On Wednesday 29 May, to celebrate 150 Years of the Wisden Cricket Almanac, two teams bravely donned Victorian attire for a celebratory cricket match using the rules of 150 years ago.
The two teams, playing in Vincent Square, were an eleven picked by Wisden themselves and the latest incarnation of the Authors XI, a recent revival of 100+ year old team that can count Arthur Conan Doyle and PG Wodehouse amongst its alumni. The current side included writers Dan Stevens, Tom Holland, Kamila Shamsie and Ed Smith. Jeffrey Archer was one of the umpires.
There were actually two matches, the Victorian one was a two-overs-a-side affair, which the Authors won by one run. They then got changed for a proper match, which was rained off at the tea interval, when the Wisden team had just completed their innings.
