All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

208 Tony Lock equalled by J.C.White and exceeded only by W.G.Grace with 222. When Lock bowled Alan Dixon with the score 104 Stuart Surridge had hopes of a day off and claimed the extra half-hour. However, Derek Ufton and Fred Ridgway held on until the close which came with the score 128 for six and with Lock having taken all six for 54 in 26 overs (and twelve for 83 in 47 overs in the day). Ufton was Evans’ understudy behind the stumps, but was playing as a batsman. A fine footballer, he played centre half for Charlton Athletic and had been capped once by England. To bowl at the other end Surrey had a choice of Eric Bedser, a very capable off-spinning deputy for Jim Laker (who was resting a sore spinning finger), the great Alec Bedser, and fast bowler Peter Loader, who had taken nine for 28 in Kent’s first innings at Blackheath three years before (the previous best figures on the ground), and so Lock’s all-ten was not a foregone conclusion. Whatever happened, the match obviously wasn’t going to last much longer and the 100 or so spectators who turned up on Tuesday saw only 25 minutes cricket, although they at least had the compensation of seeing history made. Ufton (bowled by Lock for a duck in the first innings) added two to his overnight score and then, with Loader carefully bowling wide at the other end, Lock swept away the last four wickets without further score on a pitch that was even more difficult than the day before. Ridgway, the first to go, was caught by Micky Stewart, a future Charlton footballer, future Surrey captain, and future holder of the record for most career catches for the county. Having been involved in three all-tens as a player (Bestwick, Mitchell, Smailes) umpire Harry Elliott had now been involved in a fourth. Lock had become the first bowler to take 16 wickets in a match for Surrey. Martin Bicknell has since repeated the feat (at Guildford in 2000), but at a greater cost. Although the spectators stood and clapped Lock back into the pavilion, the lack of a decent crowd meant that the usual level of excitement associated with an all-ten was missing. Four years later at Guildford against a strong Oxford University batting side Lock would nearly do it again, taking the first nine second-innings wickets before Alec Bedser bowled the last man. As the last wicket partnership had put on 21, perhaps captain Bedser had decided enough was enough? Lock continued to take wickets in large numbers, in 1957 becoming the last bowler to take 200 in a season. And then at the end of the 1958/59 MCC Australasian tour he saw a slow motion film of his action. The throwing controversy was at its height and shocked by what he saw he knew he had to change, again. With his remodelled action he would become a left- arm spinner in the classical mould, using both spin and flight and able to perform successfully in all conditions. Lock’s last season with Surrey was 1963. Emigrating to Perth he played for Western Australia and, appointed captain in 1967/68, led them to the Sheffield Shield title for the first time since they began competing on equal terms with the other states. In nine seasons, before retiring after 1970/71, he took 316 wickets, a then-state record. And he was not yet finished with English cricket, returning to play for and captain Leicestershire for just over two seasons. His short stay was a great success: besides taking 272 wickets he led the county to third in the Championship in 1967, a position