Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

106 Technique and Personality and of knowing the number of runs scored against each bowler in matches in which he was playing: Tom Richardson had a wonderful memory. After many years, if a match in which he had played was referred to, he would recall the actual score, including individual batsman [sic] and bowling analysis. Also, coming off the field after an innings of perhaps 300, he could tell each bowler the number of runs scored against him. 249 It is a skill not given to many – though most bowlers will have an approximate idea of what they have conceded – and one appreciated by Strudwick, Surrey scorer for thirty years. Some of his successors have difficulty remembering what happened in the previous evening’s Twenty20. Off the field ‘Honest Tom’ was an affable man with a genial personality: Tom Richardson was more than a great fast bowler – he was a great- hearted man and picturesque personality. He did something finer than the winning of many matches for his county and his country – he won the affection of all who came to know him. 250 Nicknamed ‘Curly’ from his early days at Mitcham, he never seemed to resent it, even when it was used by the younger generation: From the start he was a favourite with all the boys – we used to call him Curly! We would go up to him and say “Hullo Curly!” Tom would always smile and cry “Hullo kiddies!” 251 Despite the fearsome figure he presented to opposing batsmen: in private life he was of an engagingly gentle nature – indeed, a very loveable man. 252 This description which is confirmed elsewhere is in sharp contrast to his New Malden comments and to what Richardson in his advertisement for Dr Williams’ Pink Pills 253 says about depression and insomnia. If that were believable, there might be some credibility in the suicide theory that was to follow his death. However, it was said for commercial purposes, newspapers, magazines and books at the time being full of scarcely believable quack remedies guaranteed to cure anything from stress to syphilis. The Advertising Standards Authority was not around then. 249 Mitcham Cricket Club Yearbook 1937: Snapshots from “ Struddy’s” recollections 250 ‘Long Leg’ in Sporting Life 5 July 1912 251 Strudwick 25 Years Behind the Stumps p 29 252 Sporting Life 5 July 1912 253 Dr Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People were an iron-based tonic for the blood and nerves used in the treatment of anaemia, clinical depression, poor appetite and loss of energy. They were widely advertised with an abundance of anecdotal evidence. (In his endorsement of them in the 1910 edition of Wisden , Richardson says they helped cure his insomnia, depression and rheumatism.) The patent for the pills was bought in 1890 by Senator George T Fulford (1852-1905), an American politician, and there were subsequent claims for the successful treatment of neuralgia, spring chills, consumption and even paralysis.