This outstanding annual has earned many friends over the years and will assuredly continue to do so. Every cricket enthusiast will relish the arrival of this latest edition - the 65th edition of the New Zealand Cricket Almanack is the 30th under the current editors - Francis Payne and Ian Smith.

2012 New Zealand Cricket Almanack is the most compact and efficiently organised production. The text is lively and interesting thoughout.

The publishers are to be congratulated on this splendid production, which is a pleasure to peruse, handsome to handle and reasonably priced. Thanks to superb efforts of Francis Payne and Ian Smith, cricket's library has been enriched by the appearance of this Almanack over the years.

Apart from international cricket - Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals - played by New Zealand during the last twelve months, the Almanack also includes complete coverage of domestic cricket, including Plunket Shield, the newly-named Ford Trophy, the HRV Cup, the women's Action Cricket competitions, Hawke Cup and age-group cricket.

Doug Bracewell, Tim Latham and Hamish Ratherford have been chosen as Promising Players of the Year and Martin Guptil amd Kane Williamson as Players of the Year by the Almanack.

An absorbing compilation of the season's happenings, as in the previous years, is the highlight of this Almanack. The statistical highlights, covered in this section, are not to be seen in any other cricket publication and website. Some of the interesting Happenings covered in this Almanack are:

# Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe) and Ross Taylor (New Zealand) were the opposing captains in two Tests during the season. This was the first time in the entire history of Test Cricket that the captains had the same surname.

# During the first Test against South Africa at Dunedin, Chris Martin became the sixth player to twice capture three wickets in four balls in Test Cricket. What was unusual though, was that he not only became the first player to do so in successive Tests but they were six successive wickets for him and six out of seven wickes to fall to New Zealand.

# Phillip Hughes was caught by Martin Guptill off Chris Martin in all four of his tes innings against New Zealand in December. It was the fifth time anyone had been out in the same way four times in a row in tests but the first to involve a fielder-bowler combination every time.

A detailed statistical section, covering Tests, ODIs and First-class cricket apart from New Zealand limited-overs records and Obituaries section, as always, are always exhaustive.

Many happy hours can be spent absorbing the endless data. As one would expect from Fancis Payne and Ian Smith, there is a wealth of information covering both team and individual achievements that makes the work an essential purchase for anyone interested in New Zealand cricket or statistics in general. Highly recommended Almanack

The volume is presented with care and attention to detail consistent with this publisher's high standards.