Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

58 Chapter Seven 1897...Jubilee and Millennium The millennial year Rushes on to our view and eternity’s here. Charles Wesley 1707-88 At the beginning of the year, Cricket undertook a statistical exercise on the figures of the leading bowlers over the previous ten years, 1887-1896, producing a fairly crude, but not entirely meaningless, ‘figure of merit’ by adding average runs per wicket to average overs per wicket. The magazine was quick to admit the limitations of the method. Too great a reliance upon statistics is ridiculous, but averages have this value: they give some approximate idea of the work done by a player and how it compares with that of his rivals. And they count for more in estimating the real greatness of a player when they are spread over a series of years than when they merely represent the work of one year. 132 With that caveat and also allowing for the fact that the statistics have been refined over the years, Richardson is firmly in second place behind ‘The Terror’ Turner, behind him and a couple of others on average, but well ahead of all but one on strike-rate. Runs/Wkt Overs/Wkt ‘Figure of Merit’ C.T.B.Turner 12.30 7.12 19.42 T.Richardson 14.42 5.89 20.31 T.R.McKibbin 14.26 6.40 20.66 G.A.Lohmann 13.53 7.61 21.14 A.Mold 14.65 7.11 21.76 F.G.Bull 17.64 4.88 22.52 J.Briggs 14.45 8.33 22.78 E.Jones 16.03 7.17 23.20 Tom began 1897 as he had finished 1896 with a hatful of wickets as Leicestershire found him almost unplayable, his match figures being 12 for 105, six in each innings: The rest did very little, while in the second innings, no one could play Richardson who began the season with a very fine analysis. Surrey had the easiest of victories but a good many friends of the county must feel that it would have been a little more satisfactory if, besides Richardson and Hayward, more of the other bowlers had shown promise of taking wickets during the season. 133 132 Cricket 28 January 1897 133 Cricket 6 May 1897