Old man Wisden

Forget moons, suns, solstices and altered clocks, for half the world spring officially sprang on Wednesday when the 142nd edition of Wisden was launched with a banquet at London’s Inner Temple Hall. Eighteen-sixty-four was memorably busy: down the slope from the Inner Temple, they began building the Thames Embankment; Clifton Suspension Bridge was opened; General Gordon captured Nanking; Bhutans were boldly bothering Brits, and in Africa the Ashanti were restless; Dickens brought out Our Mutual Friend and photographs by magnesium flash were taken for the first time in Manchester; Oxford won the Boat Race by a rollicking 27 seconds; in his first-ever race a white-faced chestnut Blair Athol won the Derby at Epsom; oh yes, and a 15-year-old Gloucestershire stripling and medic-to-be, Willie Grace, scored a chanceless 170 against the Gents of Sussex at Hove. The last was the probably most apt occurrence of all, for in 1864 Wisden hit the streets for the first time.