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

His second century of the season, against his “pet” county Derbyshire, was always regarded by himself as his best ever innings, and the game and his stand with wicket-keeper Jack Buckingham has gone down in Warwickshire folklore. Chasing 311 for victory it looked all over for Warwickshire when their first five wickets went down for only 39 runs. In came Buckingham, brimming with confidence, and they proceeded to take apart an attack consisting of Bill Copson, Alf and George Pope, Tommy Mitchell, Leslie Townsend and “Dusty” Rhodes to the tune of 220 in just over two and a half hours, beating the Warwickshire 6th wicket record in the process. When Buckingham was out for 124, Dollery carried on to see his side to a four wicket win, his 134 not out including 2 sixes, a five and 7 fours and Warwickshire had knocked off the 311 in 230 minutes! Another relatively lean spell followed, broken only by a match winning 48 not out against Glamorgan at Newport on a spinner’s paradise, until the return with, almost inevitably, Derbyshire. The game at Edgbaston was for George Paine’s benefit, but it might as well have been for Tom Dollery, as he easily top scored in both Warwickshire innings, but couldn’t prevent an innings defeat as no other batsman could cope with Copson. Paine, by contrast bagged a “pair” and took 1-102 in his big match! Dollery’s first innings 113 came in just over three hours out of 180 while he was at the wicket, the next best score being Jimmy Ord’s 28! Wisden reported that he scored mainly on the leg side, but that his off-drives were also a feature. His next major innings was also a solo effort, this time against the eventual Champions Yorkshire at Headingley. Warwickshire were put in on a very difficult pitch and he was the only one who could cope against the formidable attack headed by Bowes and Verity. At 148-7 Warwickshire were seemingly doomed to a low score, but he “farmed” the bowling brilliantly to score 94 of the last 115 runs put on for the last three wickets and guide his team to a respectable all out score. His 126 not out was made in just over four hours with 2 sixes and 16 fours, the next highest being Jimmy Ord once again with 39. He had his first taste of the Australians when the tourists thrashed Warwickshire by an innings at Edgbaston. He and Jimmy Ord put on 69 in the first innings, Warwickshire’s only stand of the match; he faced Bill O’Reilly, but it was the gentle medium pace of Merv Waite that got him out in both innings. When the Aussies batted he had the “pleasure” of fielding out to a double century stand by Don Bradman and Bill Brown who both notched centuries, Bradman hitting up his last 85 runs in an hour! Warwickshire dropped two places to thirteenth but actually had a better playing record than the previous season, but they were still reliant on too few class players. Dollery scored most runs but finished second to Wyatt in terms of average; that average of 41 per innings at last reflected his class but the big scores were still spread among too many periods of low scoring for a batsman of his ability. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct St Total Total 86. Warwickshire v Middlesex, Lord’s, May, 7, 9 (Middlesex won by nine wickets) c W.F.F.Price b J.M.Sims 7 87 283 b C.I.J.Smith 60 251 56-1 87. Warwickshire v Hampshire, Edgbaston, May 11, 12 13 (Warwickshire won by 70 runs) run out 21 213 232 lbw b G.S.Boyes 45 245 156 88. Warwickshire v Glamorgan, Edgbaston, May 14, 16, 17 (Match drawn) c A.H.Dyson b D.A.Davies 12 215 222 c T.L.Brierley b D.A.Davies 48 178 142-3 89. Warwickshire v Sussex, Hove, May 18, 19, 20 (Match drawn) c J.G.Langridge b A.G.Tuppin 3 301 389 2 b A.G.Tuppin 18 345-5d 191-7 90. Warwickshire v Leicestershire, Aylestone Road, Leicester, May 21, 23, 24 (Leicestershire won by four wickets) b G.Geary 2 112 349 not out 127 395-8d 160-6 20