Cricket / history
The Bristol inventor who revolutionised the game of cricket
The sound of leather on willow will recommence on Friday (weather permitting) with the start of the English cricket season.
And that familiar sound of summer has in part got a Victorian cricket lover from Bristol to thank, whose simple invention revolutionised the game.
Charles Richardson (1814-1896) was an apprentice of Isambard Kingdom Brunel who became the original engineer of the Severn Tunnel and resident engineer on the Bristol & South Wales Union Railway.
But for the purposes of this story, his principal accomplishment is the invention of the spliced cricket bat, with his cricketing fixation believed to have got him an admonishment from Brunel.
Richardson is honoured with two plaques in Bristol: one at his former home on Berkeley Square in Clifton and the other which is part of ‘engineers walk’ outside the former Imax cinema.
Richardson died at his home in Berkeley Square and is buried in Almondsbury churchyard, with another plaque dedicated to his memory in the church.
Bristol cricketing colossus WG Grace including illustrations of his own spliced bats in his book, ‘Cricket’, published in 1891
The modern cricket bat design of a cane handle cut into a willow blade by a tapered splice can be traced back to Richardson’s invention from 1880.
As well as the spliced bat, Richardson also invented the bowling machine, versions of which are familiar in indoor cricket nets across the world.
Charles Richardson’s plaque is on ‘engineers walk’ – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth – with thanks to Gyles Bros.
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