1. Complete game in
box together with full assembling instructions, score sheets and Rules of play.
This
was the small "Popular" edition of the game.
2. Complete game in box containing special
fielding set (including bowler) and special batsmen and umpire set,
stamped out in unbreakable celluloid material, together with score sheet
and rules of play.
The mid-sized
"Combination" edition.
Obviously
this set was available in the 1950s, but wasn't on the accessory list until
almost the last one!
The lovely card illustrated figures are slightly different than the celluloid ones.
Less useful than the football numbers and positions, the identification sheet here just has squares A-I, which could be coded to "represent a favourite cricketer". Amazingly, this cricketer was updated in later sets - from Dennis Compton to Garfield Sobers. This looks to have been done when the copyright changed from PA Adolph to Subbuteo Sports Games Ltd.
These figures started as cut-out, but became press-out in the early 1950s. As with the fielders, there are some lovely movement lines on the illustrations. I don't fancy playing with a card bat though. The cut-out illustration shows the backs of the figures, and it is pleasing that the umpire holding the red bordered sweater is doing this in front, and the one holding the blue sweater is doing this behind.
The bails were very small yellow plastic sticks. The rests were two tiny squares of green celluloid.
These were a thin transparent green plastic in this version of cricket.
These exist with little change in the OO scale era, but the illustration on the front changes. See TC-F in the OO scale range.
There were two different batsmen, and two different umpires. The pictures are similar to the card versions.
The fielder in the middle is the special "catching" fielder. The batsman was caught out automatically if the ball hit this figure.
This was the one 1950s accessory that was not part of the original box set. A big thank you to Stephen Kimber who sent in this picture. As you can see, they are fairly basic, being a piece of white material (card?) supported by two metal posts similar to the flag posts from "Set T" in the football range. These are from an era of practical game accessories, rather than the models of the OO scale era. However, there is no way they could provide a white canvas to show up the red ball to the batter whilst playing, so surely they must be an early example of a "for show" item. They arrive on the 1950 price list at 2s 5d, and last until at least 1962. Despite this long run in the range, they are pretty rare.
