Graham Anthony Richard Lock (5 July 1929 – 30 March 1995) was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in 49 Test matches for England taking 174 wickets.
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; 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 HDG Leveson Gower and made his 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. 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 against India in 1952, and two years later had an extraordinary summer of success against an admittedly poor New Zealand side, finishing with 34 wickets at an average of a mere 7.47 in the five-Test series.
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 indecently assaulting a fifteen-year-old girl after inviting her to his home in Perth for a bowling lesson in 1987, including placing her hand on the clothing covering his penis. 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.
The following day he was charged with four counts of indecent assault on a girl aged ten some time between 1980 and 1981. 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. The jury deliberated for eight hours but was unable to come to a verdict. Plans for retrial were eventually dropped due to Lock's ill health. He died from cancer in his adopted home town of Perth at the age of 65.