Born On This Day: 14th November

RH ‘Dick’ Moore, was born in Charminster, Dorset in 1913; a batsman, he holds the record for the highest individual first-class score for Hampshire, 316 v Warwickshire at Bournemouth in 1937, scored in one day and including a century before lunch. He was given out lbw in the final over. On three occasions in the 21st century, John Crawley (twice) and Michael Carberry have reached 300, in sight of that record, and each time their captain declared - perhaps the record will never be broken.

Having impressed at Bournemouth School, Moore played occasionally for Hampshire between 1931-1933, with a fine century v Essex (159) age just 19, but otherwise a fairly modest record; then in 1934 he passed 1,500 runs at an average of 30.17, and after another relatively fallow year caused by a serious illness, he was appointed captain in 1936, a position he held for two years, scoring four centuries and passing 1,000 runs in each season.

When Cecil Paris replaced him in 1938, Moore was still only 24 and his average of 42.00 from 11 matches was his best, but business made growing demands on him, as it did increasingly on amateurs before the term was abandoned in 1963. For Moore, there were just four first-class matches in 1939; during the war, he played in a number of services and other matches, and when non-first-class county cricket returned to Southampton in 1945 he played against Sussex.

After that he moved to Wales and continued to play some cricket there, before becoming Chairman of Colwyn Bay CC, although in 1952, he was reunited with former colleagues for a match at Bournemouth against the current Hampshire side, in aid of George Heath’s testimonial. He died in Denbighshire, Wales on 1 March, 2002.