Product Code Database
George Alfred Lohmann (2 June 1865 – 1 December 1901) was an English cricketer, regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Statistically, he holds the lowest lifetime Test bowling average among bowlers with more than fifteen wickets and he has the second highest peak rating for a bowler in the ICC ratings. He also holds the record for the lowest strike rate (balls bowled between each wicket taken) in all Test history.
He bowled at around medium pace and on English pitches of his time could gain spin, so that when rain affected the pitch he was unplayable. Against the best batsmen, too, Lohmann possessed skill and guile, and he could vary his pace, flight and break deceptively, so as to worry batsmen on better pitches. He was the finest slip fielder of his time and in county cricket a hard-hitting batsman who scored two centuries for Surrey and averaged 25 in 1887.
In 2016, Lohmann was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
The following season was nothing short of a sensation. Lohmann not only became Surrey's leading bowler, but was the leading first-class wicket-taker with 142 wickets. He also showed his promise as a batsman was no fluke, for he scored 571 runs. In 1886, Lohmann did equally well and played his first Test cricket for England against Australia. He took only one wicket at Old Trafford, and none at Lord's, but his continued superb form in other first-class matches saw him retained for the last match at The Oval. Here, Lohmann established himself as a great bowler with a superb twelve for 104 (7 for 36 and 5 for 68), giving England what is still one of its most decisive wins in an Ashes series. Again being the leading first-class wicket-taker, Lohmann was chosen to tour Australia with Alfred Shaw's team.
In 1888, a summer as wet as 1887 had been dry, Lohmann took full advantage of the dreadful pitches on which most matches were played, taking 209 wickets for only 10.90 each, including 142 in 14 county matches. In the three Tests against Australia, Briggs, Bobby Peel and Billy Barnes did so well that Lohmann had to do little bowling at the Oval and Old Trafford. However, he took eight wickets at Lord's and made his only Test fifty at the Oval. In 1889, Lohmann again took over 200 wickets (115 for 1485 runs in purely county matches) and took nine wickets in an innings for the first time against Sussex.
In 1892, with Surrey still crushing all opposition in the County Championship race, Lohmann "suffered only by comparison with previous years". He surprisingly ceded the position of Surrey's chief bowler to the emergent William Lockwood who took full advantage of Oval pitches being extremely fiery and untrue due to reconditioning of the square, but it still seemed as though Lohmann had many years of county and Test cricket ahead of him. A rude shock to Surrey was to come, however.
By July 1895 Lohmann's health had recovered sufficiently for him to return to England and play for Surrey again. Fortuitously, his return coincided with a return to extremely treacherous wickets after a long spell of dry weather and much better pitches than he had ever bowled on before. Though completely overshadowed by Tom Richardson, the mere fact of missing the good wickets in May and June caused Lohmann to actually beat Richardson in the averages, though his batting (seen as an important part of his county cricket up to 1892) was completely insignificant.
In 1896, Lohmann began to play for Surrey at the end of May, and, though he took 93 wickets and helped Richardson to put Australia out for 53 on a good wicket at Lord's, it was thought he had not come up to expectations. Indeed, on several occasions when pitches were suited to him, his bowling should have met with much greater success. Still, he had a fully satisfactory benefit in the game against Yorkshire in August.
A pay dispute, in which he demanded twice the existing 10-pound match fee given at the time to professional cricketers, caused Lohmann, along with Billy Gunn, to withdraw from the last Test match. He continued to play for Surrey that August, but at the end of the season his health again degenerated and had to return to South Africa, and a continuation of the 1896 pay dispute caused Lohmann to retire from his English career for good.
He is also the fastest Test bowler to reach 100 wickets, taking just 16 matches. "Ask Steven: Ronchi's rare double, and agreeing on a result" | Cricket. ESPNcricinfo (4 June 2013). Retrieved on 2018-07-30. Lohmann also holds the record for the most Test matches in a complete career (18) where a player bowled in both innings. (2025). 9780947540067, Keith Walmsley. ISBN 9780947540067
Lohmann did come back to England in 1901 to manage the second South African touring team (and the first whose matches were recognised as first-class). However, his health was clearly never going to recover completely, and even after returning to Cape Town with the onset of autumn in England, Lohmann's condition only became more critical. On 1 December 1901, the tuberculosis he had fought against for nine years finally claimed his life at age 36. He was buried at Matjiesfontein.
|
|
