Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1948

Author: Edited by Hubert Preston
Price: £245
Publisher: Sporting Handbooks Limited
Edition: 1st edition thus
Publication Date: 1948
Format: Original cloth.
Condition: Very good plus

Description:
Binding nice and tight and very clean with only very minor rubbing. Pages nice and clean but with the usual tanning to the edges due to the paper stock. Top edge slightly dusty. Spine gilt very legible. A very good plus, tight, bright, clean copy. Very scarce in this condition.

Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1948: A Short Description

The Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 1948, the 85th edition of cricket’s most enduring and respected annual, was published in the spring of a year that would soon prove to be one of the most momentous in the sport’s history. Edited by Hubert Preston, this post-war edition combined a sense of cautious normality with the awareness that the world—and cricket with it—was still undergoing a slow recovery from the dislocations of global conflict.

The 1948 volume documented the events of the 1947 season, a summer of rare brilliance that helped to restore cricket’s spirit in Britain. Following years of austerity and disruption, the public responded with enthusiasm to the return of full schedules, and Wisden responded in kind, presenting a detailed and optimistic record of the game’s progress.

One of the most striking aspects of the 1947 season, and consequently of the 1948 Wisden, was the performance of Denis Compton. His extraordinary achievement of scoring 3,816 first-class runs in a single season—at an average well over one hundred—was nothing short of legendary. Alongside him, Yorkshire’s Bill Edrich also had a prolific summer, ensuring that batting feats dominated the narrative of the season. The Almanack, true to its understated tone, acknowledged these achievements with clarity and restraint, while allowing the sheer volume of runs to speak for itself in the statistical tables.

England’s international engagements in 1947 were limited to a Test series against South Africa, which the home side won 3–0. The series helped re-establish England’s place in world cricket following the upheaval of the Second World War. Wisden offered thoughtful match reports, carefully balancing technical appraisal with an understanding of the broader context in which the sport was being played—a hallmark of the post-war editions.

The domestic game received its usual comprehensive treatment. Middlesex won the County Championship, a fitting reward for a side featuring both Compton and Edrich at their peak. The coverage of county cricket remained detailed and methodical, with full scorecards, averages, and summaries of each county’s season—a vital resource for both historians and contemporary enthusiasts.

In keeping with its long-standing tradition, the 1948 edition named the Five Cricketers of the Year, honouring those who had made the most significant impact during the previous season. These selections often reflected not only skill but also character and influence on the game’s spirit, especially significant in a period still marked by wartime memory and social readjustment.

The structure of the Almanack remained familiar and reassuring. Printed in compact format, with dense typesetting and an absence of photographic illustration, it retained its focus on textual and statistical substance. The obituaries section, always a poignant element of Wisden, paid tribute to players and figures whose careers had been interrupted or ended by war, a sobering reminder of the decade that had passed.

While the 1948 edition was rooted firmly in the achievements of the 1947 season, there was a quiet anticipation of what was to come. Australia were due to tour England that summer, bringing with them the formidable presence of Don Bradman and his team—the side that would later earn the title of “The Invincibles”. Though this historic tour fell outside the coverage of the 1948 Almanack, the anticipation was subtly felt, and the editorial tone carried a sense of expectancy.

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