Famous Cricketers No 82 - H.E. 'Tom' Dollery

SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St County Championship 24 41 6 1149 101* 32.82 2 5 14 - Other Warwicks matches 2 2 0 34 23 17.00 - - - - Season 26 43 6 1183 101* 31.97 2 5 14 - Career 34 57 7 1458 101* 29.16 2 6 18 - Bowling O M R W County Championship 1.2 0 5 0 1936 Dollery maintained his position in his second full season, despite a dreadful first month when in twelve innings he failed to reach twenty. A shoulder injury sustained playing football in the winter restricted his off-side stroke play to some extent throughout the season but it made him tighten up his on-side play even more which led to Wyatt observing that he was now playing too much to the on. It also restricted his throwing in from cover and he gradually moved into closer catching positions from this season. His form picked up in early June and he scored fairly consistently from then on to finish second to Wyatt in the averages, although his only century of the season came in the last home match against Surrey. This was a valiant effort to set Surrey a difficult target on a seamer’s pitch, against Gover and Watts. He hit up his 140 in only 100 minutes of explosive stroke play, striking 3 sixes and 22 fours, including twenty runs in one over off slow left-armer J.V.Daley. He must have fancied the Surrey bowling as his next best score was also against them, when he hit up 84 not out before a declaration at The Oval in July had set up a rare Warwickshire win. Another notable knock was his 72 in the second innings of the Yorkshire match at Bradford. Set 303 in as many minutes to win, Warwickshire went for them and fell only 42 short, with Tom batting down the order with a runner due to a pulled muscle hitting 11 fours, a six and a five before Hedley Verity trapped him l.b.w. He missed the next game against Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston, one of the few occasions during his career that he was unavailable because of injury. The Gloucestershire game at Bristol in June saw Dollery, under orders, play one of his slowest and most uncharacteristic innings; seven runs in one and a half hours, as Wyatt ordered his batsmen not to hit the ball off the square against Tom Goddard and Reg Sinfield on a typical Bristol turner. The Committee was not best pleased, they would rather the team go down fighting, and this incident sparked off Wyatt’s eventual demise as captain. Warwickshire failed to win a home game and slumped to 13th place in the Championship. Wisden commented that there were few players in the country who were better to watch than Dollery and he was “never cramped in style”. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct St Total Total 35. Warwickshire v Middlesex, Lord’s, May 9, 11, 12 (Warwickshire won by one wicket) b J.M.Sims 13 213 150 c J.M.Sims b C.I.J.Smith 15 218-9 280 1 36. Warwickshire v Cambridge University, Fenner’s, May 13, 14, 15 (Cambridge University won by 287 runs) c P.A.Gibb b M.Jahangir Khan 2 43 243 lbw b W.Wooller 0 112 199 37. Warwickshire v Kent, Edgbaston, May 16, 18, 19 (Kent won by 130 runs) st W.H.V.Levett b C.Lewis 8 316 218 1 lbw b C.Lewis 6 116 344-6d 1 15