A collector's dream continues

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1924 Willows £55, 1012

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1925 Willows £55, 995

The superb Willows reprints continue to be released with pleasing regularity, making collecting a set of Wisdens an affordable and realistic prospect to those who haven't got a couple of hundred thousand pounds stuffed down the back of the sofa.

The latest two offerings are the 1924 and 1925 editions. The 1924 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack was the first to top 1000 pages, and Sydney Pardon, the editor, gave a lament that his successors have often repeated, namely that "the real difficulty in producing Wisden is to keep the book within reasonable limits". The 1923 season itself was unremarkable, with no Test series to report on, and Pardon also confessed that he had not seen any games away from Lord's or The Oval. Imagine if Scyld Berry was to make such a confession next year. The one anomaly was that there were no Five Cricketers of the Year selected, Pardon opting, somewhat idiosyncratically, to plump for Five Bowlers of the Year.

The 1925 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack sneaked in under 1000 pages - by five - and was Pardon's 35th and final as editor. Again, no Test series - the 1924-25 Ashes in Australia would have to wait for the following year - although there was controversy as Yorkshire and Middlesex were threatening not to play each other following a row at Sheffield. A glance through the book raises more than the occasional smile, with advertisements still appearing for horse boots (used to protect pitches as horse-drawn mowers and rollers were still widely in use, even at The Oval). These were endorsed by WG Grace - "The best I have ever seen" - even though he had died almost a decade earlier.

Unlike the modern Wisdens, the prose is often heavy going and avoids anything remotely scandalous, to the point of almost rewriting history. But there is still enough inside to make them a worthwhile read. As with all Willows publications, the reproduction is outstanding and the finished product about as good as you will get.

The good news for fans of Willows reprints is that David Jenkins - the enthusiast who, with the help of his family, runs what is a cottage industry - has plans to continue publishing through to the 1939 edition - the scarce war years have already been issued.

17 The Willows, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 0DE