Sam Loxton

Loxton was born on 29 March 1921 at Albert Park, Victoria, the son of Sam Sr. and Annie. Away from his sporting commitments at school, Loxton played district cricket for Prahran's third grade team when he was just 12. The young cricketer's parents were stalwarts of the club; Sam Sr. was the scorer and served as a transport man, driving the matting and equipment to matches, while Annie made cucumber sandwiches for 25 years and Loxton credited the latter as the biggest influence on his career, saying Loxton improved significantly in his third season with the Colts, scoring his first century and taking 21 wickets, having managed only seven scalps in the two previous summers. The recruit from Prahran played in only six matches in his first year, kicking 15 goals. St Kilda came second to last and did not make the finals. During World War II, Loxton served with the 2nd Armoured Division. The war ended Loxton and Miller's partnership at St Kilda. Miller was deployed to South Australia for training before becoming a fighter pilot in England, while his St Kilda colleague served in a reserve unit in Melbourne, The following year, Loxton played in all 18 matches and topped St Kilda's goal-kicking aggregates with 52. Loxton's efforts helped his club to finish ninth out of 12 teams, and he came second in the club Best and Fairest. He played a solitary match in 1945, which St Kilda lost, and went goal-less. ==First-class and Test debut==

An attacking right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler, Loxton spent much of his cricket career in the shadow of Miller, who played the same type of role. Upon Miller's death in 2004, he said "I was in Keith's shadow all my career... and it was a pretty big shadow." First-class cricket resumed in 1945–46 after the end of the war, but Loxton failed to gain state selection during the season. However, Loxton missed three matches after the eighth round and upon his return, struggled and managed only six goals in his last four matches for St Kilda. Recovering in time to bowl in the second innings, he took 2wickets for 40 runs (2/40) in an innings win. The all-rounder finished the season atop Victoria's batting averages, with 429 runs at a batting average of 143.00. He also headed the bowling averages with 8wickets at 14.00 runs apiece. The following season, Loxton's record was less spectacular despite playing in all but one of Victoria's matches. He hit 77 and 35 not out in the opening match of the summer against the Indian tourists, and was rewarded with selection in an Australian XI to play the visitors ahead of the Tests. In what was effectively a Test trial, the uncapped all-rounder failed to impress with the bat, making a duck and six. He bowled extensively, sending down 47 overs and taking a total of 4/113 as the Australians fell to a defeat. Despite this, the Australian captain Don Bradman had been impressed by what he saw of Loxton at domestic level, and the Victorian all-rounder was chosen for the Fifth and final Test against India. With the series already convincingly won 3–0, Australia decided to rest several players in order to trial up and coming cricketers ahead of the 1948 tour of England. Len Johnson, Loxton and fellow Victorian Ring were thus given their Test debuts. Australia batted first and Loxton came in to bat in front of a supportive home crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Test debut performance won Loxton a place on the Invincibles tour to England in 1948. He reflected that "It's not the fellow who gets the opportunity it's the fellow who puts his hands around it and grabs it. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time." After his position in the touring party was confirmed, he continued his late-season resurgence, scoring two fifties for the Australians in two matches against Tasmania before they departed for England. ==Invincibles tour==

with his first century in a Test against England Loxton started his English campaign slowly. Australia typically selected their strongest team for the tour opener against Worcestershire, and the all-rounder was omitted as the visitors won by an innings. before opening the bowling in both innings and taking a total of 1/23 in an innings victory. His attempts to break into the first-choice team were hampered by a groin strain he suffered in the third match against Yorkshire when he was striving for extra pace in his only over in the first innings. As a result, he played no further part in the match. One man down, Australia came closest to losing for the whole tour. They fell to 6/31 in pursuit of 60—effectively seven down with Loxton unable to bat—before scraping home without further loss after Yorkshire dropped both batsmen. The injured all-rounder missed two matches to recuperate before reappearing in mid-May, hitting 120 as the Australians posted a total of 721 against Essex in a single day at Southend, still the highest single day's total in first-class cricket. He put on 166 in 65 minutes with Ron Saggers, who, with Bill Brown and Donald Bradman, also scored centuries. Loxton's rapid innings was noted for its hooking and driving and took around 80 minutes. He followed up with an unbeaten 79 and two wickets in the match against Oxford University, but that failed to win him a place in the first set-piece battle of the summer, against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's. The MCC fielded seven players who would represent England in the Tests, and were basically a full-strength Test outfit, while Australia fielded their strongest XI, so the fixture was effectively a dress rehearsal for the Tests. Bradman opted to play Brown out of the position in the middle-order, and Loxton missed out; Australia went on to win by an innings. The Australian team's batting depth did not help Loxton's cause; in the final pre-Test match against Sussex, a match won by an innings and 325 runs, he was slated to bat at No. 9, but Australia's earlier batsmen were largely untroubled so Bradman declared at 5/549. The all-rounder's 3/13 in the first innings had the effect of removing him from the bowling line-up for the rest of the match, as Doug Ring, Ernie Toshack, Ron Hamence and Ian Johnson helped Ray Lindwall to bowl the touring team to an easy victory. Loxton had limited opportunities as those ahead of him tended to finish off the opposition before his turn, and did not score heavily enough when he had a chance, so he was overlooked for the First Test at Trent Bridge. Bradman again opted to use Brown out of position in the middle-order as Australia took an eight-wicket win. and Australia fielded an unchanged team for the Second Test at Lord's and completed another victory. He also took a total 3/90 for the match, bowling 43 overs as Bradman allowed his main bowlers to recuperate after the previous Test. In the following match against Gloucestershire he contributed an unbeaten 159 including four sixes, as Australia made their highest score for the summer, 7/774 declared. The all-rounder's innings involved a series of powerful strokes and he was particularly noted for using his feet to charge and attack the off spin of Tom Goddard. The Gloucestershire bowler had been touted as a possible Test selection, because the other England bowlers had failed to contain Australia's batsman in the first two matches, but his chances of selection were ended by the tourists' assault at Bristol. These performances won Loxton selection for the Third Test, played at Old Trafford, where he replaced Brown, In the first innings, he ran out Alec Bedser, ending a 121-run partnership between Bedser and Denis Compton. and he retained his place in the side for the Fourth Test at Leeds. Loxton was not involved in the second inning effort in which the Australians scored 3/404 on the final day, a world record for a successful Test run-chase, but he had taken three of the last four wickets in England's first innings of 496 and scored a hard-hitting 93 in the first innings, putting on 105 in 95 minutes with Harvey. Their counterattacking partnership helped Australia to halt the English momentum after an early collapse; the score was still 4/189 when Loxton came in to bat. He was particularly severe on Jim Laker, lifting his off breaks into the crowd for four of his five sixes, mostly from lofted drives. With a maiden Test century beckoning, the Victorian swung wildly at a Norman Yardley ball and was bowled. In the dressing room, Sir Robert Menzies, a Prime Minister of Australia well known as a cricket-lover, upbraided him, saying "That was a pretty stupid thing to do. You could have made a century", to which the fallen batsman retorted, "Haven't you made a few mistakes in your time, too?" The Victorian all-rounder was not prominent in his four matches after the Tests, totaling only 112 runs and five wickets. His most successful returns were four wickets for the match in an innings victory over Kent, and a quickfire 67 not out in 75 minutes against the South of England. In the final match of the England leg of the tour—there were two matches in Scotland afterwards thus forcing him to miss the final two matches in Scotland. ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' summed up his contribution thus: ==Heading for South Africa==

There were no Tests during the 1948–49 season in Australia, with only domestic matches scheduled. Loxton played regularly for Victoria, scoring 500 runs in the Sheffield Shield, compiling 135 against South Australia and 84 against Queensland. The Victorian all-rounder ended the season with 634 runs at 42.26 and 16 wickets at 24.31 and was selected for the South African tour under the leadership of the newly appointed captain Lindsay Hassett. Like the Invincibles tour, the 1949–50 Test series in South Africa was another triumph for the Australians. They won four of the five Tests and were undefeated in 21 first-class matches. Hassett's men went on to win the match by an innings. He also took a wicket. During the first innings, Hassett changed his batting order so that his better batsmen were low down in the order so that they could bat in better conditions as the pitch stabilised. Loxton batted at No. 10 and Harvey at No. 9, but the Australians collapsed before the pitch had changed measurably. Not enforcing the follow-on, the South Africans batted again and were themselves bowled out for 99, losing their last seven wickets for 14 runs. This left Australia to chase 336 runs for victory, highly unlikely as the last 28 wickets had fallen for only 245. The Fourth Test of the series was a high-scoring draw, Loxton making six in his only innings. His 43 in the final Test of the series was overshadowed by centuries for three of his teammates, in an innings win that sealed the series 4–0. ==Final Tests==

Loxton had an unproductive time during the 1950–51 Australian season. He lost his Test place after three matches, and in Sheffield Shield games his highest score for the season was just 62. In the first match of the season, he made four for Victoria against Freddie Brown's touring team, England fell to 6/30 at stumps in pursuit of 193. Twenty wickets had fallen in four hours, while only 102 runs had been scored. Australia eventually won the match by 71 runs. In the Second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, his last at his home ground, Loxton's 32 formed part of a stand of 84 with Hassett, the highest partnership in a closely fought, low-scoring game in which no team passed 200. He again failed in the second innings, scoring two as Australia scraped home by 28 runs. After contributing 17 in a total of 426 in the Third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which Australia won by an innings to take an unassailable 3–0 series lead, he was dropped in favour of Jim Burke, who scored a century on debut. The Victorian never played Test cricket again. Loxton returned to play for Victoria, and although he struggled for runs, managing only three fifties for the season, wickets came regularly. He took match totals of 4/55 and 3/24 against Queensland, 4/55 against South Australia and 2/23 against Western Australia; Victoria won all four matches, and claimed the Sheffield Shield. Playing in seven of the eight matches, he scored 309 runs at 30.90 and taking 16 wickets at 12.56. ==Later cricket==

Although his Test career had finished, Loxton continued to play for his state. He had another disappointing season with the bat in 1951–52, scoring only 322 runs at 24.76 in nine matches. After winning the opening match of the season against Western Australia, he did not taste victory again until the final fixture of the summer against South Australia, in which he scored 71—his only fifty of the season—and took a total of 4/37 in an innings victory. After returning to Australia, Loxton had a torrid time with the bat in the 1954–55 season, scoring only 126 runs at 14.00 and failing to pass 30 in his six matches. Loxton continued to play for Prahran until 1962–63, and he topped the batting and bowling averages for the club on five and six occasions respectively. and was named the captain of Prahran's honorary Team of the Century. == Style ==

An aggressive right-handed all-rounder, Loxton tended to bat in the middle-order, and bowled after the new ball pacemen. As well as being a belligerent batsman, he was a right-arm fast-medium swing bowler known for his ability to move the ball, and a powerful outfielder. He had a strong arm and exploited his power frequently, to the extent that the Australian wicket-keeper Don Tallon complained about the jarring impact of his unnecessarily strong throws when the batsmen were already home and no run out was possible. Loxton was known for his energetic and aggressive approach to cricket, and liked to attack and intimidate opposition batsmen. In one match in the late-1950s, he bowled an eight-ball over at New South Welshman Norm O'Neill consisting entirely of bouncers aimed at the upper body. As a footballer, Loxton usually played as a forward, but was also used as a full-back and alternated between the two positions. He was known for his physical strength; another VFL player who had a reputation as an "enforcer" tried to bump him and later said that the collision made him feel as though he had run into a goalpost. According to Robert Coleman, Loxton was "competitive, pugnacious and outspoken, with a doglike loyalty to everyone and everything he served, whether it was his captain, his team, his party, his premier or his constituents." ==Manager in 1959–60==

Loxton was the manager of the 1959–60 Australian team that toured Pakistan and India. By this time, only two colleagues from the 1948 Invincibles tour—Harvey and Ray Lindwall—remained. The Victorian was the first manager since World War II to not also be a member of the Australian Board of Control. It was widely believed that the high-ranking administrators saw the Indian subcontinent as an unenviable appointment; on past tours, many players had fallen seriously ill, suffered food poisoning, and found the oppressive heat and third world living conditions hard to bear. Some players were reluctant to tour and wanted to opt out. despite taking Dr. Ian McDonald—a former Victorian first-class cricketer—with the travelling party. Gordon Rorke, Lindsay Kline and Gavin Stevens all contracted hepatitis; the former two were sent home, while the latter was too ill to fly back to Australia until the end of the tour. Harvey said that Stevens—who never played first-class cricket again after his illness—"could've been the first man to die on tour". Due to the bevy of unfit players, Loxton was forced to line up in one game, He scored 33 and bowled six overs without taking a wicket in a high-scoring draw. Despite previous assurances to prepare turf pitches, the locals made a matting surface for the First Test. During the Second Test, when asked by General Ayub Khan—head of the ruling military junta—why Pakistan had not been invited to Australia, Loxton exploited the opportunity to complain about the wickets. When the tourists were greeted by another matting track in the Third Test, Ayub threatened to shoot the groundsmen if they prepared any more non-turf surfaces. The financial issue reared its head before the Second Test against India in Kanpur, when Loxton belligerently refused to start the match after the payment had failed to arrive on time. An Indian official asked the Australian manager to not "spoil a beautiful friendship over money", to which the Australian manager replied "Try me. I want it please...You know the rules." The match proceeded after the cheque was delivered, and India inflicted Australia's only defeat for the tour and their first Test win over the visitors. Another mishap occurred during the Fifth Test at Eden Gardens in Calcutta; the Australians left their hotel and took to the field with ten men, having failed to notice that Ian Meckiff had overslept and been left behind by the team bus. During the First Test against Pakistan in Dacca, one of the umpires took off his shoes and put them on the ground while play was in progress. Loxton took a photo of the scene and lodged it to cricket authorities, asking them to make a ruling on whether a batsman would be out if the ball struck the umpire's loose shoes and bounced up into a fielder's hands. However, he never received a reply. == Political career ==

Loxton joined the Armadale branch of the Liberal Party in 1950. Henry Bolte, the Liberal leader in Victoria, was the state opposition leader at the time, and encouraged him to enter politics. The Liberals were not optimistic about their chances, and Bolte told his candidate "You won't win [the seat], but we'd like you to fly the flag". The cricketer refused to think that his candidacy was simply there to make up the numbers, and he told Bolte as much. The start of the election campaign coincided with the 1954–55 grade cricket finals. Loxton took 7wickets and scored 129 runs to help Prahran claim the title for the first time in 32 years, and was hailed as a local hero. In a close-run contest, the cricketer defeated the sitting ALP member Bob Pettiona by only 14 votes on the two party preferred count. Loxton polled 35.70% of the first preferences, well behind Pettiona's 47.25%, but received almost all of the DLP's 13.66% of the vote as preferences to end with 50.04%. The result helped bring Bolte's Liberals to power, and they stayed in office until 1982, by which time Loxton had retired. At the time of his election, he was the youngest member of parliament, and was given the honour of making the Address-in-Reply, the first speech after opening of the new sitting by the governor, using it to advocate increased lending from the government-owned banks to promote higher levels of home ownership. At the 1958 election, Loxton consolidated his hold on the seat, leading on first preferences (43.67%), and ending with 54.85% of the two party preferred vote to halt Pettiona's attempted comeback. During the election campaign in 1961, a campaign meeting in Prahran that was attended by Premier Bolte and Loxton drew several hundred people and descended into chaos; heckling and some scuffles broke out. At this election, the Liberals' primary vote fell to 41.69% behind the Labor Party's candidate George Gahan 45.29%, and he had to rely on DLP preferences to retain the seat with a reduced two party preferred vote of 52.71%. The Liberals may have been hindered by a how-to-vote card circulated on election day by a third party that had a pro-Liberal headline, but instructed the reader to mark the ALP candidate as their first preference. Loxton managed to secure a court injunction—believed to be the first of its kind in Victoria—prohibiting further distribution of the material, but not before hundreds of misleading instructions had been disseminated. ending with a fairly safe 57.72% after the distribution of preferences. In 1967, the retired cricketer repelled a political challenge by Jack Dyer, an iconic former footballer of the Richmond Tigers famed as one of the toughest players in history, As he continued to play first-class cricket for three years after his election to parliament, he was a busy man, and teammates described him as a hard-working representative, recalling that he often brought his political paperwork to the ground with him, going through the material while waiting in the dressing room for his turn to bat. as well as his "sporting charisma". == Cricket administration ==

Loxton continued to involve himself in cricket administration after his retirement as a player. He was a Victorian selector from 1957 to 1980–81 and the Prahran delegate to the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA) from 1955–56 to 1979–80. Loxton was Prahran's vice president and was involved in coaching and selecting teams, and his service to the club was honoured with life membership. In his absence, the campaign hit rocky waters. Although Australia won 3–1, the players became disgruntled with the arrangements made by the administrators, while rancorous incidents leading to crowd riots were frequent. He was a Test selector for the Australian team from 1970 to 1981, filling the vacancy left by the retirement of former Test captain Ryder. Loxton's tenure on the selection panel coincided with a period of great upheaval in Australian cricket, on and off the field. Up until 1965, Australia had never lost a Test series to any country other than England, During the 1970–71 home series against England, which Australia lost 2–1, the trio made a raft of changes, handing debuts to nine players, the largest number in a season since 1945–46 when competition resumed after World War II. However, the season ended acrimoniously when captain Bill Lawry was sacked before the final Test without being informed of his fate; he learned of his omission only second hand. In 1977, Loxton helped to select David Hookes to make his debut in the Centenary Test, after receiving a recommendation from Bradman, who had retired from the panel. Hookes famously struck five consecutive fours in one Tony Greig over in an Australian win. The later period of Loxton's tenure was thrown into chaos when most of the leading players abandoned the existing establishment to sign contracts with the breakaway World Series Cricket—which offered substantially more remuneration—meaning that an almost-entirely new team had to be cobbled together; the 42-year-old Bob Simpson was brought out of a decade of retirement to lead the outfit. During this time, Australia's depleted team suffered many heavy defeats. In February 1981, matters came to a head. Loxton, who was watching a one-day international between Australia and New Zealand at the MCG in his role as a selector, broke down and wept after Australian captain Greg Chappell infamously ordered his younger brother Trevor to exploit a loophole and bowl underarm to eliminate the chance of a defeat. Loxton saw the Australian skipper's action as a "betrayal" of cricket. He turned to a fellow official and remarked "The game's gone! Money has become the god and winning is everything." At a VCA meeting in April 1981, Loxton announced that he was severing all connections with organised cricket. He initially said that he was resigning for family reasons, as he would be moving to the Gold Coast in Queensland with his wife. However, he proceeded to give a blunt 15-minute speech, claiming that he had lost the art of communicating with the players and expressing his disenchantment with some aspects of the game, a reference to the declining player conduct. After relocating to the Gold Coast, he was unable to turn his back on cricket, and umpired matches at local level into his 70s. Although he became severely visually impaired, Loxton still attended matches and asked his companions to describe the proceedings for him; ever opinionated and blunt, he still offered advice to local cricketers. == Other work and personal life ==

Prior to entering politics, Loxton worked as a bank teller. In 1956, television began in Australia, and he participated in the nation's first generation of sports telecasting. Loxton was a commentator on GTV-9 for the Melbourne Summer Olympics held in late 1956, and his co-commentators included American track and field icon Jesse Owens. Loxton married three times. He divorced his first wife Hilda in February 1952 after a nine-year union that produced no children. and the pair had two sons. Loxton later divorced Bond and wed his third wife Joan Shiels. In later life he lived alone and was still mobile despite being almost blind. ==Test match performance==

of the last 10 innings.|alt=In three of the first five bars (innings), Loxton exceeded 80, but the next six bars are lower with only two greater than 40, and two less than 20. Of the last four bars, only one is above 20 and two are less than ten. The blue line slopes downwards. ==Notes==