George Thoms

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

George Thoms Australia (AUS)

Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling type	-
	Tests	First-class
Matches	1	19
Runs scored	44	1137
Batting average	22.00	35.53
100s/50s	0/0	3/5
Top score	28	150
Balls bowled	0	32
Wickets	0	1
Bowling average	-	14.00
5 wickets in innings	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	0
Best bowling	-	1/8
Catches/stumpings	0/0	10/0
Test debut: 25 January 1952 Last Test: 25 January 1952 Source: [1]

George Ronald Thoms Order of Australia Medal (March 22, 1927 - August 29, 2003) was an Australian cricketer who played in one Test in 1952. He played 18 first-class matches for Victoria, one in 1946, and then more regularly from 1951-2 to 1953-54.

Born in Footscray, Victoria, Thoms attended Melbourne University, where he opened the batting with Colin McDonald. He also played first-class cricket for Victoria alongside McDonald, and they both made their Test debut in the 5th Test against West Indies at Sydney in January 1952, alongside fellow debutant Richie Benaud.[2] Uniquely, Thoms and McDonald opened the batting together for a Test team, state team, and club team in that season. A solid, rather than spectacular, batsman, he scored 16 and 28. Thoms was dismissed hit wicket in the second innings, treading on the stumps after pulling a Frank Worrell delivery for four.

Johnnie Moyes, preeminent cricket historian, wrote hyperbolically of this modest beginning: "He was a player of negative qualities, and one gained the impression that a competent leader could close him down to an occasional single for hours at a time, not the type of batsman for whom there could be any international future. It was no surprise that his first Test was also his last."^[1]

Thoms retired from representative cricket to concentrate on his medical career, fearful that a hand injury could end his ambitions as a surgeon. He is thought to be the only Test cricketer to have been a gynaecologist. He introduced laser surgery to Australia in 1970s and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1996.

He attended a reunion of 150 Australian Test cricketers in Sydney on 11 July 2003. He died a few weeks later, in Melbourne, Victoria.