View source for Tony Lock

{{Short description|English cricketer}}
{{About||the English footballer|Tony Lock (footballer)|the American football player|Tony Locke}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox cricketer
 |                name = Tony Lock
 |               image = Tony_Lock_1970.jpg
 |             caption = Tony Lock in 1970
 |             country = England
 |            fullname = Graham Anthony Richard Lock
 |          birth_date = {{Birth date|1929|7|5|df=yes}}
 |         birth_place = [[Limpsfield]], Surrey, England
 |          death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|3|30|1929|7|5|df=yes}}
 |         death_place = [[Perth]], Western Australia
 |             batting = Right-handed
 |             bowling = [[Slow left arm orthodox]]
 |       international = true
 |       testdebutdate = 17 July
 |       testdebutyear = 1952
 |    testdebutagainst = India
 |             testcap = 370
 |        lasttestdate = 3 April
 |        lasttestyear = 1968
 |     lasttestagainst = West Indies
 |               club1 = [[Surrey County Cricket Club|Surrey]]
 |               year1 = 1946–1963
 |               club2 = [[Western Warriors|Western Australia]]
 |               year2 = {{nowrap|1962/63–1970/71}}
 |               club3 = [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]]
 |               year3 = 1965–1967
 |             columns = 3
 |             column1 = [[Test cricket|Test]]
 |            matches1 = 49
 |               runs1 = 742
 |            bat avg1 = 13.74
 |           100s/50s1 = 0/3
 |          top score1 = 89
 |         deliveries1 = 13,147
 |            wickets1 = 174
 |           bowl avg1 = 25.58
 |            fivefor1 = 9
 |             tenfor1 = 3
 |       best bowling1 = 7/35
 |  catches/stumpings1 = 59/–
 |             column2 = [[First-class cricket|FC]]
 |            matches2 = 654
 |               runs2 = 10,342
 |            bat avg2 = 15.88
 |           100s/50s2 = 0/27
 |          top score2 = 89
 |         deliveries2 = 150,168
 |            wickets2 = 2,844
 |           bowl avg2 = 19.23
 |            fivefor2 = 196
 |             tenfor2 = 50
 |       best bowling2 = 10/54
 |  catches/stumpings2 = 831/–
 |             column3 = [[List A cricket|LA]]
 |            matches3 = 8
 |               runs3 = 5
 |            bat avg3 = 1.00
 |           100s/50s3 = 0/0
 |          top score3 = 3
 |         deliveries3 = 428
 |            wickets3 = 10
 |           bowl avg3 = 27.00
 |            fivefor3 = 0
 |             tenfor3 = 0
 |       best bowling3 = 3/20
 |  catches/stumpings3 = 3/–
 |                date = 8 September
 |                year = 2009
 |              source = http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/16331.html Cricinfo
}}

'''Graham Anthony Richard Lock''' (5 July 1929 – 30 March 1995)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-tony-lock-1613533.html|title=Obituary:Tony Lock|author=Derek Hodgson|date=30 March 1995|work=[[The Independent]]}}</ref> was an English [[cricket]]er, who played primarily as a left-arm [[spin bowling|spinner]]. He played in 49 [[Test cricket|Test matches]] for [[England cricket team|England]] taking 174 wickets.<ref name="Cap">{{cite book |title=If The Cap Fits |last=Bateman |first=Colin |year=1993 |publisher=Tony Williams Publications |isbn=1-869833-21-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/ifcapfits0000unse/page/112 112] |url=https://archive.org/details/ifcapfits0000unse/page/112 }}</ref>

Lock took 2,844 [[first-class wickets]], placing him ninth on the all-time list, and is the only player to score more than 10,000 runs without once making a century;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/29834801/ask-steven-top-scored-most-test-innings-england? |title=Who has top-scored in the most Test innings for England? |work=ESPN Cricinfo |access-date=8 September 2020}}</ref> despite passing fifty on 27 occasions, his highest score was 89, made in a Test in Guyana. His tally of 831 catches in [[first-class cricket]], mostly taken at short leg, lies behind only [[W.G. Grace]] and [[Frank Woolley]].

==Life and career==
Born in [[Limpsfield]], Surrey, Tony Lock had the weighty backing of [[Shrimp Leveson Gower|HDG Leveson Gower]] and made his [[first-class cricket|first-class]] debut for [[Surrey County Cricket Club]] at just seventeen years and eight days old on 13 July 1946, which made him the youngest ever to play for the county.<ref>''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', "Curran strikes on debut", 14 July 2015, sports section page 17.</ref> However he did not play regularly until 1949. In 1951 he took 105 wickets, and broke the 100-wicket barrier every year up to and including 1962, on two occasions (1955 and 1957) claiming more than 200 victims.

Lock made his England debut in the third [[Test cricket|Test]] against [[Indian cricket team|India]] in 1952,<ref name="Cap"/> and played the fourth and fifth Tests against [[Australian cricket team|Australia]] the following summer; he had in fact been picked for the first game, but had worn his spinning finger raw after being named in the team and had had to withdraw while it healed. However, England regained [[the Ashes]] and for his efforts Lock was named one of [[Wisden Cricketers of the Year]] in the 1954 edition of Wisden's Almanack. However, he also had to deal with accusations (not entirely unfounded) that he was a '[[Throwing (cricket)|chucker]]', being called for throwing on more than one occasion. This was one of the grudges that many had against him, the other was his consistent Test selection over [[Johnny Wardle]] of Yorkshire.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}

In 1956, Lock was famously the bowler who took "the other wicket" when [[Jim Laker]] achieved his world-record 19–90 at [[Old Trafford (cricket)|Old Trafford]] against Australia,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/149193.html |title=He should have been a paceman |work=ESPN Cricinfo |date=5 July 2005 |access-date=9 July 2018}}</ref> and two years later had an extraordinary summer of success against an admittedly poor [[New Zealand cricket team|New Zealand]] side, finishing with 34 wickets at an [[bowling average|average]] of a mere 7.47.<ref name="Cap"/> He was inconsistent abroad, however, failing completely on the [[MCC tour of Australia in 1958–59|1958/59 tour of Australia]], but again terrorising the New Zealanders in the same winter, with 13 wickets at under nine runs apiece. It was during the New Zealand leg of the tour that he saw himself on film. Shocked by what he saw, he remodelled his action.<ref name="Cap"/> By 1961, he was back in the Test side against Australia.

Not included in the English team for the [[English cricket team in Australia in 1962–63|1962–63 Ashes series]], he played with great success for Western Australia,<ref name="Cap"/> returning to play for that state each winter for the rest of his career.

Lock moved to [[Leicestershire County Cricket Club|Leicestershire]] in 1965, and was made [[Captain (cricket)|captain]] for the following two seasons,<ref name="Cap"/> taking the club to second place in the [[County Championship]] in 1967. In 1967/68 he was unexpectedly recalled by England because of an injury to [[Fred Titmus]], and played in the last two Tests against [[English cricket team in the West Indies in 1967–68|West Indies]].<ref name="Cap"/> He was the last man called up to play for England who was not playing for a first-class county. Though not achieving any great success with the ball, he contributed to the cause in another way, by making his highest first-class score of 89 in the first innings of the final Test at [[Georgetown, Guyana]].<ref name="Cap"/> England had nine wickets down when the game (played over six days) finished, and claimed the series 1–0.

Lock's remaining playing career was spent entirely with Western Australia, and fittingly his last first-class wicket was that of an Australian Test player, [[Paul Sheahan]].

==Retirement==
After retirement he moved into coaching in [[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]] and London, and became an Australian citizen in 1982.

==Personal life==
He married Audrey May Sage (1928/9–1994) in September 1949. They had two sons and adopted a daughter.<ref>{{cite ODNB | url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-58073 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/58073 | title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | date=2004 }}</ref>

==Assault allegations==
Late in life Lock faced two separate charges of sexual abuse. In December 1993 he was found not guilty by a 10–2 majority of [[indecent assault|indecently assaulting]] a fifteen-year-old girl after inviting her to his home in Perth for a bowling lesson in 1987,<ref>''Cricket Sport in brief'', [[The Guardian]], 1 December 1993</ref> including placing her hand on the clothing covering his penis.<ref>"Former Test cricketer on sex charge". ''The Age'' - 23/07/1992, page 5</ref> Lock admitted to kissing the girl in a "friendly" manner but denied any sexual intent and refuted her allegation that he recommended she bowl in the nude.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Daily Mirror|date=30 November 1993|page= 13|title=England cricket legend told me to bowl in nude}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Ex-England cricketer Tony Lock cleared of sex attack on girl|newspaper=Evening Standard|date=30 November 1993|page=7}}</ref>

The following day he was charged with four counts of indecent assault on a girl aged ten some time between  1980 and 1981.<ref>''Tony Lock faces new sex assault charges'', [[The Times]], 2 December 1993</ref> Lock asked for a permanent stay on the grounds he was dying of lung cancer with several doctors confirming he would be dead within two years. However the judge allowed the trial to go ahead.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Manchester Evening News|date=21 December 1994|page= 4|title=Uncle Tony goes on trial}}</ref> The jury deliberated for eight hours but was unable to come to a verdict.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=23 December 1994|page= 7|title=Jury split on Tony Lock charges}}</ref> Plans for retrial were eventually dropped due to Lock's ill health. He died from cancer in his adopted home town of [[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]] at the age of 65.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|date=31 March 1995|page= 45|title=A bowler with bite}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cricinfo|id=16331}}

{{Australian first-class cricket season leading wicket-takers (1950–51 to 1999–00)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lock, Tony}}
[[Category:English cricketers]]
[[Category:England Test cricketers]]
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