His batting, which had been not outstanding but valuable in an era of very low scoring, developed greatly the following year, in which Flowers became the first professional to do the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets.

Playing for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against Derbyshire, Flowers had the outstanding record of an innings of 131 and eleven wickets for eighty-seven runs.

He bettered this for the same club against Cambridge the following year, scoring 122 and taking fourteen wickets for 160 runs, and despite not doing quite so well with either bat or ball was still good enough to tour Australia with Alfred Shaw's teams in 1884–85.

Nor did his batting advance during a succession of wet summers, but in the dry season of 1893 Flowers reached a four-figure run aggregate for only the second time.

In the process he played an innings of 130 against the touring Australians including Charles Turner, George Giffen and Hugh Trumble, and was thus unsuccessfully picked for his last Test at Lord's, where he made 35 but was omitted in favour of Johnny Briggs who was bowling immensely better at county level.