Dick Tyldesley

Who was Dick Tyldesley?

Dick Tyldesley was a Lancashire cricketer who was one of the most important figures in Lancashire breaking Yorkshire's stronghold on the County Championship between 1926 and 1930.

He was the youngest of four brothers who all played for Lancashire, but were unrelated to the Worsley family that produced the two famous brothers Johnny and Ernest Tyldesley. Dick first played for Lancashire in 1919 and, with Dean out of form and Cook still in the Army, gained a regular place as a slow bowler. Though he kept a perfect length and could flight the ball extremely well, at this early stage Tyldesley had so little spin that he was not a deadly force on sticky wickets. He also showed promise as a hard-hitting batsman and demonstrated his ability as a close-catching field.

By 1921, he was one of the leading bowlers for Lancashire, and in 1922, gaining more spin on the ball on sticky wickets, Dick Tyldesley took 100 first-class wickets. He also hit up 105 against Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford and remarkably was Lancashire's fourth-highest run-scorer - though with less than half the aggregates of Ernest Tyldesley, Hallows and Makepeace. It was from 1923, however, that he leaped to the top of the tree though increasing his finger spin to make him a deadly bowler on the many sticky pitches found in the North. He took 140 wickets that year, and in 1924 - a summer so wet that only one Lancashire match was played throughout on a pitch unaffected by rain - he was consistently deadly except against the most exceptionally skilled batsmen.