Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

92 Instrumental in persuading Richardson to move west was the charismatic Sammy Woods, formerly of Australia and Surrey and now captain of Somerset, popular with the locals and prominent in sporting and civic circles. He had taken part in a function at the Palace Vaudeville Theatre to raise funds for the Bath Association Cricket Club which had a deficit on its general account and a sizeable debt on its new pavilion. The ‘ever popular Somerset skipper’ sang a ‘droll ditty’, ‘Always keep a night-light by your bed’. 220 The Bath Cricket Week, which in 1905 involved Championship fixtures for Somerset against Gloucestershire and Hampshire, took place in early June on the Recreation Ground. There is no evidence that Richardson was in any way involved, but there was a prescient passage in the local newspaper, anticipating a ‘road’ for the July fixture against the captain’s compatriots: The wicket for the Australian game next month is a little to the right of those that will be used during the Week and should play splendidly. It has been given a top dressing of clay. It is to be hoped that the Bath pitches this time will be given the test of three full days play, which they have never been called upon to stand. 221 A week later Richardson put on the whites again to play for Bath and District against the Rest of the County in a charity match to raise funds for the Royal United Hospital. Opposing him in the visiting team was Sammy Woods who took half a dozen wickets, including that of Richardson for a duck. The declining former fast bowler reciprocated with two, but one was that of his friend and former colleague: ...‘Sammy’ being bowled after a capital innings by Tom Richardson when the fast bowler got ‘Sammy’s’ wicket the applause was loud and it was a remarkable incident that the great ‘Tom’ should have upset the redoubtable Somerset skipper. 222 Perhaps it was this occasion that caused Woods to persuade Richardson to turn out for Somerset in the mid-July fixture against the Australians. He played, but with no success, conceding 65 runs at five an over without taking a wicket. Those who had played against him a decade earlier must have been astonished at the decline and those touring England for the first time could only speculate on what a magnificent bowler Richardson must have been in his prime. With Victor Trumper and Warwick Armstrong opening the batting, it was a complete mismatch as Armstrong recorded a career-best 303 not out and Monty Noble at No.4 had a century, enabling the tourists to declare at 609 for four. Somerset followed on and managed to avoid an innings defeat, but for Richardson, it was a forlorn end to a distinguished career. In a recent article in The Guardian David Foot compared the pathos with that of Wally Hammond’s last appearance on the first-class scene in 1951: Curly’s appearance was a disaster, mocking as it did the fast bowler’s 220 Bath Chronicle 20 April 1905 221 Bath Chronicle 1 June 1905 222 Bath Chronicle 15 June 1905 The Twilight’s Last Gleaming