Thompson made his debut in first-class cricket as a 16-year-old in 1949 and the following year created something of a stir by taking five Gloucestershire wickets – the top five in the batting order, including Test players Jack Crapp and Tom Graveney – for just 16 runs in a County Championship match.
[3] From 1952, he was on National Service in the Royal Air Force for two years, but in the first of those seasons he played a few games for Warwickshire and against Nottinghamshire, still aged only 19, he took nine first-innings wickets for 65 runs, which were the best innings figures of his career.
Yet injury, variable form and fickle selection policies meant that in only four of those eight seasons could he be regarded as a regular first-team player, a fact much commented on in his obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
[5] In the event, he was persuaded to return for the second half of the 1962 season to give an attack over-reliant on medium-paced bowling an extra edge, but he took only 23 wickets and that was the end of his first-class career.
[6] Thompson was no batsman and always batted at No 10 or No 11 for Warwickshire; his highest score in first-class cricket was 25 which he reached twice, both times remaining not out.