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

Miscellaneous Highest Score Dollery’s highest score of 212 v Leicestershire at Edgbaston in July 1952, was still the highest score ever made from the number six batting position for Warwickshire to the end of the 2003 season. Centuries Dollery’s 49 centuries for Warwickshire place him fifth on their all-time list of century-makers behind D.L.Amiss (78), W.G.Quaife (71), A.I.Kallicharran (52) and R.E.S.Wyatt (51). Run Aggregate Dollery’s 23,457 runs for Warwickshire place him fourth on their all-time list of run-scorers behind D.L.Amiss (35,146), W.G.Quaife (33,862) and M.J.K.Smith (27,672). Run Aggregate Milestones 5,000 runs during innings of 62 Warwickshire v Middlesex, Edgbaston, August 3,4,5, 1938. 10,000 runs during innings of 94 Warwickshire v Yorkshire, Headingley, August 20,21,22 1947. 15,000 runs during innings of 185 Warwickshire v Middlesex, Edgbaston, July 8,10,11 1950. 20,000 runs during innings of 53 Warwickshire v Lancashire, Edgbaston, June 3,4,5 1953 Ducks Dollery was dismissed 43 times without scoring, about once every seventeen innings, (about 6% of his innings). His worst season was 1947 when he was out for a “duck” six times. He “bagged” two “pairs” in his career, one a “King pair” (out first ball in both innings), as follows: Warwickshire v Leicestershire, Grace Road, Leicester, 1947; lbw to J.E.Walsh in both innings (this was the “King pair”). He followed this “pair” with another “duck” in his next innings for North v South at Harrogate, his worst sequence of noughts. Warwickshire v Hampshire, Bournemouth, 1937; c R.H.Moore b W.C.L.Creese and c N.T.McCorkell b W.C.L.Creese. Scores Not Recorded The lowest score, (dismissed or not out), that Dollery never recorded in first-class cricket was 81. Of scores between 0 and 100 he also never recorded scores of 86, 88, 91, 96 and 97. Bowling Considering the length of his career, Dollery has to be regarded as one of the “great” non-bowlers in first-class cricket. Of cricketers who never took a wicket in their first-class careers, (other than wicket-keepers), only Lord Hawke (633), John Edrich (564), Arthur Shrewsbury (498) and Willie Watson (468) played in more matches than Dollery’s 436. He never bowled after 1946 and he never put himself on when he was captain. The few occasions that he was given the ball usually occurred when defeat for his own side was inevitable and the opposition needed only a few runs to win, or the game was “dead” and petering out to a draw. The only player who could recall his bowling style was Ray Hitchcock, who remembers Tom sending up “little floated off-breaks” in the nets. Fielding Dollery’s seven catches, (all at slip), in the match v Hampshire at Portsmouth in August 1953, still stands as the record for Warwickshire in the County Championship. J.Whitehouse also took seven catches for Warwickshire in the match v Oxford University in The Parks, June 1975. Captaincy Dollery captained teams in 216 matches, resulting in 78 wins (36%), 47 losses (22%), 90 draws (42%) and 1 tie (0%). Association Football Dollery played for West Bromwich Albion Colts in 1933-34 scoring sixteen goals in eleven games. Signing professionally for Reading, (then in the old Third Division South), in July 1934, he was on their books for the seasons 1934-5 and 1935-6. He was released by mutual consent so he could concentrate on his cricket, after a fall had damaged his shoulder so badly that it threatened his career. His one First Team appearance for Reading was against Queens Park Rangers on January 15th, 1936 at home in front of a crowd of 5,123. He replaced the regular centre forward, Tommy Tait, and although Tom laid on his team’s goal, they lost 2-1 which ended a run of 55 home games without defeat at Elm Park. 68