Born at the Grange, Farnsfield on 21 July 1864, Richard Holmes Howitt was a right-hand bat and a medium-pace bowler who played for Notts Castle CC between 1888-99; he also played for Farnsfield, Southwell and Newark. He did not make his First-Class debut until he was 28, when he represented Notts v MCC at Lord’s in May 1893, making 0 and 13, having played two useful innings for Notts Colts v Yorkshire Colts prior to this match. He reappeared for Notts in 12 First-Class games in 1894 but with little success, scoring 225 runs @10.71. He also appeared in 12 matches in 1895 where he played in his only innings of note in First-Class cricket - 119 for Notts v Sussex at Trent Bridge in May, adding 201 for the seventh wicket with Robert Bagguley; this remained club record seventh wicket partnership until broken in 1967. Notts totalled 726 all out and won the contest by an innings and 378 runs, still their largest ever win in first-class cricket. He appeared once for Notts in 1896, and again in 1897 and his final First-Class appearance was in July 1901 v South Africans at Trent Bridge. In 28 First-Class matches for Notts, Howitt scored 492 runs @10.25 and took eight wickets @42.12 with best figures of 2-25 versus Lancashire at Trent Bridge in 1895.
He served on the Notts CCC Committee from 1899 to 1934 and died in Farnsfield on 10 January 1951, aged 86 years.
June 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 225