Tom Dickinson

Thomas Eastwood Dickinson (born 11 January 1931) played first-class cricket for Lancashire in 1950 and 1951 and for Somerset in 1957.^[1] But he decided against a full-time cricket career and became a schoolmaster instead. He was born in Parramatta, Sydney, Australia.

Though born in Australia, Dickinson was educated in England at Blackburn Grammar School and Manchester University.^[2] A right-arm fast-medium bowler and a left-handed tail-end batsman, he played Lancashire League cricket for East Lancashire from the age of 15 and made his first-class debut for Lancashire as a 19-year-old in 1950. Such was the dominance of Lancashire's spin attack of Roy Tattersall, Bob Berry, Malcolm Hilton and Peter Greenwood that Dickinson bowled only 56 overs in his four matches for the side in 1950 and 1951, never taking more than one wicket in any innings.^[3] In the mid-1950s, he turned out for The Army in non-first-class matches.

Then, in August 1957, he was given an extended trial by Somerset, appearing in five consecutive matches. In his first match, against Glamorgan, he took five wickets for 36 in the first innings, sharing all 10 wickets in the innings with Bryan Lobb, who took five for 63.^[4] In the following match, he was again Somerset's most successful bowler against a full-strength Surrey side heading for its sixth consecutive County Championship: he took four for 80, though Surrey won the match.^[5] But after taking 17 wickets at an average of less than 20 runs per wicket, he decided against a career in cricket and did not appear in first-class matches again, though he appeared for Somerset's second eleven in Minor Counties matches in the school holidays in 1958.

Dickinson's batting was negligible, and in nine first-class matches he did not ever reach double figures. The Somerset historian David Foot, however, remembers his batting style: "More than once I saw him switch from left to right hand in the middle of an over – not to attempt the contentious reverse sweep but to deceive the fielders and show he could play the cover drive on both sides," he wrote. "They used to say he could also bowl with either hand."^[6]

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