Thomas Barkley Raikes (16 December 1902 – 2 March 1984) was an Indian-born English

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 str ...

er who played 38 first-class games for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

in the 1920s. He also played

minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for

Norfolk County Cricket Club Norfolk County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county cricket clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Norfolk. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Champio ...

. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

, and in 1921 had a particularly fine year: he captained the side, topped the bowling averages and was second in the

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

s. In July against

Charterhouse Charterhouse may refer to: * Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order Charterhouse may also refer to: Places * The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery * Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey Londo ...

, he scored 94 and then took 8/14, no runs at all being conceded by him until he had taken all eight wickets. After going up to

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

, and taking 5/5 in the (non-first-class) Freshmen's match, Raikes was brought into the full university side. ''

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 ...

'' considered that " this point it seemed that he might well take his place among the leading bowlers of the day", but although he had a good 1923 season, he never lived up to this early promise as he put on weight, having found "the pleasure of life at Oxford too alluring". He did, however, turn in an excellent performance against the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

in 1924, taking 13 wickets in the match. Neither his match figures of 13/80 nor his second-innings return of 9/38 have been beaten since (as of 2009) by an Oxford bowler. In June 1922, during Oxford's match against Surrey at

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

, Raikes was involved in a bizarre

run-out Run-out or runout is an inaccuracy of rotating mechanical systems, specifically that the tool or shaft does not rotate exactly in line with the main axis. For example; when drilling, run-out will result in a larger hole than the drill's nomina ...

incident: he and his batting partner

R. C. Robertson-Glasgow Raymond Charles "Crusoe" Robertson-Glasgow (15 July 1901 – 4 March 1965) was a Scottish cricketer and cricket writer. Life and career Robertson-Glasgow was born in Edinburgh and educated at Charterhouse School and Corpus Christi College, O ...

became hopelessly confused over a second, then third, run, and ended up at the same end on both occasions. Meanwhile, the Surrey fielders repeatedly fumbled the ball before eventually wicket-keeper

Herbert Strudwick Herbert Strudwick (28 January 1880 – 14 February 1970) was an English wicket-keeper. His record of 1,493 dismissals is the third-highest by any wicket-keeper in the history of first-class cricket. Biography Born in Mitcham, Surrey, Strudwic ...

managed to remove the bails. Even then, it was unclear which of the batsmen was out: Robertson-Glasgow said that Raikes walked off of his own accord, while another tale says that the matter was settled by the toss of a coin. Two of Raikes' relatives played first-class cricket: his father Ernest Raikes played in India for Europeans and

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

, while his uncle

George Raikes Rev. George Barkley Raikes (14 March 1873 – 18 December 1966) was an English sportsman who played first-class cricket for Oxford University and Hampshire as well as representing the England national football team. Early life Raikes was born ...

played for Oxford and

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

and made four appearances for the

England football team The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raikes, Thomas English cricketers Oxford University cricketers 1902 births 1984 deaths Norfolk cricketers People educated at Winchester College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Cricketers from Mumbai British people in colonial India