Bill Frindall

Advantages: Huge amount of information from a very reliable source
Disadvantages: Rather expensive

...Bill Frindall - "the Bearded Wonder" as the late Brian Johnston christened him - is the doyen of cricket statisticians. He has scored every Test in England since 1966, he edits the indispensible Playfair Cricket Annual, he provides statistics to various sections of the media, he produces and sells his own design of scorebook, he is the president of British Blind Sport... oh, and he puts out the odd book as well. This fourth edition of The Wisden Book of Cricket Records, the first for five years, brings things up to date as far as the end of the 1997 English season. Those five years might not seem long, but they witnessed some important new records. Brian Lara (highest individual Test and first-class scores), Allan Border (runs in a Test career), Kapil Dev (most Test wickets), Jack Russell (most dismissals in a Test)... there are many... Read review

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Advantages: An immense amount in a pocket-sized book
Disadvantages: Half-way through the season counties will start picking players they hadn't registered before the start of the season and therefore aren't listed.

...The Playfair Cricket Annual is an essential for any cricket watcher's bag. A pocket version of Wisden, it's the brainchild of the legendary bearded-wonder himself, Test Match Special scorer Bill Frindall. ("how long since Boycott hit a boundary, Bill?" "18,792 minutes, Brian.") It says something about the game of cricket, that even scorers and umpires become celebrated personalities - although I'm not sure what. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But how can I describe a book of cricket stats without being accused of just giving out boring information lacking in originality? Hmmm tricky one. F**k me there are some po-faced people on Ciao. Oh, I'm sorry, am I going too far the other way now and being TOO opinionated? Well, that's OK because I'm going to EDIT THIS OUT when *you* are all gone. As is my wont. Allow me to let... Read review

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Advantages: A great story
Disadvantages: none

...I am a fan of Janet and Allan Ahlberg and we have several of their books such as the jolly postman and peepo. So when one fine sunny day I spotted a copy of burglar Bill by these authors for the bargain price of 10p, at the local car boot sale I snapped it up! Burglar Bill has been a firm favourite with my children ever since. The story ************ The story is about a man named Bill who lives alone, and… you’ve guessed it, is a burglar. During the day Bill sleeps in his stolen bed after he has consumed his breakfast of stolen toast and marmalade. His house is full of stolen property. When the rest of us honest folk are in bed Bill gets up and goes to work. He steals such things as a toothbrush, That’s a nice toothbrush I’ll have that and puts it into his sack. He is also partial to tins of baked beans, hats and the odd coat... Read review

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