Thomas Warsop was the best known of the family of brothers to play for Nottingham - he captained the team until the 1800s, when Joseph Dennis took over. Thomas first played for Nottingham in 1791, aged 12, having been born in September 1778.  He played in just one First-Class match, in which his brother Richard also appeared, for Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire against Hampshire in 1803.  When he retired from the game in 1823, he had played 14 important games, scoring 222 runs at 12.00 with a top score of 72 v Ripon on York Racecourse in 1816.

Warsop was a good batsman, reckoned to be the best all-rounder in the Nottingham team (which was also said about his brother Richard when he played). His slow underarm bowling was said to have been copied by William Clarke.

By far the most gentlemanly of all the Nottingham players, Warsop bet an opponent £100 that Nottingham would beat Holt in Norfolk, who had the Pilchs on their side. Nottingham won, the loser paid up in twenty fivers, but Warsop handed them back, saying he only made the bet as a jest – and anyway he wouldn’t have paid up if he had lost.

Thomas was described as a martyr to gout, which was given as the cause of death, and ‘consequencely rather a snail between the wickets.’ He died in his house in Pepper Street, Nottingham on 28 February 1845, aged 65.

The other Warsop brothers were William and Samuel and Richard (for whom some records remain).

April 2020