The 1999 Statistician of the Year was Brian Croudy, a member of the ACS since the 1970s and a member of the Committee for a decade. He had worked for the Association in a variety of ways; his knowledge of cricket in New Zealand and India had helped the ACS enormously in publishing guides to first-class matches in those countries (Mr Croudy was author of the New Zealand Guide). He was also of great assistance to Philip Bailey in compiling the ACS Yearbook. Currently he was researching the Halifax Cup and had just returned from a research trip to the USA.
ACS President Eric Midwinter said:
‘No more fitting testimony to the worthiness of this year’s award could be found than the constant response of most on hearing the news of, “Oh, I thought he’d already won it!” So I suspect this is a timely, if not belated, award to someone who did much valiant work on the ACS committee in its early days, who was for years Press Association cricket statistician, and who, more recently, acted as diligent henchman to David Lemmon in the production of a lengthy series of the Benson and Hedges Yearbook.
‘An expert on New Zealand and on American cricket, he is here today with his wife, and one is tempted to add the usual adjective when speaking of the spouses of cricket buffs, “long-suffering”.’
‘The Statistician of the Year award is pleasingly catholic in its compass. Last year it properly went to a man who constructed a once-off brilliant tour de force. This year it goes to a man who, combining the never-easy virtues of zeal and carefulness, has dedicated a lifetime to the gleaning and dissemination of cricket knowledge, offering yeoman and selfless service to cricket scholarship in general and to the ACS in particular.
‘I am genuinely delighted to make the award of Cricket Statistician of the Year to Brian Croudy.’