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Hampshire Cricket Pays Tribute To Former Scorer And Statistician Vic Isaacs
Hampshire Cricket Pays Tribute To Former Scorer And Statistician Vic Isaacs
Hampshire Cricket and The Ageas Bowl pays tribute to Vic Isaacs, scorer and statistician at Hampshire for 30 years
Words by Dave Allen, Club Historian
When Hampshire veteran scorer Norman Drake died before the start of the historic 1973 season we recruited local football referee Peter White who stayed only briefly but in his first season was wise enough to back Hampshire for the title at 66-1. In 1975, Vic Isaacs, born in Scotland, had become a cricket scorer during his years in the RAF and arrived at Hampshire staying for 30 years as our scorer and statistician. He was notable in developing the new digital media, becoming a leading figure in taking scoring and statistics into the 21st century.
Vic joined Hampshire CCC in 1975, the year they won the John Player League for the first time, and quickly became recognised as one of the leading scorers and statisticians in the country.
Before computers were introduced to scorebox’s up and down the country Vic took great pride in his scorebooks which were not only accurate to the Nth degree but with beautiful handwriting and each run, wicket and extra highlighted in a different coloured pen, each match recorded became a work of art that too few got to witness.
A mentor to so many aspiring scorers Vic remained passionate about Hampshire Cricket and the scoring community and inspired his son, Richard, to follow in his footsteps and who now supports the broadcasters on Sky TV.
Tim Tremlett, Cricket Operations Manager
The website he produced of Hampshire’s statistical history attracted many accolades and contributed to the development of the online initiatives of the Association of Cricket Statisticians (ACS) and the Cricket Archive website. But Vic also found time for a number of important publications over the years as well as a collection of shorter reports which can be found still on Cricinfo (https://www.espncricinfo.com/author/vic-isaacs-205). He also contributed significantly each year to the contents of the Hampshire handbook and to the players’ Benefit Brochures.
His books were generally on statistical and/or historical topics. In 1986 he produced the booklet of our First-Class Records from 1864 to that year and this was updated later to 1992 and then 1996. In that year he produced a similar book for Hampshire’s one-day records 1963-1995, divided into the original Gillette Cup (later Nat West Trophy), the John Player Sunday League and the Benson & Hedges Cup. By that time Vic had enjoyed the pleasure of scoring at Lord’s as Hampshire won their first three Cup Finals. During the seasons 1997-2000 he also produced annual statistical reports while in 2000 he and I collaborated on Malcolm Marshall: His record innings by innings, published in the ACS series of ‘Famous Cricketers’ (number 80).
After he left Hampshire he worked with local club sides, while his son Richard – a regular Hampshire supporter in his schooldays – has taken on Vic’s mantle as a cricket statistician, working frequently with Sky Sports and elsewhere.
