Thomas Carter Dodds, known in his cricket career as Dickie Dodds and outside it as Carter Dodds, (29 May 1919 – 17 September 2001) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Essex between 1946 and 1959 as a hard-hitting opening batsman. He was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire and died in Cambridge.
The son of a clergyman, Dodds was a strong supporter of the Moral Re-Armament movement and cricket was, in his view, "a reflection of the Great Creator" and should therefore be played in a suitably dashing and creative style.
Early life and career
Dodds was one of four brothers, the sons of a Church of England vicar who was successively in charge of parishes in Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. He was educated at Wellingborough School and at Warwick School, and then joined Barclays Bank, moving to London. He played second eleven cricket for both Warwickshire and Middlesex, but he did not play any first-class games, nor in any official Minor Counties fixtures and at this stage he played as a lower-order batsman and leg-spin bowler.
Dodds joined the Royal Signals Regiment at the outbreak of World War II and was later commissioned, serving in India and Burma and finishing the war as a captain. His first experience of first-class cricket came during his war service: he played for a Services XI captained by Douglas Jardine against a strong Indian XI at Bombay in February 1944, the only debutant in a strong team of Test and county players.
Cricket and Christianity
Having been introduced earlier to the Essex county cricket captain Tom Pearce, Dodds was demobbed from the army in 1946 and joined Essex. At about this time, according to his later account in his autobiography, he joined Moral Re-Armament and embraced a form of active Christianity in which he lived his life according to "advice" which he received in conversations with God: "You have a quiet time, in which you put the problem to him, and you note what thoughts he puts into your mind in reply. You are not asking for anything, except advice."
Dodds reported that he asked God how he should play cricket, and received the reply: "Hit the ball hard and enjoy it." He took some while to follow this advice, but when he did, the Essex cricketer and coach Frank Rist noted such a transformation in his batting that he dubbed Dodds "the miracle man". Dodds himself dated his transformation to a match against Middlesex: "I felt closer to God than ever before in my life," he wrote. "I tried to fashion the loveliest strokes I could manage for the God who would enjoy them. In return I had a tremendous sense of His pleasure."
Later, according to his own account, Dodds followed the same precept of asking for God's advice on other matters. He was "advised" not to insure against rain in his benefit match, which proved a wise decision. In a match at Ilford, he conceived that if he were to take a catch off a particular ball bowled by leg-spinner Bill Greensmith, he should marry a woman named Ann who was keener on him than he was on her – Greensmith bowled a long hop, the batsman took a swipe, Dodds held the catch, and married Ann.
When not playing cricket, Dodds worked for Moral Re-Armament in the East End of London, and then further afield. Playing cricket as an amateur in 1946, he turned professional – unusual for a former public schoolboy – from 1947 and he gave the money from his benefit match to Moral Re-Armament projects in India. He worked on projects worldwide for the group after he retired from cricket.
First-class cricket career
Dodds went straight into the Essex first team when he joined the county and made an impact as an opening batsman in his first match, against Sussex at Ilford, when his second innings of 63 was by some distance the highest score in a final innings which saw Essex lose nine wickets but hang on for a draw. A little over a month later, Dodds and Sonny Avery set an Essex first-wicket partnership record with a stand of 270 in the match against Surrey at The Oval; at this stage, Dodds was not yet following his "instruction" to hit the ball hard, and Avery comfortably outscored him, making 140 out of 235 on the first day – Dodds was 83 not out at close of play. He went on the following morning to his first first-class century, finishing with 103. Later in the season he improved on that with a second century, a score of 111, in the match against Hampshire at Westcliff, and he finished the season with 1050 runs at an average of 25.60.