Richard Henry Moore (14 November 1913 – 1 March 2002) was an English first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. Moore debuted as a 17-year-old for

Hampshire County Cricket Club Hampshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Hampshire. Hampshire teams formed by earlier organisations, principal ...

in 1931 and made nearly 130 appearances for the county during the 1930s. He was appointed Hampshire

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

for 1936 and 1937, succeeding

Geoffrey Lowndes William Geoffrey Lowndes Frith Lowndes (born William Geoffrey Lowndes Frith; 24 January 1898 – 23 May 1982), known as Geoffrey Lowndes, was an English first-class cricketer. He played first-class cricket from 1921 to 1936, the majority of whi ...

. An

opening batsman In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batters play through their team's innings, there always being two batters taking part at any one time. All eleven players in a team are required to bat if the innings is completed (i.e., if ...

who passed 1,000 runs for the season on three occasions, his best innings of note came in 1937, when he scored 316 runs in a single day against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, which remains as of 2023 the highest individual first-class score for Hampshire. With business commitments taking up more of his time, he relinquished the captaincy to Cecil Paris in 1938, but continued to play for Hampshire less frequently before the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Life and cricket career

Moore was born in the

suburb of

Charminster Charminster is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated on the River Cerne and A352 road north of the county town Dorchester. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 2,940 and also contains the hamlet of Charl ...

in November 1913. He was educated at Bournemouth Grammar School. Shortly after completing his education there, he debuted, aged 17, for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

in the 1931 County Championship. Having appeared twice in 1931, Moore became a more regular member of the Hampshire team in 1932, but it was not until the last game of the 1933 season against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

that Moore recorded his maiden first-class

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

with a score of 159. Possessing a mixture of attacking and defensive strokeplay, he had a successful season in 1934, when he passed 1,500 runs for the season as an

, making two centuries, one of which equalled his 159 the previous season. ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' commenting on his 1934 season, noted that he was "probably the most promising young

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

in English cricket". However, the following year he was struck down with

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...

and missed the entirety of the 1935 season. He returned for the 1936 season and was duly elected

, replacing

. Much in the same vein as Edward Sprot over 20-years prior, his captaincy was characterised by an enterprising, positive approach, which encouraged the acceptance of challenges in the pursuit of victory, even though some ended in defeat. In his first season as captain, he led Hampshire from 16th place to 10th in the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

. He again passed 1,000 runs for the season in 1936, scoring ten centuries and seven half centuries, despite a mid-season slump in form where he scored only 89 runs in 17 innings. The following season, in which he again captained Hampshire, was his most successful. He passed 1,500 runs for a season for the second time and scored two centuries and four half centuries. He played his most famous innings in 1937 against

at Bournemouth. Moore scored 316 runs in Hampshire's first innings, reaching his century before lunch on the first day and reached his triple century before the close of play at 7pm, when he was the last wicket of the day to fall. His innings included 43 fours and three sixes, and involved partnerships of 108 for the first wicket with

Neil McCorkell Neil Thomas McCorkell (23 March 1912 – 28 February 2013) was an English cricketer. He was right-handed batsman who fielded as a wicket-keeper. He was born at Portsmouth, Hampshire. Debuting for Hampshire County Cricket Club in 1932, McCo ...

and 207 for the fourth wicket with Cecil Paris. This was the highest individual first-class score for Hampshire, a record which still stands as of . Owing to business pressures outside of cricket, Moore handed the Hampshire captaincy over to Cecil Paris for the 1938 season, with his appearances in his final two seasons prior to the

becoming less. In total, he made 129 appearances in first-class cricket for Hampshire, scoring 5,885 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 26.99; he scored ten centuries, alongside 19 half centuries. In the field, he took 115 catches for Hampshire. As a part-time medium pace bowler, he took 25 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 39.12, with best figues of 3 for 46. In addition to playing first-class cricket for Hampshire, Moore also made four appearances each for the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

between 1936 and 1937, and for the Gentlemen in the

Gentlemen v Players Gentlemen v Players was a long-running series of English first-class cricket matches. Two matches were played in 1806, but the fixture was not played again until 1819. It became an annual event, usually played at least twice each season, exc ...

fixtures between 1934 and 1938. Moore married a North Wales baker's daughter, and during the war he commanded a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

at Pool Park in

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

. Following the war, he remained in the Denbighshire area, where he helped to organise a cricket festival at

Penrhyn Avenue Penrhyn Avenue is a cricket ground in Colwyn Bay, Wales. The ground was first used by the Glamorgan County Cricket Club, Glamorgan 1st XI in 1966, although County Championship matches have only been an annual fixture since 1990 (with the excepti ...

during the 1950s, which attracted some of the most famous cricketers of the day. His health failed him in later life, with Moore too unwell to attend the farewell dinner to Northlands Road in September 2000, prior to Hampshire's relocation to the Rose Bowl. He died in March 2002 at Llanrhos, Denbighshire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Dick 1913 births 2002 deaths Sportspeople from Bournemouth People educated at Bournemouth School English cricketers Hampshire cricketers Hampshire cricket captains Gentlemen cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Cricketers from Dorset