Midlands Club Cricket Conference Year Books
J.L. Carr moved from Southampton to Birmingham in about 1936, where he played cricket for Aston Unity, a team founded in 1868 that currently plays at a ground near Tamworth. After serving in the RAF for six years during World War II Carr returned to teach in schools in Birmingham and joined Birmingham Municipal Cricket Club, which was a founder member of the Midlands Club Cricket Conference (MCCC). Birmingham Municipal ran five teams: 1st, 2nd, A, B, and a Sunday XI. The Council withdrew support for the Club in the 1980s and the ground was eventually sold to become the Sedgemere Sports and Social Club.
The first MCCC yearbook was published in 1948. While Carr's name is mentioned in the sections on Birmingham Municipal in the Yearbooks for 1950, 1951 and 1952, which reported the achievements of clubs and cricketers of the season before, these year books are notable for Carr's contributions of text, including two Anthologies for Damp Days in the year books for 1948 and 1950, plus a cartoon and scattered entries throughout the text in the year book for 1951 which Carr co-edited. These notes were the predecessor of the Dictionary of extra-ordinary English Cricketers.
As a matter of note, there was nothing by or about J.L. Carr in the Midlands Club Cricket Yearbook for 1949.
In 1951 Carr moved to Kettering to become Headmaster at Highfields Primary School and so presumably ended his association with Birmingham Municipal CC, but the Miniature Anthology for Damp Days published in 1950 was reprinted in the Yearbook for 1964.
Midlands Club Cricket Conference Year Book & Secretarial Directory, 1948
Publisher: Midlands Publishing Co. Ltd for the Midlands Club Cricket Conference
Year: 1948
ISBN: None
Size: 183 x 125 mm
Pages: pp 106
Staples: two
Binding: yellow printed card covers
Paper: white
Editor: W. Leslie Jones
Cover artist: none stated
Internal illustrations: photographs
Printed by: Institute Printing Works Ltd, Institute Road, B'ham 14.
Price: 2/6d
Content: A Miniature Anthology for Damp Days
collected by J.L. Carr, pp 72-78
Notes: This was the first issue of the MCCC Yearbook and contains seven pages of notes by Carr under these headings: It started thus; The ladies; And that is the law; Of bats and balls; In the far north; It was a most remarkable thing; The church at play; Village cricket or It may happen to you; W.G. Grace; Australia; Larwood at the battle of Adelaide; Odds and ends; and A cricket letter of the year 1739. It includes the entries on Max Beerbohm and Lord Winterton that Carr used in his Dictionary.
Front cover
Title page of Carr's article
Midlands Club Cricket Conference Year Book, 1950
Publisher: Midlands Publishing Co. Ltd for the Midlands Club Cricket Conference
Year: 1950
ISBN: None
Size: 182 x 124 mm
Pages: pp 150
Staples: two
Binding: green printed card covers
Paper: white
Editor: W. Leslie Jones
Cover artist: not stated
Internal illustrations: photographs
Printed by: Institute Printing Works Ltd, Institute Road, B'ham 14.
Price: 2/6
Content: A Miniature Anthology for Damp Days
collected by J.L. Carr, pp 31-37.
Notes: The Handbook contains seven pages of notes by Carr about people under headings: Old Masters - J.R. Nyren (the General); The Rev. Lord Frederick Beauclerk; George Parr; William Lillywhite; John Small; Mrs John Small; Julius Caesar; John Wisden; Alfred Mynn (the Lion of Kent); Doctor Grace (the Champion); K.S. Ranjitsinjhi, Jam Sahib of Nawangar; George Hirst; Lord Tennyson. Ordinary folk - Mr E. Winter; Sid (surname unknown); Mr John Boots; Mr Sidney James Ballard; The Tradesmen's Mid-week XI; A curate; A man; Captain Adams; The Croydon Schoolmaster; The village fast bowler; A Russian, A missionary; D.G. Bradman; G.G. Macaulay; Roy Kilner. The Anthology was re-published in the 1964 Yearbook (see below).
The entry on Birmingham Municipal notes that J.L. Carr scored a century (102) during the season.
Front cover
Title page of Carr's article
Midlands Club Cricket Conference Year Book, 1951
Publisher: Midlands Publishing Co. Ltd for the Midlands Club Cricket Conference
Year: 1951
ISBN: None
Size: 185 x 124 mm
Pages: pp 116
Staples: two
Binding: dark red printed card covers
Paper: white
Editors: W. Leslie Jones and J.L. Carr
Internal illustrations: cartoon by Carr and photographs
Number in series: none given
Printed by: Institute Printing Works Ltd, Institute Road, Birmingham 14
Content: Cartoon (see left) on page 23. The section Were you really out
on pages 39-41 may be by Carr as it contains the entry on Max Beerbohm (again), which is in Carr's Dictionary of Cricketers. There are also small anecdotal entries below articles, perhaps to fill space on pages 20, 56 and 94, which are probably by Carr as they appeared in earlier Yearbooks or are in his style.
Notes: The entry on Birmingham Municipal cricket club noted that J.L. Carr had beaten an individual record for batting (what that record was, is not stated), and had a batting average of 36 for the 1st XI.
Front cover
Cartoon drawn by Carr, reproduced on page 23
Midlands Club Cricket Conference Year Book, 1952
Publisher: Midlands Publishing Co. Ltd for the Midlands Club Cricket Conference
Year: 1952
ISBN: None
Size: 185 x 124 mm
Pages: not seen
Staples: two
Binding: grey printed card covers
Paper: white
Editor: W. Leslie Jones
Internal illustrations: not seen
Printed by: not seen
Content: The entry for Birmingham Municipal Cricket Club on page 73 is reproduced below. Click on it to enlarge.
Notes:
Front cover
Entry in Yearbook on page 73, click to enlarge
Midlands Club Cricket Conference Year Book, 1964
Publisher: The Studio Press (Birmingham) Ltd., Elkington street, Birmingham, 6
Year: 9780198614128
ISBN: None
Size: 183 x 123 mm
Pages: i, 124, 1 pp adverts
Staples: three
Binding: orange printed card covers
Paper: white
Editor: W. Leslie Jones
Internal illustrations: Photographs
Printed by: The Studio Press (Birmingham) Ltd
Content: A Miniature Anthology for Damp Days from the 1950 Yearbook is reprinted in full on pages 70-74.
Notes: J.L.Carr is named on the cover.
Front cover