Bill Frindall

William Howard Frindall ( March 3, 1939, Epsom, Surrey ) is a British cricket scorer and statistician who is familiar to cricket followers from his appearances on the BBC's radio programme Test Match Special. He was nicknamed "the Bearded Wonder" by Brian Johnston for his ability to research the most obtuse cricketing facts in moments at the same time as keeping perfect scorecards. Frindall and Philip Bailey are generally regarded as the two foremost contemporary cricket statisticians.

Related Topics:
March 3 - 1939 - Epsom - Surrey - British - Cricket - Scorer - Statistician - BBC's - Radio - Test Match Special - Brian Johnston - Philip Bailey

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He studied at Reigate Grammar School and architecture at the Kingston School of Art before serving in National Service for six and a half years in the RAF. When Arthur Wrigley who had been the BBC scorer from 1934 to 1965 died, Frindall took over from him in 1966.

Related Topics:
Reigate Grammar School - Architecture - Kingston School of Art - Arthur Wrigley - BBC - 1934 - 1965 - 1966

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His major works include

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• "Wisden Book of Test Cricket"
• "Playfair Cricket Annual", which he had edited for two decades
• "Wisden Book of Cricket Records"
• "Guinness Book of Cricket - Facts and Feats"
• "Statistics section of "Wisden" for several years.

and scoring charts for many of his tours with England. He modified the linear scoring system developed by Australian scorer Bill Ferguson into a version that is known as the Frindall system.

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Frindall was selected as the Statistician of the Year by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS)http://acscricket.com/Awards/Statistician_of_the_Year.html in 1996. In 1998, he was awarded the honorary Degree of Doctor of Technology by Staffordshire University for his contribution to statistics. He was appointed an MBE for services to cricket and broadcasting in the 2004 summer Honours list.

Related Topics:
Statistician of the Year - Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - Doctor of Technology - Staffordshire University - MBE - Broadcasting - 2004 - Honours

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As a statistician, Frindall has often chosen to walk alone. A few years ago ACS revised the first class status of many old matches, which lead to figures which are different from the conventional figures. Frindall refused to accept it with the result that the ACS figures (which appear in Cricinfo and Cricketarchive) are different from those in Wisden. Jack Hobbs, for instance, has 199 hundreds in Cricinfo and 197 in Wisden. More recently, ICC decided to give Test and ODI status to the matches played for the Tsunami benefit and the supertests between Australia and a Rest of the World team. Frindall ignored this ruling, and Playfair and his other publications do not classify them as official Tests and ODIs.

Related Topics:
Statistician - Cricinfo - Jack Hobbs - ICC - Test - ODI - Tsunami - Benefit - Supertests - Australia - Rest of the World - Playfair

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Bill Frindall: Reference ►