Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

56 Australia’s 44 all out is, as the newspaper suggests, sufficient vindication of Grace’s choice of bowlers; but one wonders whether there was not an element of recrimination because of events earlier in the week. There had been controversy of a different kind earlier in the summer when the reaction to what Cricket described as an epidemic of ‘half-way fast bowling’ resulted in Albert Trott being taken off at the request of the MCC Secretary. The magazine commented: It has been said that if fast bowlers are not allowed to bowl as they please in first-class cricket the game becomes a farce but already there have been occasions in first-class cricket when the captains have mutually agreed not to put on their fast bowlers because of the danger. ‘Half-way fast bowling’ was never part of Richardson’s armoury, but with Ernest Jones around, allegedly putting the ball through W.G’s beard 126 and all-rounder Albert Trott, nursing a grudge against the Australian selectors, 127 fast bowling was in the news. There were to be few occasions in the history of the game when it was not. Notwithstanding the different approaches, Cricket in its summary of the season put Richardson ahead of Jones: Frequently, too, wickets were so fiery that batsmen could not touch fast bowling, and during this period, Jones and Richardson had a beanfeast…Richardson’s bowling was magnificent. In my opinion, he is the greatest bowler in the world today. 128 Despite that, Surrey relinquished the Championship title to Yorkshire. Over the years there have been several claimants to the title of ‘the greatest bowler in the world’ and the debate remains unresolved, despite many hours of debate in public bars and elsewhere. When asked to suggest a title for what eventually became Fred: Portrait of a Fast Bowler , the subject of John Arlott’s biography, the author recalls, with typical modesty rolled it off the tongue, pat as if rehearsed – ‘T’ Definitive Volume of t’Finest Fast Bowler that Ever Drew Breath’ 129 Sydney Barnes, like Trueman, a man aware of his own standing in the bowling hierarchy, reckoned Richardson was the only one that bore comparison with him 130 and the subsequent claims of Larwood, Tyson, Lillee and the great Caribbean combinations of the late twentieth century cannot be disregarded. But it can safely be said that Richardson is up there with the best and perhaps unique in sustaining his pace for a day, a match, and a season or four. It came as no surprise that, as a result of yet another outstanding season, 126 Whimpress Ernie Jones p 21 127 Having missed selection for the tour, he had financed his own trip from Australia to England and secured a place on the MCC groundstaff – Who’s Who of Cricketers p 1025 [1984 edition] 128 Cricket 17 September 1896 129 pp 183-184 130 Barker Ten Great Bowlers p 179 1896...Annus Mirabilis...England