19 February 1963: the English spinner Tony Lock completed his initial season with Western Australia. 2 May 1963: the former English Test all-rounder, Jack Crawford, died in a Surrey hospital.
"So what?" I can hear you say. Well, on closer examination, not only were these two cricketers the first Test players from England to appear in the Sheffield Shield competition, but their lives and careers share quite remarkable parallels.
The Surrey county club can boast many fine players in its history. Crawford and Lock rank high among them. Crawford's talent was obvious from an early age. He had such great success as a schoolboy cricketer that he was selected for Surrey at just 17 years of age. Two years later, he was playing the first of his 12 Tests as the youngest Englishman to do so and he was also a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1907. The world seemed to be at his feet. However, a dispute with his county led to his venture to Australia.
