Richard Pilling (11 August 1855 – 28 March 1891) was an English professional

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 who played for

Lancashire County Cricket Club Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in English cricket. The club has held first-class status since it was founded in 1864. Lancashire's home is Old Trafford Cricket Ground, although the team also play ...

from 1877 to 1889, and in eight

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

from 1881 to 1888. He was born at

Old Warden Old Warden is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England, about south-east of the county town of Bedford. The 2011 census shows its population as 328. The ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

, and died at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Pilling was a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

who completed 459

catches Catch may refer to: In sports * Catch (game), children's game * Catch (baseball), a maneuver in baseball * Catch (cricket), a mode of dismissal in cricket * Catch or reception (gridiron football) * Catch, part of a rowing stroke In music * Cat ...

and 208 stumpings in 250

first-class matches 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 ...

. As a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

, he scored 2,572 career runs at an average of 9.85 runs per completed

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...

with a highest score of 78 as one of two half-centuries.

Early years

Pilling was born on 11 August 1855 in

, and his parents, John and Ann Pilling, relocated to

Church, Lancashire Church is a large village in Hyndburn, Lancashire, England, situated a mile west of Accrington. The village has a population of 5,186 at the 2011 Census, an increase from 3,990 according to the 2001 census. History and geography Church was o ...

when he was a little child. His brother William (1857–1924) was born at Church. Pilling became a

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, mo ...

and played cricket in his spare time for Church Cricket Club.

Career

Pilling made his debut for

in a three-day match against

Sussex County Cricket Club Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Sussex. Its limited overs team is called the Sussex Sharks. The c ...

in August 1877, soon before his 22nd birthday. He played as the Lancashire

and was number 11 in the batting order. Lancashire won the match by an

and 31 runs. They batted first and scored 345. Pilling was

run out Run out is a method of dismissal in cricket, governed by Law 38 of the Laws of Cricket. A run out usually occurs when the batsmen are attempting to run between the wickets, and the fielding team succeed in getting the ball to one wicket befo ...

for 2. Sussex, struggling against the pace attack of Alec Watson and William McIntyre were all out for 241 and, having

followed on In the game of cricket, a team who batted second and scored significantly fewer runs than the team who batted first may be forced to follow-on: to take their second innings immediately after their first. The follow-on can be enforced by the team ...

, 73. Pilling's first dismissal was James Phillips, whom he

stumped Stumped is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket, which involves the wicket-keeper putting down the wicket while the batsman is out of his ground. (The batsman leaves his ground when he has moved down the pitch beyond the popping crease ...

for 8 off Watson's bowling. In the second innings, he

caught Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket. A batsman is out caught if the batsman hits the ball, from a legitimate delivery, with the bat, and the ball is caught by the bowler or a fielder before it hits the ground. If the ball h ...

Phillips and stumped Richard Fillery, both off Watson. In the 1891 edition of ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''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 ...

'', Pilling was selected as one of "Five Great Wicket-keepers". In his obituary the following year, ''Wisden'' called Pilling "the greatest English wicket-keeper of his day (whose) only superior was

Jack Blackham John McCarthy Blackham (11 May 1854 – 28 December 1932) was a Test cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. A specialist wicket-keeper, Blackham played in the first Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877 and the fam ...

(of Australia)".

Style and technique

According to ''

The Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...

's'' obituary, Pilling's only superior wicket-keeper was Blackham. The publication remarked on Pilling's precise approach and stated that he was not just bright but also a safe pair of hands, achieving his goals without fanfare or display.

Illness and death

Pilling's career ended in 1889 because illness prevented him from playing in 1890. It is understood that his health was always delicate but, in the winter of 1889–90, things took a turn for the worse when he had a severe attack of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

, causing a lung inflammation that developed into

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

(then called consumption). In the autumn of 1890, he sailed to Australia in the vain hope that a change of climate would help him. It did not and he sailed home again, arriving on 22 March 1891. Family and friends could see that his condition was beyond recovery and he died only six days later on 28 March. The cause of death was primarily consumption but he also had

oedema Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...

(then called dropsy). ''The Morning Post'' said: "Modest and unassuming in manner, Pilling was among the most popular cricketers of his day".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilling, Dick 1855 births 1891 deaths England Test cricketers English cricketers of 1864 to 1889 English cricketers Lancashire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers North v South cricketers People from Bedfordshire Players cricketers Wicket-keepers Wisden Cricketers of the Year