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

58. Warwickshire v Surrey, Mitchells and Butlers Ground, Birmingham, August 19, 20, 21 (Surrey won by five wickets) b A.R.Gover 1 106 176 1 c J.V.Daley b E.A.Watts 140 301 232-5 59. Warwickshire v Lancashire, Old Trafford, August 22, 24, 25 (Warwickshire won by 118 runs) c E.Paynter b L.W.Parkinson 31 209 199 st G.Duckworth b J.L.Hopwood 50 255 147 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St County Championship 23 38 5 1101 140 33.36 1 7 7 - Other Warwicks matches 2 4 1 59 41* 19.66 - - 1 - Season 25 42 6 1160 140 32.22 1 7 8 - Career 59 99 13 2618 140 30.44 3 13 26 - Bowling O M R W Season 1 0 5 0 Career 2.2 0 10 0 1937 This could have been a breakthrough season, but inconsistency let Dollery down just when he was being looked at seriously by the England selectors. Too many low scores were interspersed by high-class match winning or match saving innings. Typical of this was right at the start of the season when he was selected for the two games at Lord’s to commemorate the MCC’s 150th anniversary and used as Test Trial matches. He did nothing in these personally vital games, but scored centuries for his county in both games immediately before and after. In the first of these he put on 205 in 210 minutes with his captain, Wyatt, as Warwickshire overhauled a Yorkshire total of nearly 500 to secure first innings points. His 152 against Glamorgan virtually won the game for his side; last out after batting for just over three and a half hours, he added 102 with “Danny” Mayer for the 9th wicket in 65 minutes (hitting 3 sixes off J.C.Clay on the way), “in a glorious display of driving and cutting”, according to Wisden . A poor run of form in June ended with a century and another huge stand with Wyatt against Derbyshire; they put on 253 for the 4th wicket, his 128 taking four hours with 13 fours as Warwickshire rattled up 523. The return fixture at Derby underlined the glorious uncertainty of cricket as Bill Copson shot Warwickshire out for 28 with 8-11 off 8.2 overs including four wickets in four balls to finish off Warwickshire’s sorry first innings, (Dollery was the first of the four). Copson started where he had left off when Warwickshire batted again, quickly getting rid of their first two batsmen with three runs on the board, (at one stage he had taken five wickets in six balls), but after Wyatt was forced to retire hurt when Copson struck him on his thumb, Tom came in to join Aubrey Hill (105), and the score reached 234 before Copson had Dollery caught for 98. The two games this season saw the start of a run of almost uninterrupted success against Derbyshire bowling, which Dollery maintained throughout his career. Dollery and Wyatt combined again to hammer the Lancashire bowling at Edgbaston towards the end of July in a new county record 4th wicket stand of 319 in 300 minutes, his 165 being his highest first-class score to that date. His inconsistent season was underlined when he followed his highest score in the very next game with his first “pair” against Hampshire, falling both times to the left-arm medium pace of Len Creese. This was the start of a slump in form which saw him score only 250 runs in his last sixteen innings at an average of 16.6, and that included two fifties in the last home game against Surrey. 17