John Lomas (cricketer)

John Millington Lomas (12 December 1917 – 4 December 1945) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Oxford University in 1938 and 1939.

John Lomas
Personal information
Full name
John Millington Lomas
Born(1917-12-12)12 December 1917
Ashtead, Surrey, England
Died4 December 1945(1945-12-04) (aged 27)
Pimlico, London, England
BattingRight-handed
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1938 to 1939Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 23
Runs scored 1460
Batting average 34.76
100s/50s 2/10
Top score 138
Balls bowled –
Wickets –
Bowling average –
5 wickets in innings –
10 wickets in match –
Best bowling –
Catches/stumpings 10/0
Source: Cricinfo, 31 August 2019

Life and career

Lomas was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer at Charterhouse School. He captained the school team in 1936, leading them through the season unbeaten against other schools and inflicting Eton's first loss to another school since 1920.[1] He was awarded a scholarship to Oxford University, where he won Blues for both cricket and football, and was secretary of both clubs.[2]

An opening batsman and fine fieldsman, Lomas had an outstanding first season with Oxford in 1938, scoring 908 runs at an average of 45.40.[3][1] Troubled by ill-health in 1939 he was less successful, but nevertheless made his highest score of 138 against a strong MCC side at Lord's.[4][5]

When the Second World War began Lomas enlisted in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, but was invalided out in 1940 owing to illness.[2] For a time he worked at the Admiralty, but his health again failed him and he returned to his studies at Oxford.[5] He completed his law degree in 1945 and was made a fellow of New College, Oxford. However, with his final bar exams approaching, Lomas gassed himself in December 1945.[2] The cricket writer R. C. Robertson-Glasgow, an admirer of Lomas's batting, observed that "the current of his thought and ambitions ran deep out of the sight of common day and common intercourse".[2]

He was a close friend of the mathematician G. H. Hardy, a cricket lover, who dedicated A Mathematician's Apology to Lomas with an inscription explaining that Lomas had asked him to write the work.[6]

References
  1. "Obituaries", Wisden, 1946.
  2. Silence of the Heart, David Frith, Random House, London, 2011.
  3. "First-class Batting and Fielding in Each Season by John Lomas". CricketArchive. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  4. "MCC v Oxford University 1939". Cricinfo. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  5. R. L. Arrowsmith, "J. M. Lomas", The Cricketer, Spring Annual 1946, pp. 75–76.
  6. Robert Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Washington Square Press, New York, 1991, p. 126.
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