Famous Cricketers No 98 - Tom Goddard

Gloucestershire colleague, Charlie Parker and only one less than the all time record of seven held by Douglas Wright of Kent. On sixteen occasions he took 100 wickets or more in a season; four times he passed 200. His most successful season of all was 1937 when he claimed 248 victims and was named as one of the Cricketers Of the Year in the 1938 Wisden . Ten years later, in 1947, at the ripe old age of 46 he almost bowled Gloucesterhire to the County Championship taking 238 wickets that year. In 1939 he took 17 Kent wickets in a day at Bristol , 9 for 38 in the first innings and 8 for 68 in the second. Only two other bowlers in history, Hedley Verity of Yorkshire and Colin Blythe of Kent, have performed this particular feat. In his annus mirabilis of 1937 he took all ten Worcestershire wickets at Cheltenham for 113 runs in the second innings. In the first innings he had merely taken 6 for 68. For Gloucestershire, alone, he took 2862 wickets at 19.58 runs apiece. In his career he took five wickets or more in an innings a staggering 252 times. On 86 occasions he took ten wickets or more.in a match. Bowling usually round the wicket to a posse of short-legs he puzzled batsmen whenever the wicket took spin and, even when it was friendly, those long fingers had a menace all their own. He once clean bowled Patsy Hendren with a ball that pitched more than a foot outside the off stump and spun enough to hit the leg. He used his 6ft 3 inches to vary his flight. As he normally bowled round the wicket Tom would cover the area around mid-on himself and so effective was he that he took 118 catches off his own bowling. In all he took more than 300 catches, those big hands easily swallowing anything that came within reach. His close catchers helped him as well; Hammond alone took more than 100 catches off Goddard’s bowling. He had a reputation as an appealer, his “How were ‘ee then?” echoing round the ground whenever the ball struck the batsman’s pad. The volume of his appeal and his fierce accompanying looks belied a gentle character, one who often felt hard done to by umpires who tended to think “It’s only old Tom letting off steam again”. Away from cricket Tom liked nothing better than a Sunday afternoon’s fishing as relaxation after a long, taxing week on the cricket field. Tom Goddard was granted two benefits by Gloucestershire. The first, in 1936, raised £2097 and the second in 1948 brought him £3355. There is a marvellous story concerning his benefit match at Gloucester in 1936 against Nottinghamshire. Notts were bowled out in the first innings for 200 (Goddard 4-49). At the end of the first day’s play Gloucestershire had passed 100 with only three wickets down and a third day’s play was looking unlikely. Goddard sat in the pavilion, for once bemoaning his own success. “Don’t worry”, said Wally Hammond. “I’ll bat all day tomorrow and ensure you get a third day crowd”. He did too, scoring 317 runs in the process. Gloucestershire duly wrapped up the match on the third day. Another Goddard/Hammond story may be of interest. It concerns the Kent match at Bristol in 1939, the match already referred to in which Goddard took 17 wickets in a day. In the pavilion suggestions were flying about that Goddard was unplayable on that particular wicket. “Rubbish”, said the listening Hammond. “I could play him out there with the edge of my bat”. Hammond’s bluff was called and the Gloucestershire team trooped out again and took up their fielding positions. For several overs Hammond played Goddard comfortably using only the edge of his bat. It should be said that Hammond, in this match had scored 153 not out in Gloucestershire’s only innings in a match in which no other batsman passed 40. Like many a tail-ender, Tom fancied himself as a batsman. In 1932 when Gloucestershire were playing Essex at Southend-on-Sea, Farnes and Nichols had blasted out the top order but they could not remove Goddard who stayed for two and a half hours to hit a career best 71. He made three other fifties and many other useful contributions, usually when the County most needed them. During the Second World War, Goddard obtained a commission with the R.A.F. It is interesting to speculate as to howmany wickets he might have taken has he not lost these six seasons when he was at the height of his powers. Would he have finally become a fixture in the England side and visited Australia in the tour scheduled for 1940/41? Goddard’s two overseas tours were both to South Africa, in 1930/31 and 1938/39. How many more wickets might he have taken, too, had he started his career in 1922 as an off-spinner and if he had not missed a complete season in 1928? He might well have 4