Tom Richardson - Surrey and England

[fredfertang]

Tom Richardson - Surrey and England

2012 will mark the centenary of the death of the nineteenth century's finest fast bowler. In this feature Martin takes a look at his remarkable career.

 

[chasingthedon]

Great piece about a great bowler, Martin.

 

[Days of Grace]

Bit late on this, but thanks a lot for this, Martin. I enjoyed reading it over my lunchtime!

Wish there was a (300 page+) biography written about him.

 

[The Sean]

As always - you must almost be sick of me saying so - a wonderful read.

Honest Tom is one of those cricketers that just seems to leap out from the pages of history - I remember reading of the two wonderfully conflicting accounts of the aftermath of his epic, in-vain, 13-wicket hall at Old Trafford in 1896. The romantic account was that he had to be assisted from the field by his teammates, slumped in their arms, so spent was he from his endeavours. The other is that after Australia had hit the winning runs Honest Tom bolted off the field, threw his boots to the ground and had sunk four pints before the rest of his teammates had even joined him!

That's just one of many wonderful references - I particularly love Richardson's response when he was asked what he thought of the increase in the number of balls in an over from five to six: "Give me TEN!" And when his great contemporary Bill Lockwood - never the most modest or self-effacing of men, by all accounts - was asked to measure himself against Honest Tom, he simply replied: "I wasn't in the same street."

The final quote from Cardus is apt as well, given that when Cardus selected his Six Giants of the Wisden Century in 1963 to celebrate 100 years of the publication, he chose Richardson as one of them. The other five were Barnes, Bradman, Grace, Hobbs and Trumper - so it's fair to say he was in decent company.

 

[fredfertang]

As always - you must almost be sick of me saying so - a wonderful read.

.... errrr, no, not at all

 

[Days of Grace]

Some revealing stats:

Up until the end of the 1897 English season, Richardson played 164 F.C. matches, took 1276 wickets at the cost of 14.93 at 7.78 wickets per match That includes 146 5W/I, a rate of 0.89 per match, FFS.


For the remainder of his career, he played 194 F.C. matches, and took 828 wickets at the cost of 23.84 at 4.27 wickets per match. "Only" 54 5W/I, a rate of 0.28 per match.

A sad decline.

Fred, in your opinion, was this mainly due to his heavy workload?

Up until the end of the 1897 season, he aveaged 238 balls per match, or roughly 40 overs. Considering that it was three-day matches in those days; at times only 3 bowlers were used in an innnigs; and some matches were played on rough tracks and thus were finished very quickly, that's a lot of toil.

 

[JBMAC]

Some revealing stats:

Up until the end of the 1897 English season, Richardson played 164 F.C. matches, took 1276 wickets at the cost of 14.93 at 7.78 wickets per match That includes 146 5W/I, a rate of 0.89 per match, FFS.


For the remainder of his career, he played 194 F.C. matches, and took 828 wickets at the cost of 23.84 at 4.27 wickets per match. "Only" 54 5W/I, a rate of 0.28 per match.

A sad decline.

Fred, in your opinion, was this mainly due to his heavy workload?

Up until the end of the 1897 season, he aveaged 238 balls per match, or roughly 40 overs. Considering that it was three-day matches in those days; at times only 3 bowlers were used in an innnigs; and some matches were played on rough tracks and thus were finished very quickly, that's a lot of toil.

Out of curiousity were those overs four ball ones?

 

[fredfertang]

Some revealing stats:

Up until the end of the 1897 English season, Richardson played 164 F.C. matches, took 1276 wickets at the cost of 14.93 at 7.78 wickets per match That includes 146 5W/I, a rate of 0.89 per match, FFS.


For the remainder of his career, he played 194 F.C. matches, and took 828 wickets at the cost of 23.84 at 4.27 wickets per match. "Only" 54 5W/I, a rate of 0.28 per match.

A sad decline.

Fred, in your opinion, was this mainly due to his heavy workload?

Up until the end of the 1897 season, he aveaged 238 balls per match, or roughly 40 overs. Considering that it was three-day matches in those days; at times only 3 bowlers were used in an innnigs; and some matches were played on rough tracks and thus were finished very quickly, that's a lot of toil.

From everything I read his decline seems to have coincided with his putting on a few pounds in weight which I would think would have effected his ability to keep going, but it seems that more tellingly he probably lost a yard or two of pace - I'd like to know when Beldam took his action photographs (his book was published in 1907) as I suspect that in his prime Richardson was, like all the best quicks (Sylvers apart!) thin and sinewy. I have just realised I have a book about Beldam somewhere so I'll try and dig that out today and see if it sheds any light

 

[fredfertang]

Out of curiousity were those overs four ball ones?

Five