William Howard Frindall, MBE (3 March 1939 — 29 January 2009) was an English cricket scorer and statistician. He was familiar to cricket followers from his appearances on the BBC Radio 4 programme Test Match Special, nicknamed the Bearded Wonder (often shortened to Bearders) by Brian Johnston for his ability to research the most obscure cricketing facts in moments, at the same time as keeping perfect scorecards, and because he had a beard. In his obituary in The Independent, Angus Fraser described Frindall as "the doyen of cricket scorers".
Frindall was born in Epsom, Surrey. He was educated at Reigate Grammar School, and studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art.
He undertook National Service in the RAF from 1958, becoming a corporal. He remained in the RAF after completing his service, and was commissioned in 1963 as accountant officer in the secretarial branch. He served for two years in the NATO headquarters at Fontainebleau, and left the RAF in 1965. He grew his handlebar moustache into a full beard after leaving the RAF.
Frindall married three times. He married Maureen Wesson in 1960, and they had two sons (Raymond Ernest Howard and Stuart William) and a daughter (Vanessa Jane) together. After their divorce in 1970, he was married to Jacqueline Seager. After his second divorce, he married Deborah Brown; they had a daughter (Alice Katharine).
In later life, he lived in Wiltshire. Frindall died on 29 January 2009, following a short illness after contracting Legionnaires' disease during a charity cricketing tour of Dubai with the Lord's Taverners. He was survived by his third wife, Debbie, and his four children.
Frindall was an enthusiastic cricketer from his early years, playing for Hampshire's Second XI in 1972, where he played one match against Gloucestershire's Second XI, bowling six wicketless overs for 22 runs, and scoring one run in the second innings before he was caught and bowled. He continued as an effective fast bowler in club cricket for many years, particularly in charity matches, although his batting was somewhat agricultural. He ran a touring team, the Malta Maniacs, and also played for the Elvinos and the Lord's Taverners.
He took over the scoring for Test Match Special on 2 June 1966, at the First Test against West Indies at Old Trafford. He replaced the previous scorer, Arthur Wrigley, who had been the BBC scorer from 1934 up to his death in October 1965. Frindall speculatively wrote to the BBC, pointing out that they would need a new scorer, and secured the job. After a trial period, Frindall continued to score for the BBC until his death, watching all 246 Test matches in England from June 1966 to 2008. He covered 377 Tests for the BBC in all, forming a close working relationship with John Arlott and Brian Johnston, providing continuity with later commentators such as Jonathan Agnew. Frindall's perfectionism clashed occasionally with Henry Blofeld's more effusive - but error-prone - delivery.
Frindall was also known for producing scoring charts for many of his tours with England. He modified the linear scoring system invented by John Atkinson Pendlington and developed by Australian scorer Bill Ferguson into a version that is known as the Frindall system. Frindall met Ferguson in 1953, when he was 14 years old. Frindall's work was so meticulously accurate that the commentators would habitually trust his opinion if it differed from the official scoreboard.
Frindall was the president of British Blind Sport, a charity co-ordinating sport for the blind and partially sighted.
It was a common boast of Frindall that he was born on the first day of the last "Timeless Test", between England and South Africa, which became the longest Test ever played (the game was abandoned after 9 days' play spread over 12 days). He last appeared for Test Match Special at England's Test against India at Mohali in 2008. Given his love of such statistics, it is highly fitting that his funeral took place on 13 February 2009, the day of the shortest Test; the second Test between England and the West Indies was abandoned after just 10 balls.
Frindall was known for staunchly defending his beliefs about cricket statistics. When the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians attempted to revise the status of many 19th century and pre-war matches, which would have produced statistics that are different from the conventional, Frindall was among those who objected to their "rewriting of history". As a result, some ACS statistics are different from those in Wisden, which is regarded as the standard. For example, the ACS has awarded Jack Hobbs 199 hundreds (as recorded on Cricinfo), while Wisden, the generally accepted standard, gives him his "traditional" total of 197.
More recently, when the International Cricket Council decided to award Test and One Day International status to the matches played for the Tsunami benefit and the ICC Super Series between Australia and a Rest of the World team, Frindall, in common with many statisticians and historians, disputed the ruling. As a result, Playfair and other publications to which he supplied statistics did not classify those matches as official Tests or ODIs.
In 1998, Frindall was awarded the honorary Degree of Doctor of Technology by Staffordshire University for his contribution to statistics. He was appointed an MBE for services to cricket and broadcasting in the 2004 summer Honours list. He received several awards from the Beard Liberation Front, including "Beard of the year".
In June 2006, his autobiography, Bearders - My Life in Cricket, was published by Orion. Frindall's other works include the Wisden Book of Test Cricket; the Playfair Cricket Annual, which he edited for 23 years, from 1986 until his death; the Wisden Book of Cricket Records; the Guinness Book of Cricket - Facts and Feats; and the 'Cricket records' section of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, which he wrote for several years.
He was also briefly a correspondent for the Mail on Sunday.
