Empire Cricket Booklet

CHAPTER SEVEN

George Lohmann

KEITH BOOTH 1

of his short life. Even allowing for the exaggerated sentiments of epitaphs and obituaries, that is an outstanding tribute to one of the leading cricketers of his time and one who even now, over a hundred years since he last played, has a better average and strike rate than any other bowler in the history of Test cricket. Admittedly, his statistics derive from matches against Australia at their weakest and a South Africa not yet ready for Test cricket (Bangladesh and Zimbabwe would be relevant contemporary comparators), but by the end of the nineteenth century, he was the benchmark against which aspirant international bowlers were measured. Born at Kensington in London, after a few years in club cricket, George Lohmann made his debut for Surrey in 1884 at the age of eighteen; the first of his 1 841 first-class wickets was a significant one, that of W. G. Grace, and from that point he never looked back. From 1887 to 1892, Surrey were county champions on five occasions and shared the honours with Lancashire and Nottinghamshire on the remaining one, in 1889. Lohmann was a major part of that success. He was the county's leading wicket-taker for seven consecutive seasons, yielding to Bill Lockwood only when his health began to decline. To the adoring crowds which flocked to the Kennington Oval, he was Our George, to Albert Craig, The Background: Lohmann's Cricket in England and Australia

GEORGE ALFRED LOHMANN

BORN JUNE 2 ND 1865.

DIED DECEMBER 1 5 r 1901.

THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED

BY THE SURREY COUNTY CRICKET CLUB

AND FRIENDS IN SOUTH AFRICA

IN MEMORY OF ONE OF THE GREATEST

ALL ROUND CRICKETERS

THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

A BOWLER OF INFINITE VARIETY

A SPLENDID FIELD AND A RESOLUTE BATSMAN

HE DID EXCELLENT SERVICE FOR SURREY

FROM 1884 TO 1896

AS WELL AS FOR THE PLAYERS AND FOR

ENGLAND

HIS WHOLE HEART WAS IN SURREY

AND HE PLAYED THE GAME

FROM START TO FINISH

ILL HEALTH ALONE COMPELLED HIM

TO RETIRE FROM THE CRICKET FIELD

WHILE STILL IN HIS PRIME

Such is the inscription on the grave of George Lohmann in the cemetery at Pieter Meintjies, just off the Nl national road, some ten kilometres south-west of the village of Matjiesfontein (spelled 'Matjesfontein' at the time), where he spent much of the last quarter