Richard May (died c.1796) was a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er who was a well-known bowler for Kent sides in the 1760s and 1770s. May's known first-class career spanned the 1773 and 1780 seasons. His brother Tom May was a noted batsman, also playing for Kent at the same time. The May brothers often played alongside each other but many scorecards of the period did not note first names or initials, so it is often impossible to distinguish one from the other in some matches, hence his total of 13 first-class appearances, given in ''CricketArchive'', is an estimate.CricketArchive – career record
Retrieved on 9 January 2011. ''Scores and Biographies'' has recorded an old verse about the May brothers:Haygarth, p.4.

''Tom was for batting, Dick for bowling famed''

Very little is known of their personal lives. Dick May is known to have been a gamekeeper on

Sir Horatio Mann Sir Horatio (Horace) Mann, 2nd Baronet (2 February 1744 – 2 April 1814) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1807. He is remembered as a member of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire and a patron of Kent cricke ...

’s estate at

Bourne Park House Bourne Park House is a Queen Anne style country house on Bourne Park Road, between Bishopsbourne and Bridge near Canterbury in Kent. Built in 1701, it has been listed Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England since 1954. An 18th ...

. He died in a drunken fit about 1796, when he was middle-aged. His dying request to his friend George Ring was that Ring should kill his favourite dog and bury it with him.

References

Bibliography

Arthur Haygarth Arthur Haygarth (4 August 1825 – 1 May 1903) was a noted English amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as wel ...

, ''Scores & Biographies'', Volume 1 (1744–1826), Lillywhite, 1862 1790s deaths English cricketers Kent cricketers English cricketers of 1701 to 1786 Hampshire cricketers Year of birth unknown Non-international England cricketers {{England-cricket-bio-stub