Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

125 Most wickets in a season at The Oval 123 in 1895; 122 in 1896; 106 in 1897. W.C.Smith is next with 104 in 1910. Most consecutive five-wicket innings (7) In 1897: Southerton is next with six in 1871 and 1873. Richardson also had six in 1895 and 1897. Most consecutive matches with five wickets in an innings (17) Also in 1897: Lohmann is next with 13 in 1888-1889. Most hat-tricks (4) v Gloucestershire (The Oval) 1893. v Leicestershire (The Oval) 1896. v Sussex (The Oval) 1898. v Warwickshire (The Oval) 1898. Forty-six instances in all (including four of four in four balls). Lockwood and Laker had three each. 4. Distribution of Wickets in 1895 The majority of Tom Richardson’s wickets were gained by hitting the stumps. Had the 1935 lbw law been introduced half-a century earlier he would doubtless have had more than 2,104 first-class wickets and a higher proportion would have been gained in this way. His record-breaking season of 1895 when he took 290 wickets was fairly typical, well over half being bowled. A comparison with the wickets taken by swing and seam bowlers in the first half of Surrey’s 2011 LV Championship season indicates how the game has changed. Richardson 1895 Surrey 2011 Bowled 176 (61%) 37 (20%) LBW 6 (2%) 34 (19%) Caught by wicket-keeper 31 (11%) 48 (26%) Caught elsewhere 67 (23%) 62 (34%) Caught and bowled 9 (3%) 2 (1%) Hit wicket 1 --------------- -------------- 290 183 ========= ======== Career Statistics