GEM_OF_A_BOOK_FOUND_26SEP1997

Friday 26 September 1997

Book gem found

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

AN original manuscript of the most famous cricket book, John Nyren`s The Cricketers of My Time, has been unearthed in Kent. It was discovered by the author Ashley Mote while researching the story of Broadhalfpenny Down, the sloping field beside the Bat and Ball Inn which was the home of Hambledon in the years between 1750 and 1780 when the little Hampshire club - in reality the first professional cricket club - was the centre of the cricket world.

Nyren apparently dictated his memoirs to what would today be called a `ghost`, Charles Cowden-Clarke, and they were originally published in 1832, first in a weekly periodical, The Town. In March, 1833 they appeared, slightly altered and much extended, in book form. The manuscript, the work of a professional handwriting copier, differs slightly in places from both the magazine articles and the book.

It was found in superb condition in the home of Christine Pardoe, grand-daughter of Edward Whalley-Tooker, who was the doyen of Hambledon Cricket Club in the early part of this century.

The specialist cricket book-seller John McKenzie said yesterday: "This is a tremendous find. If it were to be authenticated as the personal copy of John Nyren`s original manuscript it might fetch perhaps -L100,000 at an auction. Even as a contemporary copy without Nyren`s actual signature one would certainly be talking four figures."

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)