Richard Williams (cricketer, born 1901)

Richard Harry Williams (23 April 1901—19 December 1982) was an English cricketer who played 37 first-class matches for Worcestershire between 1923 and 1932. He averaged barely 11 in his career, though his obituary in Wisden suggested that he had played "some useful innings".^[1]

Williams' career began very badly. In his first game, against Derbyshire, he made 4 and 2* in 1923.^[2] He did not appear again until 1925, when in his first nine innings of the season he made just 13 runs.^[3] He brought this dreadful sequence to a close with 23 against Sussex in early June, then followed it up with the first of just three half-centuries: 56 versus Nottinghamshire.^[4]

This innings was a false dawn, however, and in Williams' next 30 innings he never made more than 41.^[3] By now it was August 1926, but then — admittedly after the match was dead^[1] — he produced what was to be his career-best innings: 81 against Nottinghamshire (again) at Trent Bridge.^[5] Another lengthy run of failures followed, and although he made an unbeaten 76 against Yorkshire in early May 1928,^[6] he was out of the side again by the start of June.

Williams was to make only three more first-class appearances: two in 1931 and one in 1932. His four innings produced scores of 2, 0, 0 and 1, bringing an unhappy end to his largely unsuccessful career in county cricket.

Notes

References

• Richard Wiliams from CricketArchive
• Player profile: Richard Williams from ESPNcricinfo