Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

25 1892-94 Surrey…and England See his face once more. Tom now takes our champion’s place, Stands beside his gun; Yes, George Lohmann’s mantle fell, Fell on Richardson. Neither had Wisden: The chief cause of the falling off of the county is revealed at once by a glance at the averages. Lohmann’s illness and consequent inability to play made, of course, an enormous difference, but the loss of his bowling was compensated for to a far greater extent than could possibly have been expected by the development of Richardson, and it was the decline in the batting, not in the bowling, that brought the eleven down from their high estate. 48 Richardson provided the consistency which Lockwood lacked and, despite a damaged finger which prevented his playing a few matches in late June and early July, he could eventually look back with satisfaction on a season which not only saw him become an automatic choice for Surrey when fit, but also one which led to representative cricket and a Test début. Although in 1893, Surrey, without Lohmann, fell slightly from grace, slipping to fifth place in the Championship and conceding the title to Yorkshire, this was the first season in which Richardson made a massive impact on the county scene. Outside the Championship Derbyshire never recovered from his 28-12-36-8 in the first innings. Of his twelve wickets in the match, ten were bowled. A similar ratio was to characterise his bowling throughout his career. Mr Wright and Chatterton alone withstood the bowling of Richardson… This was also an occasion on which he made an impact with the bat: ... the best feature of the latter part of the innings was the free hitting of the last two batsmen, who knocked up 64 for the last wicket. 49 Batting at No.11, as he usually did, Richardson had 34 of them. At Trent Bridge, in his first first-class appearance of the season, in the traditional Whitsuntide fixture, seven wickets in the first innings ensured that a strong Nottinghamshire, the county which had dominated the scene in the preceding three decades, were never in the match. They were obliged to follow on and a further seven scalps in the second innings paved the way to a seven wicket victory. To Richardson’s fast bowling was due the cheap dismissal of a strong batting side. Seven of the wickets fell to him at an average of under nine runs. As they were 121 runs behind Notts had to follow on. Richardson again took seven wickets at a cost of twelve runs apiece. In the match altogether he took fourteen wickets at an aggregate cost of 145 runs. 50 48 1894 p 78 49 Cricket 25 May 1893 50 Cricket 25 May 1893