Charles Richardson (umpire)

For other people named Charles Richardson, see Charles Richardson.

Charles Edward Richardson (1853 - 26 February 1925) was an English cricketer and Test match umpire.

Richardson was born in England. He played as a batsman and bowler in 14 matches for Leicestershire from 1875 to 1898, before it was a first-class county, including several with more the eleven Leicestershire players.

He stood as umpire in County Championship matches from 1897 to 1914. He also umpired the Gentlemen v Players match at the Oval in July 1914.

He umpired two Test matches: the 2nd and 5th Ashes Tests in 1902, the first with Valentine Titchmarsh and the second with Archibald White. The 2nd Test at Lord's was ruined by rain after less than 2 hours play on the first day. The 5th Test at the Oval became known as "Jessop's match" due to the heroic batting of England's Gilbert Jessop. Having been set 263 to win, Jessop came to the crease with England at 48 for 5. He scored his first 50 runs in 43 minutes and reached his century in 75 minutes. He was eventually dismissed after 77 minutes for 104, which included 17 fours and an all-run five. Many of the fours had well cleared the boundary, but the laws of cricket in 1902 meant that to obtain six runs the ball had to be hit out of the ground. One of these "fours" was caught on the players' balcony. A newspaper managed to keep a detailed record of his innings, which shows that Jessop reached his hundred off 76 balls - one of the fastest Test centuries of all time. England won by 1 wicket.

He umpired one final first-class match between Leicestershire and the touring West Indians in 1923. He died in Leicester.

References

• Profile from Cricinfo
• Profile from CricketArchive
• Lists of matches from CricketArchive

Persondata
Name	Richardson, Charles
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Short description
Date of birth	1853
Place of birth
Date of death	26 February 1925
Place of death