tour, the figure reduced by the boycotting of several matches by the 1884 Australians. In 1885 Shrewsbury topped the batting averages for the first time scoring 1130 runs at 56.50 with four centuries, including carrying his bat for 224 not out at Lord's. For the third season in a row Nottinghamshire were Champion County. The following season he once again carried his bat, this time against Gloucestershire defying W. G. Grace for 72 overs in scoring 227 not out. Although Shrewsbury's best innings of the season was to come against the touring Australians and the demon, Fred Spofforth. Shrewsbury warmed up for the Second Test (England won the First Test by 4 wickets) with another hundred against Grace in a Gentlemen v Players fixture. In the Second Test at Lord's Shrewsbury demonstrated his ability on sticky wickets against top bowling: against a side containing Spofforth, the finest bowler of the era, he finished the rain-interrupted first day unbeaten on 91, and carried this to 164 in easier conditions on the second day. The second highest score in the match was 58 by Billy Barnes, and Australia lost by an innings. England completed a whitewash with another innings victory at The Oval. Shrewsbury finished the season with 1404 runs as once again Nottinghamshire retained the title. Two Australian tours England toured Australia in 1886–87 with Shrewsbury once again captaining the team. In two low scoring Tests (no team innings totalled as many as 200) Shrewsbury contributed 46 runs as the tourists won the series 2–0. His best innings of the tour came for the Non-Smokers against the Smokers in Melbourne, where he scored 236 in a total of 803, then a first-class record, as was the third wicket partnership of 311 between Shrewsbury and Billy Gunn. The one-sided matches and the bad weather led to poor crowds, and the tour's organisers failed to make a profit. Nevertheless, Shrewsbury was already planning another tour the following year. 1887 proved to be Shrewsbury's best season, with 1653 runs at 78.71. His batting average was the highest so far achieved, narrowly beating W. G. Grace's record of 78.25 in 1871. Shrewsbury made consecutive scores of 119, 152, 81, 130 and 111, and finished the season with his highest first-class score of 267 against Middlesex. During the season Shrewsbury scored his 10,000th first-class run. In 1887–88 Shrewsbury made his final tour to Australia. It became