Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

21 Chapter Three 1892-94 Surrey…and England 1892 RICHARDSON, the young cricketer who came to the fore this season as a fast bowler, it will be of interest to the followers of Surrey cricket to know, is a native of the County, as I pointed out some thirteen months ago. Though born at Byfleet, Mitcham can fairly claim the credit of his education, as he has lived the best part of his life and played his cricket there. He was twenty-two years of age in July last. 37 Residence in a county was significant as a qualification, though Surrey had a reputation for recruiting from outside the county and George Lohmann, Tom Bowley, John Sharpe, John Beaumont and Bill Lockwood can be numbered among those who were not Surrey-born. Before he became established on the national cricket scene, Richardson added to his income by doing a bit of net bowling at Winchester College. More than fifty years later, Sir Henry Leveson Gower remembered the impression he made: ... our cricket master managed to get a bowler of pace for us who a few years later became very famous. 38 This was Tom Richardson of Surrey. Here was a splendid specimen of a young trier who would never bowl to hurt you but was always eager to bowl to give you practice for any particular stroke that you wished to learn. He had a splendid action, and his appearance was such that anyone looking at him would feel impelled to say: “Surely that man is a cricketer!” 39 He fulfilled a similar rôle at Cambridge University where he played a part in helping Ranjitsinhji acclimatise to English conditions. Ranji’s near contemporary, Digby Jephson, later to captain Surrey, has the following anecdote about an early season visit to the nets at Fenner’s: One day twelve years ago, early in April, I strolled into Fenner’s thinking that a little practice might be of service to me. I am but a poor bat today, then I was infinitely worse. I journeyed to the nets (as most people know they are not of the best) with the usual equipment of pads and gloves. Out from the pavilion came a thin, lithe form of a man, with black curly hair. I took the usual guard; he took a run of some seven yards. I believe the ball pitched six inches outside the off 37 Cricket 1 September 1892: His birthday was actually August 38 This was to help the Winchester batsmen deal with Dudley Forbes, Eton’s fast bowler who went on to play for Oxford University. He died of enteric fever in South Africa in 1901, aged 28. The master in charge of cricket was former Oxford University and Middlesex cricketer, E.H.Buckland. 39 Off and On the Field p 37