DENISON, William. Sketches of the Players. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Rudolph Ackermann, R. Dark Lord's Ground [and others], 1846. 12° (181 x 101mm). viii, 76pp. (Title spotted, occasional spots elsewhere.) Contemporary cloth (spine worn, covers stained and discoloured). Provenance: Cecil J. Ball (signature in blue ink at head of title). FIRST EDITION of the earliest cricketing biographies. The subjects include Mynn, Box, Clark, Guy, William Lillywhite and Fuller Pilch. Mynn earns a long entry of nine pages, but is beaten by Lillywhite whose biography is enlarged by the inclusion of several letters on throwing. Padwick 876 & 7201.