Montagu Odd

A family story in cricket

A gameinherited.

A clear American introduction to cricket’s laws, shaped by a family that once made the bats—a tradition carried from workshop to page.

Discover the book Follow the Odd story
James Allister OddAuthor · Family historian
Cover of The American Guide to the Laws of Cricket by James Allister Odd
New edition cover · distribution forthcoming

Inheritance

The rules of a game.The record of a name.

Cricket lives through written laws, skilled hands and inherited memory. Here, a guide for American readers sits beside the surviving record of the Odd bat-making family—and a quieter interest in heraldry and lineage.

THE NEW BOOK

The American Guide to the Laws of Cricket book cover

01 / The book

Cricket,translated for America.

Part guide, part cultural history and part family memoir, The American Guide to the Laws of Cricket explains the game’s laws, language and logic without presuming a lifetime spent around the boundary.

Author
James Allister Odd
Publisher
Corso Publishing
Publication
First published 2024

New edition forthcomingA new edition is forthcoming from Corso Publishing. Distribution and purchase details will be added when confirmed.

Visit the publisher

02 / The family history

A name shapedin willow.

The surviving record is fragmentary, but it is not silent. Directories, advertisements, books and club memories place the Odd family inside English cricket for nearly a century.

  1. 1884

    Odd & Sons in Croydon

    A London business directory lists Odd & Sons as cricket-bat and stump makers at 16 Whitehorse Road, Croydon.

    Business Directory of London

  2. 1897

    A bat among the best

    K. S. Ranjitsinhji wrote that he personally used articles by Wisden, Odd and Nicholls—a rare contemporary endorsement of the name.

    The Jubilee Book of Cricket

  3. 1910

    The Surrey Sports Depot

    An illustrated advertisement offered Odd & Sons cricket goods, new blades and repairs from North End, Croydon.

    Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game

  4. 1917

    Montagu carries it forward

    Local histories record Montagu Odd taking over the family concern, by then established in Sutton, and continuing its bat-making tradition.

    Sutton local history

  5. 1977

    A workshop closes

    The business remained in the Odd family through later generations before closing, leaving bats, advertisements and memories in its wake.

    Local and club records

From the family archive

Two surviving images put a shopfront and faces to the written record.

Historical photograph of the Odd and Sons sporting-goods shopfront, with cricket bats and racquets on display
01
Odd & Sons at the shopfront

Bats and racquets fill the façade and windows of the family sporting-goods business. The date and precise location of this print remain to be confirmed.

Historical group photograph identifying Amos Odd, three of his sons, and other cricket-bat makers
02
Amos Odd and the bat makers

Amos Odd sits at front centre with three of his sons and other workshop hands. The surviving annotations identify members of the group; the original printed caption describes them as presumed bat makers.

03 / The author

Logo rendering of the personal coat of arms used by James Allister Odd
Personal arms

JamesAllister Odd

James Allister Odd is the author of The American Guide to the Laws of Cricket and a descendant of the Odd cricket-making family.

His research moves between workshop and archive: English cricket craft, family history, heraldry and the documentary lives of European houses. His work is occasionally catalogued under the shorter form James Odd.

A separate biographical note appears in the Hasley Manor archive . The linked site and its contents are independently maintained and are not controlled by James Odd or Corso Publishing.

CRICKET & CRAFTHERALDRY & HISTORY

Research notes

The record so far.

This history is deliberately conservative. Dated records are identified; recollections and inherited accounts are described as such. More documents and surviving bats will be added as they come to light.

  1. 011884 Business Directory of LondonOdd & Sons, cricket-bat and stump makers, Croydon
  2. 02The Jubilee Book of Cricket (1897)K. S. Ranjitsinhji on the bats he used
  3. 03Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game (1910)Odd & Sons advertisement and workshop services
  4. 04Sutton local-history studyThe Odd family business in Croydon and Sutton
  5. 05Newdigate Cricket Club recollectionsMontagu Odd, the Sutton factory and surviving bats