English cricket team in the West Indies in 1910–11

The sixth team of English cricketers toured the West Indies in the 1910–11 season. For the first time the MCC organised the tour. The team was captained by AWF Somerset and played a total of 12 matches, of which 11 are regarded as first-class, between February and April 1911.

The team

A party of 11 was taken:

APFC Somerset was the son of AWF Somerset, who had toured the West Indies with Lord Brackley's team six years earlier. DCF Burton and DSG Burton were cousins.

AC Johnston, LHW Troughton and GJ Thompson all withdrew from the published side and only 11 players were eventually taken on the tour. The team was thought to be quite weak but performed better than expected. The three professionals (Young, Brown and Hearne) were all good players although Brown and Hearne were inexperienced at this time. Sydney Smith, although a native of Trinidad, was playing county cricket and Tom Whittington was a regular for Glamorgan in the Minor Counties Championship. An inevitable constraint was that, with only 11 players touring, there were occasions when local players had to be used to complete the team.

The tour

The team left England on the RMSP Clyde on 18 January 1911.

Matches played were:

8–9 February : v Barbados
10–11 February : v Barbados
15–17 February : v West Indies XI (in Barbados)
23–25 February : v British Guiana
27–28 February and 1 March : v West Indies (in British Guiana)
2–4 March : v West Indies XI (in British Guiana)
7–9 March : v Trinidad
10–12 March : v Trinidad
24–27 March : v Jamaica
28–29 March : v Jamaica
31 March and 1 April : v Port Antonio (in Jamaica) (not a first-class match)
3–5 April : v Jamaica

Of the 11 first-class matches, 3 were won, 4 lost, 3 drawn and 1 tied. The minor match was won. Unlike previous tours there were no matches in any of the smaller islands.

Starting in Barbados, the tourists lost the first two matches heavily but the match against a West Indies XI was won. The West Indies XI was without any Trinidad players because of quarantine restrictions.

In British Guiana the tourists won well with some good batting by Whittington and Holloway and they then beat the West Indian side. A second match against the West Indies was organised but when Archer was dropped the two other Barbados players refused to play.

The first match in Trinidad was played immediately after the tourists had got off the boat and they lost by an innings. The second match was closer although still won by Trinidad.

After the long trip to Jamaica the tourists played four matches there. Rain ruined the first two matches and after a win against Port Antonio the final match ended in a tie.

Sydney Smith was the leading player for the tourists being top of the bowling averages and second in the batting averages. Whittington and Holloway also batted well despite having only played one first class match between them before the tour started. Hearne was a success with the ball but Brown and Young were something of a disappointment. Despite being in his mid-50s the captain also turned out to be a useful bowler.

Averages

The following averages are in the 11 first class matches:

Batting

Player	P	I	NO	R	HS	Ave	100	50	C/S
TAL Whittington	11	20	2	678	154	37.66	2	2	8
SG Smith	11	21	3	547	81	30.38	–	5	7
L Heath	1	2	1	27	15	27.00	–	–	2
BH Holloway	10	17	0	416	100	24.47	1	2	9
ELGN Grell	1	2	0	42	25	21.00	–	–	1
DCF Burton	10	17	0	334	57	19.64	–	2	3
JW Hearne	11	21	2	344	56	18.10	–	2	13
AWF Somerset	11	17	5	214	60	17.83	–	1	10/2
G Brown	11	21	1	298	35	14.90	–	–	10/3
HPL Gaussen	10	18	0	260	77	14.44	–	1	–
CO Simpson	1	2	0	27	27	13.50	–	–	1
HI Young	11	19	2	225	73	13.23	–	1	5
DSG Burton	10	17	5	138	38*	11.50	–	–	2
GBM Liddlelow	1	2	0	18	13	9.00	–	–	–
APFC Somerset	11	19	5	120	33	8.57	–	–	6

Grell, Heath, Liddlelow and Simpson were local players.

Bowling

Player	O	M	R	W	BB	Ave	5i	10m
SG Smith	300.2	57	845	47	6–42	17.97	3	1
HI Young	204	41	517	25	5–61	20.68	1	–
JW Hearne	398.4	62	1450	67	7–68	21.64	6	2
APFC Somerset	144.3	16	558	24	5–62	23.25	1	–
G Brown	106	15	409	9	3–26	45.44	–	–

International cricket tours of the West Indies
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English cricket team in the West Indies in 1910–11

The team

The tour

Averages

Batting

Bowling

References

External sources

Annual reviews

Further reading