Alfred Richardson

Who was Alfred Richardson?

Alfred Graham Richardson was an English schoolmaster and cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset, Cambridge University, Gloucestershire and Orange Free State between 1895 and 1913/14. He was born at Sandy, Bedfordshire and died at Umtata, now Mthatha, Cape Province, South Africa.

The fourth son of the rector of Sandy, Richardson was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and was a student at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1895 when he played as a right-handed batsman in a match for Somerset against the university side. Scores of 40 and 35 led him to be picked for the university team for the next match, against a team of amateur cricketers raised by C. I. Thornton, but he was not successful and was not chosen again for the university team in 1895 or in 1896. In 1897, Richardson has a similar experience: this time, he did well as an opening batsman for Gloucestershire in a match against Kent, with scores of 40 and 17. He was then picked for another single match for the university team, this time against MCC, but in a rain-ruined game he did not get to bat, and he never appeared for the university side again.