George Lohmann — Surrey's All-Rounder Emerges, 1884-1888

Surrey in the early 1880s was rebuilding under the captaincy of John Shuter. The county would dominate English cricket from 1887 to 1892 with a side built around Lohmann, Walter Read, Bobby Abel, Tom Richardson and a strong professional staff. Lohmann was the catalyst.

By the time Lohmann reached the 1886 Oval Test he had two and a half seasons of county dominance behind him. The 12-wicket match was less a breakthrough than a confirmation — but it announced him to a Test cricket public used to thinking of Surrey as a county side rather than an England factory.

George Lohmann was born at Campden Hill in Kensington on 2 June 1865. The son of a stockbroker, he was an amateur in social standing but soon shifted to professional terms with Surrey to make his cricket pay. His first-class debut came in 1884; he played ten matches that season, established himself for his batting and showed glimpses with the ball.

The 1885 season was the breakout. Lohmann took 142 first-class wickets — the most in England — at fast-medium pace with a beautiful action and a sharply cutting off-break that he could turn on bone-hard pitches as well as on rain-affected ones. He also scored 571 runs at a respectable average; for the next decade he was a genuine all-rounder.

In 1886 he made his Test debut against Australia. He took only one wicket in two Tests but his county form was so strong that he was kept for the third, at the Oval. There, in late August 1886, he took 12 for 104 in the match (7/36 and 5/68) to set up one of England's most decisive Ashes wins. By the end of 1887 he had bowled Surrey to the County Championship with 154 wickets; from 1888 to 1890 he took more than 200 first-class wickets a season three years running.

Lohmann's Test career, although it lasted only 18 matches, produced 112 wickets at 10.75 — still, well over a century later, the best career bowling average of any Test bowler with even 50 wickets. His strike rate of 34.1 (one wicket every 34 balls) is also the best in Test history. The numbers reflect both his talent and the era — uncovered pitches, weak South African batting in some of his Tests — but they remain extraordinary.

In 1892 his health collapsed. Tuberculosis was diagnosed and Lohmann spent much of the 1890s in South Africa for his lungs; he played his last Test in February 1896 at the age of 30, and died at Matjiesfontein in the Karoo in December 1901, aged 36.

“An all-round cricketer of no ordinary promise.”

Lohmann's death at 36 robbed cricket of one of its great bowlers in his prime. He was buried at Matjiesfontein cemetery and a memorial was raised by Surrey at the Oval. The Test bowling average of 10.75 has stood for over 120 years.