from what began as a hobby, he specialised in

cricket statistics Cricket is a sport that generates a variety of statistics. Statistics are recorded for each player during a match, and aggregated over a career. At the professional level, statistics for Test cricket, One Day International (ODI), and first-class ...

and research. He wrote cricket books, some intended for those with a beginner's or casual interest in the sport. Examples are the ''Hamlyn A-Z of Cricket Records'', which is a selection of statistical information; and ''A History of Cricket: From the Weald to the World'' which presents an account of cricket's history. His ''Nottinghamshire Cricketers 1821–1914'' won

The Cricket Society The Cricket Society is a charitable organisation founded in 1945 as the Society of Cricket Statisticians at Great Scotland Yard, London. It has grown steadily to be the largest body of its kind in the cricket world. The Cricket Society now has ov ...

Book of the Year Award in 1971. During the 1960s, Wynne-Thomas worked with

Rowland Bowen Rowland Francis Bowen (27 February 1916 – 4 September 1978) was a British Army officer and a cricket researcher, historian and writer. Educated at Westminster School, Bowen received an emergency commission in April 1942 into the Indian A ...

on ''The Cricket Quarterly''.

Richard Streeton Richard Marsh Streeton (4 November 1930 – 30 June 2006) was an English sports journalist, concentrating on cricket. Streeton's father was a manager for His Master's Voice and the BBC. Streeton was educated at King's School, Canterbury, be ...

, (accessed from the webarchive on 31 December 2007) In 1973, he was involved in the foundation of the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

(ACS). He was the original treasurer until 1974 and then secretary until he retired in 2006. Wynne-Thomas managed the ''Sport-in-Print'' bookshop (opposite the

Trent Bridge Inn The Trent Bridge Inn is a pub in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The Trent Bridge Cricket Ground began in a field behind this pub, and the land was also the first home of the Notts County Football Club. The pub is now operated by Weth ...

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test cricket, Test, One-day cricket, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nott ...

Cricket Ground in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

) from December 1987. The ACS purchased the premises in 1993 as its headquarters. Wynne-Thomas combined his shop and ACS roles until March 2006, when he retired and the shop was sold, the ACS relocating to

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. He was awarded the

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Monarchy of the United Ki ...

in the 2019 New Year's Honours List for his services to cricket. He married twice: in 1975 to Margaret Barnett with whom he had a daughter, and in 2000 to Edith North. He died on 15 July 2021, aged 86, of bowel cancer.

Works

Publications by Wynne-Thomas include the following : * ''Nottinghamshire Cricketers 1821-1914'' (1971) * ''Nottinghamshire Cricketers 1919-1939'' (1980) * ''England on Tour'' (1983) * ''Who's Who of Cricketers'' (with

Philip Bailey Philip James Bailey (born May 8, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and percussionist, best known as an early member and one of the two lead singers (along with group founder Maurice White) of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. Noted for his fo ...

and Philip Thorn) (1984) * ''Cricket in Conflict'' (with Peter Arnold) (1984) * ''A-Z of Cricket Records'' (1985) * ''Give Me Arthur: A Biography of Arthur Shrewsbury'' (1985) * ''Nottinghamshire: Cricket's Double Champions 1987'' (1988) * ''The History of Hampshire County Cricket Club'' (1988) * ''The Complete History of Cricket Tours at Home and Abroad'' (1989) * ''The History of Lancashire County Cricket Club'' (1989) * ''The Australian Tour to England 1948'' (with Peter Griffiths) (1990) * ''The History of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club'' (1992) * ''Sir Julien Cahn's Team 1923-1941'' (1994) * ''Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club First-Class Records 1826–1995'' (1996) * ''The History of Cricket: From the Weald to the World'' (1997) * ''Ivo Bligh'' (2002) * ''Nottinghamshire County Cricket Grounds'' (2002) * ''FS Ashley-Cooper: A Biographical Sketch And Bibliography'' (2003) * ''Cricket's Historians'' (2011) * ''William Clarke: The Old General'' (2014) * ''Arthur Carr: The Rise and Fall of Nottinghamshire's Bodyline Captain'' (2017)

Co-authored with Peter Arnold

* ''The Illustrated History of the Test Match'' (1988) * ''An Ashes Anthology'' (1989) * ''The Ashes: A Complete Illustrated History'' (1990) * ''The Complete Book of Cricket'' (1997) * ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Cricket'' (1997) * ''The Best Book of Cricket Stats and Facts Ever!'' (1999) * ''The Complete Encyclopedia of Cricket'' (2007)

Life

Works

Co-authored with Peter Arnold

References

Further reading