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

Resuming with the county, (that great New Zealand batsman Martin Donnelly had deputised as skipper while he was away), his next big innings summed up his whole attitude to cricket. Set 282 to win in only 170 minutes by Kent, he led from the front with exactly 100 in even time with fourteen fours, mostly “vigorous drives” according to Wisden , but none of his fellow batsmen could get past fifty, and the last pair had to play out the last twenty minutes to save the game as Warwickshire finished at 254-9. Another captain’s innings followed in Jimmy Ord’s Benefit match which led to an easy win against Middlesex. Coming in at 30 for three he proceeded to put everyone in the shade with a chanceless 185 with a six and twenty-two fours made in four hours forty minutes, while no one else passed fifty. About this time Dollery was carrying his team’s batting, and in the defeat by Somerset at Edgbaston, (after beating them by an innings five days previously at Taunton), he had to rescue them again. With half the team gone in their first innings for 47 Warwickshire were dead and buried but he hit up 150 out of 251 in four hours ten minutes with fourteen fours to post a half decent score, (no one else could get past forty), but they all failed in the second innings and his team went down by ten wickets. In the very next game against Gloucestershire, he rescued the batting again. After the seventeen-year old “Roley” Thompson had shot the visitors out for 82 on a wet pitch, the skipper scored 66 out of 171 against TomGoddard and Sam Cook, but the pitch then flattened out for a draw. Tom Dollery was honoured with the captaincy of the Players in the annual match at Lord’s against the Gentlemen which immediately followed the Gloucestershire game, and it turned out to be one of the best contests in the long series. He not only captained the Players positively but he had considerable personal success as well. He started off by putting the Gentlemen in to bat, a brave thing to do in any circumstances, let alone in your first big representative match in front of the Establishment at Lord’s. The ploy seemed to have backfired when John Dewes and Gilbert Doggart, two of the powerful Cambridge University batting line-up that season put on 140 for the second wicket. His decision looked justified however when five wickets fell in quick succession, and the Gentlemen were still short of 200 when their captain, F.R.”Freddie” Brown strode out to bat at number eight. He then proceeded to play probably the best innings of his life, considering the circumstances, and by remarkable attacking batting hit up 122 in only 110 minutes, scoring all but nine of the 131 put on while he was in! The Players started moderately in reply and Dollery came in just as Brown, now shining with the ball, had taken three quick wickets and the score only 71-4. Tom Dollery in his turn played just as much of a captain’s innings as Brown had and went one better with 123, if in rather less spectacular fashion. Wisden records that he “never looked in difficulty and he cut, drove or hooked with strength and expert placing”. He declared overnight 17 behind to try and get a result, and Brown obliged by in turn declaring and leaving the Players 253 to win in two and a half hours. Dollery told his team to go for them and thanks mainly to fifties from Gilbert Parkhouse and Don Kenyon, they looked to have the game in the bag when they only needed 36 to win with seven wickets and twenty minutes left. The pitch by now was starting to take more and more spin however and Charles Knott, a very good Hampshire off-spinner suddenly caused havoc by getting Dollery caught then took a hat-trick as the Players lost six batsmen in seventeen minutes! Enter Tom’s long time friend and colleague Eric Hollies at number eleven, easily one of the worst batsmen in history, with five balls left and eleven runs wanted to win. Hollies was determined to force a draw for his friend and captain and the win was certainly out of the question, as Brown crowded every fielder around the bat; Hollies survived and the game ended in a nail-biting draw. Wisden described the match as “worthy of the traditions of its title”, and much of it was down to the positive cricket played by the two captains. Brown was extremely impressed by Dollery’s attitude and demeanour during the match, and he had never seen him bat so well at representative level either, mainly it has to be said because of lack of opportunity. The selectors had offered Brown the captaincy of the MCC tour to Australia after the second day’s play and Dollery’s widow Jeanne is adamant that Brown sounded Dollery out, off the record, as to his availability for the tour as vice-captain. In the event Dollery had committed himself to a coaching contract in New Zealand which he wouldn’t break, and his end of season form was such that it would have been a brave selector who picked him anyway. Denis Compton was elected vice-captain, a decision that caused a stir in the press, for they were pushing Len Hutton’s claims at this time. His form totally deserted him after the big match at Lord’s. He just avoided a “pair” over the following three days in a heavy defeat at home by arch rivals Worcestershire, (his career record 37