The Young Cricketer's Tutor;

London: Effingham Wilson. 1833.

First edition. 12mo in 6s. 145x90mm. pp. 126. Frontispiece engraving of "View of the Mary-le-Bone Club's Cricket Ground". Bound by Bumpus in speckled calf, single filet border to covers, spine lavishly decorated in gilt and with morocco labels lettered in gilt. Marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, green silk ribbon. Front free endpaper has the bookplate of John Stapleton Martin, a barrister and cricketer (he played first class cricket for the MCC). Very slight rubbing to the joints but otherwise an immaculate binding and internally very good with some occasional light foxing and toning to the edges. JISC Library Hub records seven copies of this first edition. It was a very popular book, running to eleven editions up to 1855. Padwick, 390.
John Nyren (1764-1837) was the son of Richard Nyren who was a leading figure of the Hambledon Club (the most important cricket club in Georgian England) and the landlord of the Bat and Ball Inn at Broadhalfpenny Down where John was brought up. John was a keen but not exceptionally talented cricketer and his real contribution to the game was his collaboration with Charles Cowden Clarke. Nyren had a deep fund of stories and recollections of eighteenth century cricket which he recounted to Cowden Clarke who published them in a series of articles in 1832. They were then included in this little book which begins as a guide and coaching manual before moving on to Nyren's reminiscences. It has become a classic of early cricket history.