Arthur Wrigley

Arthur Neville Wrigley (25 January 1912 – 30 October 1965) was an English cricket scorer and statistician. He was the first scorer for BBC radio cricket commentary.

After service with the Royal Air Force he joined the Lancashire County Cricket Club ground staff as a slow right-arm bowler, though he never played in a first-class match. His career with the BBC began in 1934 when, after a request by commentator Howard Marshall for a scorer, Lancashire offered his services for the England-Australia Test at Old Trafford. However this was not followed up, and it was not until after World War II that a scorer was regularly employed as a member of the BBC radio team. From 1950 until his death, Wrigley scored for the BBC in most home Tests, including for Test Match Special when that programme began in 1957.

When not working for the BBC, he practised as an accountant. He died at Stockport aged fifty-three. His magnum opus came out in 1965, the hefty The Book of Test Cricket: 1876-1964 (The Epworth Press, Edinburgh, 1965, 752 pp).

References

• Wisden obituary
• 1981 Wisden article "Radio Reflections" by E.W. Swanton
• Christopher Martin-Jenkins: Ball by Ball: The Story of Cricket Broadcasting, Grafton Books, 1990, ISBN 0-246-13568-9, p90 and p159.