IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): BF
Held at: Marylebone Cricket Club Library
Title: Bill Frindall Collection
Date(s): 1950-2011
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 55 boxes
Name of creator(s): Frindall | William Howard | 1939-2009 | cricket scorer
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
William Howard Frindall was born on 3 March 1939 in Epsom, Surrey. He had four children - Raymond, Stuart, Vanessa and Alice, and was educated at Tadworth County Primary School and Reigate Grammar School, going on to study architecture at the Kingston School of Art.
Frindall spent 43 years as the scorer for Test Match Special on the BBC, replacing the previous scorer, Arthur Wrigley, who died in October 1965. During this time he covered all of England's home Test series for the BBC, and meticulously recorded the scores onto paper using different colours to differentiate between the batsman and scores, also highlighting important entries.
Frindall developed a method of scoring Test matches that he believed originated in Australia. When becoming Test Match Special's scorer in 1966, he revised and redesigned the ball-by-ball method of play that commentators relied upon. The method followed basic conventions of the standard system as described in former MCC Secretary Colonel R S Rait-Kerr's textbook Cricket Umpiring and Scoring, and used three different types of scoresheet: a ball-by-ball record of play, a cumulative record of bowling analyses and extras, and the innings scorecard. This method became widely popular, so much so that Frindall in later years sold scoresheet templates to prospective cricket scorers.
Frindall also wrote a weekly column for the Daily Express, also providing scores to other major national newspapers. He also was editor of the Playfair Cricket Annual for 23 years, and worked on the Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Guinness Facts and Feats, England Test Cricketers: The complete record from 1877 as well as releasing an autobiography, Bearders: My Life in Cricket, in 2006. He was appointed an MBE for services to cricket and broadcasting in 2004, and died in 2009.
The centrepiece of the collection is the original scoresheets that Frindall created whilst scoring for the BBC. They include all of England's home series from June 1966-2008, and a selection of overseas Test matches on England tours from 1975-2008. Frindall also covered all England's home one-day internationals from 1972-2005, and England matches/finals of the World Cups of 1975-1983, and 1996-2003. The collection contains files of scoresheets, statistics and newspaper cuttings relating to tours not involving England, player and team statistical files, newspaper cuttings, photographs, and files relating to books Frindall wrote and published throughout his career.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Scoresheets: England Home Test matches, 1966-2008; England Home Limited Over Internationals, 1972-2005; Cricket World Cups, 1975-1983 and 1996-2003; files on international cricket series in Test nations, 1965-2008; player and team statistical files, newspaper cuttings, scorecards, match programmes, correspondence, car parking passes, photographs, statistical packs, press releases, book proofs.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Files dated less than 30 years old are closed to the public. Records dated 30 years or more from the last date in the file are open. Please contact the MCC Library prior to visiting.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Reproduction/photocopying of scoresheets is not permitted.
Finding aids:
http://mcc.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110008130
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Catalogued by Robert Curphey, MCC Archive Cataloguer. The following sources were used to compile an administrative history of the collection: Frindall, William Howard, Frindall's Score Book III: England v West Indies 1976, Birmingham: Lonsdale, 1976 Frindall, William Howard, Bearders: My Life in Cricket, London: Orion, 2006 'Bill Frindall' http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/294128.html 'Bill Frindall' http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/feb/02/obituary-cricket-bill-frindall 'Bill Frindall website' http://web.archive.org/web/20131016122623/http://www.beardedwonder.co.uk/index.html
Date(s) of descriptions: March-November 2015