A reminder of a long forgotten journey

Martin Chandler | 9:25am BST 22 September 2024

The first tour of England by a West Indian side took place in the summer of 1900. The tour lasted from early June, the first day’s competitive cricket was at Crystal Palace against WG Grace’s London County side, and ended two months later. , the final match is a two-dayer against Norfolk.

The visitors played a total of 17 matches, over two or three days. No First Class, but the West Indians still faced stiff opposition.

Arrangements for the tour were made by a private club, the West Indian Club, which at the time operated at the Howard Hotel on Norfolk Street in London. One of the things the group said, when it was formed in 1898, was to pay for planning services in connection with the West Indies and British Guiana, the annual cricket matches and other related entertainments recognized by our English Universities and public schools.

The next story of the West Indian club will no doubt be interesting but, for now, all I know is that it closed in the 1970s. If, and I don’t know anyway, it never left the Howard Hotel then its death may have been caused by the closing of the hotel due to the demolition of Norfolk Street.

The visiting party was led by Aucher Warner, the older (14 years) brother of ‘Plum’. There were 15 players, all of whom were novices. Ten of the party were white and only five were black. The black players were two professionals, Tommie Burton and ‘Float’ Woods, as well as Fitz Hines and two well-known names, Lebrun Constantine (Learie’s father) and Charles Olliviere (who stayed behind on the tour and qualified to play for Derbyshire).

The opening match proved to be a different affair as London County proved too strong for the visitors, eventually running out winners by an innings and 198 runs. The next three games, against Worcestershire, Warwickshire and the Gentlemen of the MCC were defeats again, before victory was finally achieved by the Minor Counties XI.

Gloucestershire then handed us another tough defeat earlier, thanks in large part to a century from the visitors’ ‘Plum’ wicket, the West Indians defeated Leicestershire. The low point of the tour, an innings defeat to Minor County Wiltshire was yet to come, but generally the West Indians , no doubt in part due to the increasing familiarity with the English conditions, became more competitive as the tour progressed. The performance came at the Oval where they suffered an innings defeat to Surrey. The home side were not at full strength, but it was an important win nonetheless.

At the end of the trip the West Indians had won five times, drawn four and lost eight and this trip was considered a success. The two leading batsmen were Ollivierre and Constantine, and the two professional bowlers, Woods and Burton, were the most successful bowlers by distance, in terms of both averages and wickets taken.

The lack of any First Class programs makes this tour, despite its extensive importance, very small and no publisher has approached it. There is, however, one modern reminder of the expedition, a well-produced 50-page booklet published by the West Indian Club. Not surprisingly, this booklet is rare and copies rarely appear on the market. An interesting period piece.

The booklet begins with an overview of ‘Plum”s tour summarizing the background of Anglo-West Indian cricket before going on to describe the progress of the tour, and then ruling on the playing records of the West Indians.

Humility prevents ‘Plum’ from talking about his contribution against Leicestershire, but his observations can sometimes be very sharp. For Woods he realized that the pace bowler was occasionally up to his West Indian best, but at other times he seemed easily discouraged. For those who hit one frequency is to comment that at the beginning of the journey they were both alone, and as a group, the worst judges I have ever seen.

After the report there is a summary of the results followed by the important business of the scorecard of each game and the ratings of the tour. That takes the book into its own element, and there’s an interesting narrative to follow.

First there are a few reprints from The platforma magazine that talks about rural issues and sports that is still published today. Both are positive in their response to the West Indian visit.

However, the largest part of the booklet, 23 pages, is devoted to the verbatim speech and toasts given. A feast for the guests given by the West Indian Club. There’s even a playlist although, perhaps disappointingly, there’s no menu to let us know what the guests are eating.

However, we do know who was in attendance, as there is a list of 57 names who were present, the evening led by one of England’s cricket stars, Lord Harris. West Indian players were there, including Hinds and Ollivierre. Sadly it seems that Woods and Burton, perhaps because of their status as professionals, were absent, but there is no explanation for Constantine’s absence – I like to think that there was a principled objection involved.

And that’s because it’s one of the rarest things in my collection, but it wasn’t really the last word on the 1900 trip since, more than twenty years later, a book was published in Trinidad about the trip, and the two subsequent West Indian trips to England. Written by local journalist Lloyd Sydney Smith I really must read it.