Andrew Keith Hignell (born 12 October 1959 in Gloucester)[1] is a cricket historian and scorer.
Hignell has a PhD in Geography from Cardiff University. He has been the Glamorgan 1st XI scorer since 1982. For over 25 years he combined a career as a teacher at independent schools with working on radio commentaries for BBC Radio Wales on the home and away matches of Glamorgan. In 2004 he left full-time teaching at Wells Cathedral School to become the Heritage and Education Co-Ordinator at Glamorgan Cricket, where he manages the Museum of Welsh Cricket at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff.
Hignell has written numerous books on cricket.[2][3] In Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, Alan Ross said Hignell's 1995 biography of Glamorgan's combative post-war captain Wilf Wooller, which was based on extensive interviews, revealed a "surprising warmth" in its subject.[4]Wisden's editor Graeme Wright, reviewing Hignell's 2001 biography of Malcolm Turnbull, praised Hignell as "a thorough researcher and a sound writer", adding that Hignell gets Turnbull "just right".[5] Reviewing Hignell's 2002 book Rain Stops Play, Wisden Cricket Monthly said, "Hignell's excellent volume should be required reading in both dressing-room and press box", and added that it was "a history of cricket with a strong geographical bias".[6] The Welsh historian John Idris Jones, writing in Planet, said of Hignell's Cricket in Wales (2008), "As a chronicle of cricket in Wales, it is not likely to be surpassed",[7] while Duncan Stone, reviewing Cricket in Wales in the journal Sport in History, said "Hignell's obviously exhaustive research informs, illuminates and entertains".[8]
^Review of The History of Glamorgan County Cricket Club: John Twigg (2007), "More establishment history: a review essay", The International Journal of the History of Sport , doi:10.1080/09523369008713719
^Review of A "Favourit" Game: Jack Williams (1993), Welsh History Review, ProQuest1310504027