Empire Cricket Booklet

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GEORGE LOHMANN

Excellent as the batting was, the success of the eleven was mainly brought about by the effective bowling of George Lohmann who had the splendid record of 157 wickets for less than seven runs each. The Surrey professional accomplished his best work in the eleven-a-side games with South Africa, taking in the three matches no fewer than 35 wickets. At one time it was feared that the disturbances in the Transvaal would seriously affect the tour, but such happily was not the case. The finances no doubt suffered in consequence, but we understand there was no loss. George Lohmann undertook the business management of the tour. 16 The following season, Lohmann was included in the Western Province team which regained the Currie Cup. Over the four matches of the tournament, he bowled more overs and took more wickets than anyone else - 34 at 12.26, marginally behind C. B. 'Buck' Llewellyn and George Rowe - and clearly was a major influence in the successful challenge. In 1897/98, he played in Abe Bailey's Transvaal XI on a tour of Natal. It was his last first-class cricket, though he played and coached with distinction for the Wanderers in Johannesburg that season and accompanied the Transvaal Currie Cup squad to Cape Town. In the following year, his health now no longer equal to the demands of the first-class game, he managed Lord Hawke's second tour. He was now fully immersed in cricket in South Africa. Notwithstandi..'lg some outstanding performances in South Africa in both domestic and international cricket, Lohmann's major influence on the game was achieved more as a manager and coach, and more especially by the reputation which preceded him. He would have had a role in the aborted 1890/91 tour and his opinion on both playing and administrative issues was keenly sought before he had lifted a bat or bowled a ball in anger in southern Africa. Cricket reported that Lohmann was playing in South Africa and would bring a team to England in 1894. That was undoubtedly the intention, but regrettably, Lohmann and South African Cricket

two large water-tanks, thirty two Lee-Melford rifles were found all in good order... An attempt was made to burn down the offices of the Detective Department, occupied by ex Detective Trimble. One of the inside doors was completely destroyed; also the oil-cloth on the floor and part of the flooring. Paraffine [sic] had apparently been poured all over the room, and the mystery is how the building escaped. 15 Meanwhile, an adjacent column in the same news paper disregarded these events, and continued with the cricket: The English team resumed their second innings this morning, and closed their innings at 268 for 8 wickets. The chief scorers were Hewett, 36; Fry, 49; Hayward, 42; Lohmann, 14; O'Brien, 22; Hill (not out} 58; Wright (not out} 17. South Africa were completely outclassed in the three Test matches, being bowled out for 30 in Port Elizabeth - where Lohmann took 8 for 7, finishing the match with a hat-trick - and losing by an innings at the Wanderers and again at Newlands. Lohmann's Port Elizabeth fi gu res were the best for any bowler in Test matches to date, but not for long. In the Wanderers match, he returned 9 for 28, which remained a Test record until 'Laker's Match' at Old Trafford in 1956. In the second innings of that match, his sixteenth Test, he reached 100 wickets in Test matches. No one else in the history of the game has reached the landmark in so few matches. It was not remarked upon at the time, sophistication in cricket statistics being in its infancy. Trans-generational statistical comparisons are often meaningless and it is indisputable that the quality of the opposition was instrumental in the speed with which he was able to take 100 wickets, but nevertheless the achievement ranks alongside his bowling average and strike-rate for a unique triple crown. Lohmann finished the three-match Test series with 35 wickets at 5.80 each. Summing up the tour twelve months later, Wisden was alive to the political background and had no hesitation in pointing to the principal reason for the team's success: