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

spare time playing on the ground, manning the scoreboard, generally helping out and becoming totally absorbed in cricket from a very early age. By the time he went to Reading Grammar School he was physically big for his age, a natural athlete, and became what is known as a “schoolboy prodigy”. He was selected for the cricket first eleven from the age of thirteen, playing alongside seventeen and eighteen year olds, and later played for the school rugby team for three seasons, (one of his rugby captains was John Boulting, later of Boulting Brothers film fame). Some of his performances for the school were phenomenal. By 1930, at the age of fifteen, he had been made captain at cricket, and he scored his first century, 103, (out of 140 while he was at the wicket), in the annual match against MCC, the first century for the school in their big game. Playing for MCC was S.J. Pegler the South African Test leg-spinner, who took six wickets, including Dollery, and who as recently as 1924 had taken over 100 wickets for them on their tour of England. Not satisfied with this, young Dollery repeated the feat against MCC next season. This time he carried his bat right through the innings for 104 not out, but more remarkably, he scored them in an all out total of 115, with the next highest score being the last man with 3! He must have shown remarkable maturity to have “farmed” the bowling against experienced opposition, whilst running with inexperienced schoolboys, and with one eye on his own century. P.F.Warner wrote in “The Cricketer”, “If Dollery never does anything else in cricket it will be a feat hard to beat”. In his final school year, 1932, he “failed” in the MCC fixture, this time “only” notching 52, but he scored two more centuries before he left school. Young Dollery had his first sight of Lord’s in 1931 when he was selected for the “Young Amateurs” against the “Young Professionals” during the MCC Schools Fortnight, and although the amateurs were bowled out for 90, Wisden said that “Dollery made good strokes and shaped well”. The following season he was invited to appear in the “big” match, Lord’s Schools v. The Rest, but for some reason he was unable to take up MCC’s invitation to play. Berkshire had taken note of the youngster and had played him in a couple of games at the end of the 1931 season. Next year he was a regular in the team and came second in the batting averages behind J.H.Human, (of Cambridge University and later Middlesex), with 531 runs at 44.25. He also achieved the exceptional feat, for a seventeen-year old, of hitting two centuries in the same match against Monmouthshire at Newport. Berkshire finished in second place in the Minor Counties Championship that season; unfortunately their chances of winning the title were ruined when the first and last days of the Challenge Match against leaders Buckinghamshire were washed out. In 1933, whilst qualifying for Warwickshire, he again played regularly and this time headed the batting averages ahead of Robert Relf, the old Sussex professional, with 377 runs at 47.12 with a top score of 101. He also made his first-class debut in 1933 with a couple of games as an amateur for Minor Counties, nearly scoring a century on debut against Oxford University, but failing twice against the touring West Indians. Warwickshire were alerted to Dollery very early on by the Crooms, but he was nearly lost to Warwickshire in the same way as they nearly lost Eric Hollies, when Billy Bott, the Reading School professional got in touch with Fred Root to arrange a trial with Worcestershire. Fortunately, Arthur Croom got in first and Dollery had his first two-match trial for Warwickshire in 1931. He didn’t shine particularly and R.V.Ryder, the county Secretary sent him back home criticising his technique, told him that he was a bit too young and that Warwickshire were looking for bowlers anyway. There was considerable opposition from Dollery’s Headmaster to him becoming a professional sportsman, it not being considered a “proper” career in those days, and the Head arranged an interview for him with a local agricultural seed company as a research chemist. The youngster remembered turning back just outside the manager’s office, determined in his mind to be a professional cricketer with Warwickshire, and running back out of the factory gates. Arthur Croom was not put off by the initial rejection, and he talked Warwickshire into arranging another trial in 1932. This time Dollery hit a century and a fifty in his two trial games and Ryder called him into his office after the second match and offered terms there and then at £2 10 shillings (£2.50) per week until the end of the season. As an illustration of how professional cricket has changed since then, he asked Ryder where he could stay that night, as it was too late to get a train back to Reading. Ryder dismissed him with, “Oh just knock 6