Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

108 Bout-du-Monde along, except a glimpse of his ankles bound together and swathed around with blankets or towels to that generous degree that the result suggests a sore piano leg. By attention and practice the pallbearers have got so that they can keep out of step all the time – and they do it. As a consequence their veiled chum goes rocking, tilting, swaying along like a bell-buoy in a ground swell. It makes the oldest sailor sea- sick to look at that spectacle. 260 Mark Twain had been at Aix-les-Bains in 1891 seeking a cure for rheumatism in his right arm and recorded his impressions of the place for a Chicago newspaper. What Richardson was doing there is less transparent, nor is there any evidence as to whether this was his first visit or one of a series. The presence of nurses mentioned in the Daily Mail report suggests that it was for medical reasons. Barker, basing his evidence on an interview with Tom Richardson junior, states that Tom suffered from rheumatism. 261 If that is so – and Ranjitsinhji’s comments on the 1897/98 tour of Australia confirm it – it would explain the reason for one or more visits to a spa town in France, but there may have been another reason and there are clues in the location of his hotel – immediately opposite the casino and the baccarat tables for which it was renowned – as well as the amount of money later found on his body. He was accompanied by a Mr and Mrs Owers. The Sporting Life later mentions ‘A and D.Owers’ 262 as his hosts at Chambéry, probably the same people and a ‘Mr J.Owers’ 263 had seen to all the arrangements in France.’ The Richmond Herald refers more specifically to a ‘Joseph Owers’, possibly a beer retailer in Fulham. 264 His wife had been born in Bath, so there is a possible link with Richardson there. Frederick Owers, a year older than Tom, was Assistant Superintendent of the Poplar Insurance Company and played cricket for the Dundonald Club in Wimbledon. Tom’s elder brother, Charles Henry, was an insurance agent, so there may have been a professional as well as a cricket connection. Newspapers are less than 100% accurate when it comes to initials, but the strong likelihood is that it is the same family involved and the locals in Aix-les-Bains and Saint Jean d’Arvey mistakenly assumed that they were part of Richardson’s family. The Sporting Life has the family arriving in Chambéry from Aix-les-Bains on the morning of Thursday 4 July, 265 but as the telegram informing Richardson’s own family of the death was being delivered in Richmond about the same time, this was almost certainly the Owers family. The Richardsons left for France on the same day. 266 There are, however, factual contradictions between contemporary press evidence and Barker’s account, based on correspondence with local officials and conversations with Tom Richardson’s son and with Herbert 260 Daily Tribune, Chicago 8 November 1891: Mark Twain Travel Letters 261 Ten Great Bowlers p 125 262 15 July 1912 263 12 July 1912 264 Census of Population 1901 265 5 July 1912 266 Richmond Herald 6 July 1912