Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

119 Bout-du-Monde becoming less rare) comments on lifestyle and the domestic background. The news of Tom Richardson’s tragic end came as a great shock to everyone interested in cricket. Though he had for some time dropped out of the game the once matchless bowler was in no sense forgotten. His deeds were too recent for that. In common with others behind the scenes I knew perfectly well that Richardson had for a considerable time past lived very unwisely, but I was not aware that his condition was such as to threaten any immediate danger. Indeed, the last time I saw him – about two months ago – he looked better than he had looked last year. It is sad to think of a man with his splendid physique being dead in his forty-second year. He ought to have lived to eighty. I fancy domestic trouble was his undoing, but I have very imperfect knowledge of the facts. For consistent excellence as a fast bowler, Richardson had no equal in his time… 279 The Times , not normally prone to exaggeration, had few doubts about Richardson’s position in the fast bowling hierarchy: No county in our time has had two such fast bowlers as Lockwood and Richardson at their best. The late George Freeman is often spoken of as the greatest of fast bowlers, but the wickets on which he played were for the most part inferior to those on which Richardson won his fame. 280 Tom’s obituary in Cricket a couple of weeks later, after rehearsing some of his statistical achievements, concludes by slightly misquoting Hamlet : He was a man, take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again. 281 He left estate to the value of £629 and, says Tom Higgs, ‘a host of memories for old Mitchamers’ 282 of which the net personalty has been sworn at £138. He left to his son Tom William Richardson to devolve, as heirlooms, the cricket balls presented to him during his cricket career and all his cricketing mementoes. 283 The Mitcham Advertiser was not alone in its solemn and sober report of his funeral on the afternoon of Saturday 13 July: Tom Richardson, who met his death in such tragic circumstances at Aix-les-Bains, was buried on Saturday at Richmond Cemetery. A large number of people – both along the route to the cemetery and at the grave-side – assembled to pay their last respects to the remains of the famous bowler. Starting from the Roman Catholic Church, the Vineyard, shortly after three o’clock, the cortege reached the burial 279 Mitcham Advertiser 12 July 1912 280 4 July 1912 281 20 July 1912 282 Mitcham C C Yearbook 1989 283 Times 29 August 1912 under ‘Wills and Bequests’