Lives in Cricket No 25 - Tom Richardson

94 bountiful career and all those wickets he earned by sweat, natural prowess and instinctive, pacy technique. He was introduced as second change, something of a demotion for the former England opening bowler, and took no wickets in 13 overs of medium-paced dross. Tom must have been tempted to have one final go at the Australians, but, as Foot continues, ‘fallibility and bad judgement remain an absorbing feature of the human condition.’ 223 The local press expressed similar sentiments at the time: Nobody imagined that Somerset could get the better of a side which it takes the pick of England to beat, but the County did the next best thing and avoided defeat. The Somerset bowling was known to be weak, but its lack of sting was never more forcibly demonstrated. The inclusion of Tom Richardson was a surprise to Bathensians. They do not see him bowling on the North Parade ground in club matches now, and presumably it was for this department of the game he made one of the Somerset eleven against Australia. It is pretty evident that the bowler whose presence was once a terror to many when in his prime must be content to rest satisfied with the abundant honours and glory he has already won in the cricket field. Younger talent should be encouraged. 224 There is an implication that he had turned out for Bath Cricket Club and indeed in the Club’s 150 th Anniversary publication, he is listed among international cricketers who have appeared on the ground, 225 but he clearly did so no more. It was a poor season for Somerset: The redoubtable S.M.J. who as captain has had to put up with difficulties and limitations which would worry a less cheery soul ….. 226 Woods survived one more season as captain: Richardson played no more first-class cricket. The following season he appeared for L.C.Braund’s XI in a two-day match against a Scotland XI in Glasgow, but his playing career was essentially over. Richmond – 1907 to 1912 There is a later reference to his playing for Marriott’s XI in a cricket week match at Ashford (Middlesex) Cricket Club about 1908 ‘although he had retired from serious cricket then’. 227 He was now able to concentrate on his new rôle, not unfamiliar to retired cricketers, as mine host of his third pub, in this case the Prince’s Head on Richmond Green. The pub’s origins can be traced to the eighteenth century when it was 223 David Foot The Guardian 24 June 2009 224 Bath Chronicle 20 July 1905 225 p 31 226 Bath Chronicle 31 August 1905 227 Ashford C C website The Twilight’s Last Gleaming