Dickie Burrough

Who was Dickie Burrough?

Herbert Dickinson "Dickie" Burrough, born at Wedmore, Somerset, on 6 February 1909, and died at Padstow, Cornwall, on 9 April 1994, played 171 first-class cricket matches for Somerset in a career that last for 20 years from 1927.

An amateur right-handed batsman who sometimes opened the innings, Burrough played fairly regular first-class cricket for Somerset in the early 1930s, making useful runs and fielding athletically. He was, said his obituary in Wisden, "notably enthusiastic". He had been at Cambridge University, but appeared there in only one trial match for "seniors", and never made the first-class cricket side. He was also passed over at Cambridge for hockey, failing to win his university Blue for the sport, though he later played three times for the England team.

In 1931, he played cricket regularly for Somerset, though his highest score was only 55 and he averaged just 16 runs per innings. The following year, 1932, he hit centuries against Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, the former – 135 in 180 minutes at Kettering – remaining the highest score of his career, and his average rose to 27. This record was "as good as that of any other member of the team," said Wisden.