(1898– ).

Cricketer.

A new biography of Lowry, Thomas Coleman appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

p>Thomas Coleman Lowry was born in Wellington on 17 February 1898 and educated at Christ's College, Christchurch, and Cambridge University (1919–23), where he gained a cricket blue. He captained the University team in 1924, playing against the M.C.C. with distinction. During this period he played for Somerset and was in the M.C.C. team which toured Australia and New Zealand in 1922. Lowry's batting record for M.C.C. on the New Zealand part of this tour was: for 11 innings, 355 runs aggregate (highest score, 130 – made at the Basin Reserve, Wellington), showing an average of 32·27. Returning to New Zealand in 1926, he was quickly to the fore in the Hawke's Bay and Wellington Plunket Shield teams and was selected to captain the New Zealand team which toured England in 1927. He was captain and manager during the 1931 New Zealand tour of England and manager of the 1937 team. Lowry's record on the 1927 tour, in 37 innings, was: not out, four times; highest score, 106; aggregate runs, 1,277 (including four centuries), giving an average of 38·69.

His bowling record, in 173·2 overs, was: 30 maidens; 15 wickets for 450 runs, giving an average of 30·0. On the 1931 tour his batting record in 44 innings was: not out, three times; highest score, 129; aggregate runs, 1,290 (including two centuries), showing an average of 31·46. His bowling, 103 overs, including 26 maidens, was 15 wickets for 274 runs, giving an average of 18·6. During the 1937 tour Lowry played 18 innings on occasions when other team members were ill. He was not out three times, made a highest score of 121, an aggregate of 409 runs, and had a batting average of 27·26. In all he made 114 appearances for New Zealand, of which 74 were overseas. His batting record in New Zealand first-class cricket was: aggregate runs, 5,557 (including 13 centuries), of which 3,276 were made overseas. In the 1927–28 season he played 13 innings, and made 563 runs (highest score, 181), with an average of 46·91. He holds partnership records for New Zealand for the seventh wicket (100 with H. M. McGirr at Auckland, 1929–30) and for the ninth (63 with C. F. W. Allcott at Lord's, 1931). He also achieved a double-century partnership for the fourth wicket with F. T. Badcock in the Wellington v. Auckland match at Wellington in 1931.

(NOTE—The seventh wicket record partnership set by Lowry and McGirr in 1929–30 was broken by B. Sutcliffe and V. T. Pollard in May 1965. Ed.)