Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

70 Poor Tom Rich got a rare fright from one of the snakes before he shot it. I may say we were all walking in a most careless and reckless manner when he (Tom) came acoss this brute within a foot of him and then he only saw it just as it shot up its head ready to strike. He says he cannot describe his feelings at that moment. However, he got back a few yards and gave him both barrels … (Black snake most deadly – kills in two hours of bite) 164 There seems to have been a harmony between the players on the tour, at least initially. It is perhaps not without significance that, like Richardson’s, the diary peters out in January, suggesting a bit of weltschmertz with a long tour, at a time when the wheels were beginning to come off; but before that there are descriptions of seasickness on the outward voyage, the wearying journeys, the draining effects of the heat, the mosquitoes, the varying quality of the hotels, the games of poker and solo whist and the hostility and ignorance of Australian barrackers: Farce of a day – in and out about six times for showers. Spectators very raw about it. Wanted us to get wet through for their benefit. 165 In Toowoomba they seem to have had not too happy a time: Public seem quite ignorant of the game here too. Putting up at Queen’s Head hotel …Two in a room, poor beds. Myriads of mosquitoes as big as butterflies, worst hotel we have been in and waitresses most unobliging. 166 None the less, he was impressed with the Australian enthusiasm for the game. In Sydney, for instance, while the tourists are playing New South Wales, People seem highly enthusiastic on the game here. Scoreboards at different parts of city, giving account of game in progress. Thousands of people watching – almost stop traffic, folks unable to get to the ground. 167 As the leading bowlers on the tour, Hearne and Richardson seem to have developed a bond, the kind that perhaps springs from rivalry. Even in the same side bowlers compete with one another, usually on friendly terms, for wickets and the Surrey-Middlesex divide is a long-standing one. Early in the diary Hearne mentions an argument about socialism he had with ‘Tom’, 168 suggesting that there was some thinking ‘outside the box’ and serious conversations about matters other than cricket. Hearne continued to play first-class cricket for a further quarter of a century, but would not 164 Cricketer January 1983 p 35 165 Cricketer August 1982 p 40. There was a suspicion that the game was wrapped up early to allow the team to travel to Melbourne in time for the Melbourne Cup. 166 Cricketer November 1982 p 55 167 Cricketer September 1982 p 27 168 Cricketer May 1982 p 28 – possibly Hayward, but an editorial note suggests more probably Richardson. Australia 1897/98