Politics, Selection and Mistaken Identity: The Life of Errol Hunte

Errol Hunte in Australia in 1930 (Image: National Library of Australia)

Early West Indian Test cricketers are poorly served by historians; many are little more than a name on a scorecard. Such a fate is perhaps inevitable for almost anyone who played so long ago unless they were from England or Australia, but even so there are many cases from the Caribbean in the period before the Second World War. One of the more extreme is the Trinidadian wicket-keeper Errol Hunte. He played three Tests in 1930 and toured Australia in 1930–31, but his Wisden obituary was just a few bland lines. To measure it in a different way, his Wikipedia article is one sentence at the time of writing. His biggest claim to notability was that for many years, Wisden confused him with another player and split his Test appearances with the unrelated R. L. Hunte of British Guiana, a simple case of mis-transcribing “Errol” as “R. L.”, an error uncorrected until 1967. Gideon Haigh wrote about this mistake for ESPNcricinfo in 2006, but even he had little to say about the player himself. Perhaps it is time to redress the balance a little.

Errol Ashton Clairmonte Hunte was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on 3 October 1905. Almost nothing is known about his early life except that in the 1920s he played for Maple Cricket Club in Trinidad. In Beyond a Boundary (1963), C. L. R. James — who also played for Maple — C. L. R. James described it as the club of “the brown-skinned middle class”, which might give some clues about Hunte’s background. Hunte’s first appearance in the record books came when he played for North Trinidad against South Trinidad in 1925; two years later, he played for the North against the South once again, this time in the Beaumont Cup, when one of his team-mates was C. L. R. James, and then again in 1928. He did not distinguish himself with the bat in any of these matches, although he was playing alongside some of the biggest names in West Indian cricket (there is no indication of whether he kept wicket in these games, but it is most likely that he did). In May that year, when some of those names were taking part in a very undistinguished tour of England that incorporated the first Test matches played by the West Indies, Hunte and his fellow Trinidadians Edwin St Hill and Ben Sealey visited New York as part of a West Indian cricket team. The sailing record provides some of the only information we have about Hunte: that he was a teacher; that he was unmarried and lived with his father, T. W. Hunte, in Belmont; and that he was 5 feet 11 inches tall.

The following January, Hunte made his first-class debut for Trinidad, playing as the wicket-keeper against Barbados and British Guiana as his team easily won the Intercolonial Tournament at home. But Hunte’s highest score in three innings was 26, and his selection reflected the somewhat confused nature of Trinidad’s team in this period following the mysterious withdrawal of the team’s regular wicket-keeper George Dewhurst from first-class cricket. Hunte was one of several wicket-keepers tried in this period. If his batting made no impact, he must have impressed to some extent with the wicket-keeping gloves. He retained his place when the team defended their title later in the year in British Guiana (playing once more for North Trinidad in the meantime) but again achieved little of note (batting at number ten in both innings, having appeared in the middle order in his first two matches).

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The West Indies team for the first Test in 1930.  Back row: (Unknown), (Unknown), Edwin St Hill, Clifford Roach, Frank De Caires, Leslie Walcott, Errol Hunte, (Unknown). Front row: James Neblett, George Headley, Learie Constantine, Teddy Hoad (captain), Cyril Browne, Derek Sealey, Herman Griffith.

But either his wicket-keeping shone, or he had batting success in local Trinidad cricket because not only did the Trinidad selectors stick with him, he was chosen as the wicket-keeper for the West Indies in the opening Test match for England’s tour in 1930. Nor did his selection owe anything to regional politics because his debut was in Barbados, meaning that the Barbados selectors must have judged him to be the best wicket-keeper. In a drawn game, he batted at number eleven and scored 10 not out and 1. However, a gossipy article a few weeks later in Trinidad’s Sporting Chronicle suggested that he had not impressed the cricket authorities in Barbados, an opinion echoed in The Cricketer’s review of the tour published in England.

When the series moved to Trinidad, Hunte became (presumably inadvertently) caught up in a mysterious controversy involving the former Trinidad captain and wicket-keeper George Dewhurst, who had withdrawn from the West Indies team that toured England in 1928 over selection issues and not played for the island since. However, with the visit of the English team, there were moves afoot not only for Dewhurst to return to the Trinidad team, but also to captain the West Indies for the Trinidad Test. As was normal practice, the MCC team played two matches against Trinidad before the Test match. In the first, the home team were captained by Nelson Betancourt, a 42-year-old who had played intermittently for Trinidad since 1905 and had a very undistinguished playing record. The wicket-keeper for this match was Hunte, who batted at number eleven in the first innings, scoring 12 not out, and 20 not out (when he cannot have batted last, but his position is not known) in the second as Trinidad won by 102 runs. For the second game against the MCC, Hunte was replaced by Dewhurst, who also captained the team in what was regarded by some elements of the press as a trial to see who should captain the Test team. Several newspapers predicted that he would be named as captain, but when the team was announced, Betancourt was captain and Hunte had been retained as wicket-keeper.

Given his lack of batting form, it is remarkable that Hunte was asked to open he batting alongside Clifford Roach, and even more remarkable that he scored 58, his maiden first-class fifty. His half century came in 102 balls with eight fours, and he shared a second-wicket stand of 89 with Wilton St Hill (after Roach was dismissed without a run scored). Wisden noted that he and St Hill “played steadily”. He scored 30 in the second innings, sharing an opening partnership of 57 with St Hill. West Indies lost that game but Hunte, having impressed in the role and with his batting, was retained as wicket-keeper when the teams travelled to British Guiana. He once again opened the batting and this time shared an opening partnership of 144 with Roach; he scored a dogged 53, reaching his half century from 195 deliveries. Nevertheless, he had a great deal of luck; Wisden observed: “MCC’s [England’s] fielding was badly at fault when West Indies opened their first innings with a stand of 144, Hunte being missed four times.” Hunte was first out, and Roach went on to a double century. Hunte scored 14 in the second innings and West Indies won by 289 runs.

Hunte did not retain his place for the final Test, played in Jamaica, making way for the local wicket-keeper Ivan Barrow. But he had impressed some critics. The review of the tour in The Cricketer stated of Hunte: “An ungainly wicket-keeper, but active and effective. Kept very moderately in Barbados, but very well in Trinidad. Proved himself a most useful opening batsman, having a very stubborn defence. He can also hit the ball hard. Ugly and ungainly in this department too.” In Trinidad, the Sporting Chronicle viewed him as an “able” keeper who showed “high promise” with the bat. But Wisden became very confused; Hunte was listed in the averages as two separate people. His debut was listed as a cricketer called “E. Hunte” but the other two appearances were attributed to “R. L. Hunte”, and this mistake was perpetuated in later editions of the almanack, which recorded one Test appearance by E. Hunte and two by R. L. Hunte. The reasons are not hard to find: Wisden seemingly had no correspondent on hand and, compared to The Cricketer, displayed patch knowledge of West Indian cricket. As there was a cricketer in the Caribbean called R. L. Hunte (Ronald Hunte, who had a twenty-year career with British Guiana), the confusion of the initials with the name “Errol” is understandable but inexcusable in a publication concerned with statistical accuracy. The mistake was not corrected until the 1967 edition of Wisden.

Left to right: George Headley, Derek Sealy and Errol Hunte in Australia in November 1930 (Image: National Library of Australia)

Given his success with bat and gloves, it was inevitable that Hunte would be selected for a tour of Australia in 1930–31. He and Barrow were the main wicket-keepers (although Derek Sealy kept wicket later in his career and could have filled in), but the suspicion was that Hunte was chosen as much for his batting as wicket-keeping; for example, the Daily Gleaner in Jamaica suggested: “Anyhow Hunte as a good opening batsmen may be played more in that capacity than for his keeping qualities.” If so, he was picked based on a very limited record. Furthermore, there were some doubts about his health going into the tour; the Gleaner reported that he had been “a trifle seedy”. Yet he must have recovered because in later years, the doctor responsible for the health of the team on tour told Andy Ganteaume that Hunte was “the finest specimen of a man” he had seen.

The Australian press showed considerable interest in the team, particularly the black players. A tour preview in the Adelaide Advertiser, written by Thomas D. Lord of Trinidad, gave a brief summary of Hunte’s career and described him as an excellent wicket-keeper and worthy successor to Dewhurst. It also stated of his batting: “He is endowed with great patience and concentrates on a sound defence but when once he sees the ball well, he hits hard.” Another oddity about Hunte’s tour was that he was advertised in Sydney’s Daily Pictorial as an aspiring author: “Hunte has a remarkable flair for literature, and he has written a vivid human drama specially for the “Sunday Pictorial.” The story duly appeared on 30 November, called “The Soul’s Awakening”

Whatever the literary merits of the story, Hunte’s tour on the field was undistinguished. His highest score in five first-class matches was 29 and although he was given several chances to establish himself, Barrow was the favoured wicket-keeper throughout the tour and played all five Test matches. The Cricketer review of the tour noted that “wicketkeeping [was] a weak-point for some time with the West Indies” and that Barrow had been played in the Tests. However, during the tour an article in the Trinidad Sporting Chronicle suggested that Hunte had been left out following an incident in a match against Queensland. According to the article, Hunte “with great show and confidence appealed for a catch” at the wicket when Victor Goodwin was batting. The appeal was turned down and Hunte “proceeded to make demonstration in seeming disgust” and threw the ball away. The article suggested that “on account of this and other similar reasons”, Hunte was omitted from the Tests. The newspaper concluded that “Hunte should not have taken this sort of local Savannah Cricket habit to Australia” and felt “pretty sure that his inability to accept decisions against his appeals in the proper manner and his all too demonstrative yet not always safe methods when performing behind the wicket have been responsible for the small number of his appearances in the big matches.”

Hunte batting in the nets at Sydney in 1930 (Image: National Library of Australia)

This account was denied by the batter Frank Martin when he returned home to Jamaica. In a speech at a dinner to honour the Jamaican cricketers who played in Australia, Martin was critical of the Sporting Chronicle for printing the article and mildly rebuked the Gleaner for reprinting it. He said that he was sure “that the intelligent public, knowing the source from which that article came, would not, or did not place any credence to it.” He called Hunte “a fine fellow” and a “sportsman”, for whom such actions would be “quite foreign”. He said that no such incident took place and that the story was “only a crude way of excusing the exclusion of Mr Hunte [who] was excluded from the team because Mr Barrow proved himself a very good keeper.” The endorsement of Hunte received a warm reception from his Jamaican audience.

Even if there was no truth in the rumours, Hunte never played for the West Indies again. His name was discussed prior to the 1933 tour of England, but a writer for the Port of Spain Gazette said: “I understand that there is prejudice against Errol Hunte. In fact I know there is. The quicker the selectors put this behind their backs and think of nothing else but the success of the side the better for them. For Hunte is not only a proper wicket-keeper but a good batsman with a fair experience and where so much is uncertain it is best that the side should have as many batsmen as possible.” As was the case in 1930 and 1930–31, there is a definite sense that Hunte’s selection was tied up in matters beyond the field, even if we cannot be too sure what they were. But when he failed in a trial match for the tour, he was omitted from the team. An account in The Cricketer stated: “Hunte and De Caires both visited Australia and both failed as batsmen in the trials; indeed, C. L. C. Bourne kept wicket in the former’s place and he perhaps never had more than an outside chance.”

Hunte retained his place as Trinidad’s wicket-keeper for the 1932 and 1934 Intercolonial Tournaments (there was no tournament in 1933, with games instead arranged to inform selection for the 1933 tour of England). His highest score in these games was 56, and after scores of 2 and 2 opening the batting against Barbados in 1934, his first-class career was over (although he captained South Trinidad in the Beaumont Cup as late as 1937). His role as Trinidad’s wicket-keeper was taken by Allman Agard.

Nevertheless it is likely that Hunte had chosen to make himself unavailable for financial or career reasons. By 1930, he no longer worked as a teacher but was instead a clerical assistant at a magistrate’s court in Princes Town and Moruga, on an annual salary of £110. And it seems that some time in the early 1930s, Hunte married (only the first names of his wife are known — Olive Leona — and we know that she was born in 1906) and in 1934 he became the father to twin girls. A son (1940) and another daughter (1942) came later. Perhaps he chose to concentrate on his career in order to support his family.

He certainly remained a civil servant in later years, and travelled extensively. For example, he visited New York (with his wife) in 1949. But he and his family also spent some time in England. In 1954, he spent time in England working for the British Council in Liverpool, accompanied by his wife and four children; his eldest daughters were working as a civil servant and as a librarian. Hunte stayed for several months, living in London. In 1960, he spent six months in England, working as a civil servant at the Colonial Office in London. And in between these extended visits, he also spent time as a delegate at the conference on Local Government at the University College of the West Indies in 1957.

But he was not done with cricket and worked as a government coach in a scheme organised by the Ministry of Education and Culture. He became head of the Community Development Department and worked alongside several former West Indies cricketers included Ellis Achong and Andy Ganteaume. In his 2007 autobiography, the latter wrote: “Errol was one of the finest gentlemen one could ever meet. Errol was an exceptional individual. He had a very pleasant manner, a lovely sense of humour, was also a good billiards player and an outstanding card player who was always able to avoid any unpleasant exchange with any other player.”

Hunte died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1967, leaving an estate worth £1,565. His final address was D8 Empire Flats, St Vincent Street, Port of Spain. His probate was handled in England two years later. He had a brief obituary in Wisden, which even if it had corrected his misidentification as R. L. Hunte, made another mistake, saying that he played for British Guiana (again, probably a confusion with the real R. L Hunte). It called him a “good opening batsman”. Hunte’s obituary in The Cricketer went the other way, and called him (perhaps a little generously) “an outstanding wicket-keeper in intercolonial cricket”. But as was the case with so many of Hunte’s contemporaries in the West Indies teams, there was little interest in going any further. Yet in many ways, his cricketing career and his life in general are perfect illustrations of West Indies cricket in the early 1930s: a combination of good fortune, the effects of politics (through no fault of his own) and — despite the obstacles — some very good cricket before real life intruded.

“Calm Superiority”: The Quiet Success of Frank Martin

Frank Martin (Image: State Library of South Australia)

The first two men to score Test centuries for the West Indies were Clifford Roach and George Headley; both received great acclaim in later years when the West Indies had become the best team in the world. The latter in particular was revered as one of the greatest batters of all time. The third centurion for the West Indies had a more modest career, but played a crucial role in the first overseas win by the West Indies. In the final Test of a gruelling tour of Australia in 1930–31, having lost the first four games in the series, the West Indies managed a tense victory assisted by helpful conditions and two daring declarations. Headley was the key figure with a dominant century in the first innings and 30 runs in the second. But playing a much more defensive role, Frank Martin scored 123 not out and 20. He also took crucial wickets, recording match figures of four for 111 in 45 overs, including the vital one of Stan McCabe to end a partnership that threatened to win the game for Australia in the fourth innings. Yet few people today remember Martin. It did not help that he played alongside some famous names — Headley, Roach and Learie Constantine — as well as cricketers who were very well respected at the time (albeit similarly forgotten today) such as George Francis and Herman Griffith. Nor was Martin ever a player who would draw the crowds; his value lay in his dependability and calmness in a crisis.

Frank Reginald Martin was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on 12 October 1893. Little is known about his early life except that his father’s name was George Alexander Martin. He attended Jamaica College, where he performed well academically. At some stage, he worked an assistant in the Registry of the Collector General’s Office. In 1921, by which time he was working as an accountant, Martin married Myrtle Elise McCormack, with whom he had two children: Rona Dorothea Martin (born in 1924) and Frank Reginald Martin (born in 1926). By the time his children were born, Martin had begun to work as a clerk with the United Fruit Company, a job he continued for many years. When he twice visited England with the West Indies cricket team, travel documents listed him as a clerk (in 1928) and a cashier (in 1933).

Only vague details are available about Martin’s early cricket. He played for Melbourne Cricket Club in Jamaica, but he did not have the opportunity to play at a higher level for a long time. No first-class cricket was played in Jamaica between 1911 — when an MCC team toured the Caribbean — and 1925, when Barbados visited to play three matches. By the time of the latter tour, Martin was among the leading players in Jamaica and he was selected as an all-rounder batting at number four. Against the extremely strong Barbados team — undefeated in the Intercolonial Tournament played between Barbados, Trinidad and British Guiana since 1910 — Martin scored 195 out of Jamaica’s 411 for eight declared, therefore recording a century on his first-class debut. He was less effective with the ball, bowling 26 wicketless overs as the visiting team demonstrated their batting ability in a reply of 426 for two as the match was drawn.

Martin was less successful in the other two games, and failed to take a wicket (although he bowled only nine overs in each match), but Jamaica just about held on, and both games were draws, albeit favouring Barbados. But Martin had been able to demonstrate that he could succeed at first-class level, and retained his place when a strong MCC team played three first-class matches against Jamaica in 1926. He scored 66 in the first game (as well as taking four for 44 in the second innings), 44 in the second and 80 in the third. His success against English teams continued in 1927, when against a touring side led by Lionel Tennyson, the former England captain, he scored an unbeaten 204, at the time the highest innings for Jamaica in first-class cricket . He was also used as a left-arm spinner; although he took few wickets, he was generally economical (for example in the match in which he scored a double century, he had figures of 35–15–36–0 in the first innings). And when another team by Tennyson visited Jamaica the following year (when George Headley surpassed Martin’s record by scoring 211), he scored an unbeaten 65 in the first match, while in the third his scores were 63 and 141 not out.

By the time of the final games on that tour, Martin was occasionally opening the batting, but he often batted at number four or lower. In his 65 not out, he batted at number nine. Part of the reason for his variable batting position was the nature of his job with the United Fruit Company. He generally did not take time off for cricket, but had an arrangement by which he would work in the mornings before a cricket match. If the team was batting first, he would stay at work until the lunch interval unless the captain telephoned him because wickets had fallen early. In that case, he drove to the ground (usually he was already wearing his cricket whites) so that he could bat if required.

Martin was one of the most reliable batters for Jamaica, particularly before the emergence of Headley. A left-hander, he batted patiently and had an excellent defence, although he was able to punish any loose deliveries. As a slow bowler, he often delivered long accurate spells while other bowlers rotated at the other end. He was regarded as a good fielder, particularly to his own bowling, and a good runner between the wickets. He was also one of the key advisors to the Jamaican captain, Karl Nunes. From 1926 until 1947, he was also one of the selectors for Jamaica. But his reputation as a “stonewaller” meant that there was some criticism of his play; he was sensitive to complaints that he scored too slowly. One lifelong friend recalled in an obituary how Martin once showed him a chart of his scoring rates that proved he was “always ahead of the clock” in scores of 25 or more.

The West Indies team that toured England in 1928; Martin is standing fourth from the left in the back row

For all these concerns, Martin was a certain selection for the 1928 tour of England by the West Indies team. Followers of cricket in the West Indies (and in England) hoped that the visitors would build on their impressive 1923 tour, and an equally effective display against the 1926 MCC team that toured the Caribbean. Owing to the growing reputation of West Indian cricket, the team had been awarded Test status and the 1928 tour would incorporate their first matches at that level. As one of the most solid batters in the Caribbean, and with the possible advantage of being a left-hander, Martin had the potential to shore up a batting line-up that was heavy with stroke-players, and was familiar with the team captain, his fellow Jamaican Karl Nunes. But there were problems with the selection of the team: Nunes was not a universally popular choice as leader and when the first-choice wicket-keeper George Dewhurst withdrew from the tour, the captain was forced to take the gloves full-time; and because Victor Pascall, a successful member of the 1923 team, had lost form through a combination of age and illness, the team lacked a proven spinner. It was hoped that Martin could fill that particular breach, but he had never been a front-line bowler.

Previews of the tour identified Martin as good batter. For example, The Cricketer described him as: “A left-hander whose batting may well prove to be a feature of the coming tour. Can hit well and has strong defence.” He largely justified such predictions, but the tour was a disaster for the West Indies. The three Tests against England were each lost by an innings, and the batting proved completely unreliable, particularly against spin. Martin was one of the few to enhance his reputation. He took time to find his form, and scored just one half-century in the first month of the tour, but innings of 56 against Ireland and 81 against the Minor Counties got him going in June. He scored a non-first-class century against the Civil Service, fifties in consecutive matches against Lancashire and Yorkshire, and towards the end of the tour scored 165 against Hampshire and 82 against Kent. He was fairly consistent — he reached double figures 32 times in 46 first-class innings — even though Nunes (perhaps aware of his versatility because they played together for Jamaica) constantly shifted Martin’s batting position. He most often opened or batted at number three, but there seemed to be no settled plan, which perhaps reflected the unreliable nature of the team’s batting.

Martin run out for 21 in the second Test against England at Manchester in 1928; A. P. Freeman can be seen in the act of throwing the ball from mid-on. The other batter was Clifford Roach and this misunderstanding began a collapse from 100 for one to 206 all out. (Image: Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 28 June 1928)

Martin had one of the best batting records for the West Indies. In the Test matches, he was solid: although his highest score was only 44, he scored 175 runs in six innings at 29.16, which placed him at the top of the West Indies Test averages (among those who batted more than twice) and he was comfortably the leading scorer. In all first-class cricket, his final record — 1,370 first-class runs at an average of 32.62, with eight fifties and the one century — placed him third in the team averages, and he was the second-highest run-scorer (he was the leading run-scorer if non-first-class games were taken into account). He was less effective with the ball — 19 first-class wickets at 44.89 — but offered useful support to the main bowlers.

His statistical success was backed up by the positive impression he made on English writers. The Wisden review of the tour praised him: “Martin, a left-hander, was probably the most difficult man on the side to dismiss. He watched the ball closely, and played back very hard, while on occasion his steady left-handed slow bowling helped to keep down the runs. He had a happier personal experience in the Test Matches than any of his colleagues, being only once out for less than 20, and never for a single figure.” The Cricketer was similarly complimentary: “Martin and Roach, so far as the Test matches go, were the best batsmen. Martin is a very sound left-hander, with a good defence, strong on the leg side, and a cool head … Both these men appeared to play with far more confidence than the rest of their colleagues, with the exception of Constantine”.

However, J. N. Pentelow, writing about the tour twelve months later in Ayres Cricket Companion, said: “Martin was easily the most consistent bat on the side. He is nothing like what [George] Challenor was in 1923; but what had been said of his steadiness and imperturbability was fully justified. He would go on for hours playing the safety game, waiting for the easy one to hit. But a batsman of his parts should not do so much of the pendulum business. Time after time his bat met the ball, only to send it to the bowler or to mid-off. It would pay him to take more risk. Yet one is sure that in the game he played he was considering the interests of his side.” After listing Martin’s highest scores, Pentelow concluded: “But he ought to have made more.” Writing in Cricket and I (1933), Learie Constantine viewed Martin’s achievements more positively: “But if many failed [during the 1928 tour], certain men stood out as absolutely first-class cricketers. There was the calm superiority of Martin in county games and Tests, not a Challenor by any means but a master of defensive play.”

Martin had a quieter time when another English team — Sir Julien Cahn’s Eleven — toured Jamaica in 1929; he passed fifty just once. When another MCC team toured the West Indies in 1930, Martin only played in the final Test. This was not necessarily a reflection of his ability; for a combination of reasons, including a desire to keep down costs and a bias towards selections from the host nation, the West Indies selectors (which involved a different group of selectors for each Test) chose different captains for each Test and a total of 27 players in four Tests. When the MCC visited Jamaica, Martin scored an unbeaten 106 (in what transpired was his final appearance for Jamaica) and was picked for the final Test. In a high-scoring draw that had to be abandoned after nine days, Martin scored 33 and 24, although he took just one wicket in 54 overs.

The West Indies team that toured Australia in 1930–31. Back row: G. A. Headley, C. A. Roach, E. A. C. Hunte, F. I. de Caires, O. C. Scott, O. S. Wright, I. Barrow, E. L. St. Hill. Middle row: H. C. Griffith, L. N. Constantine, J. E. Scheult (assistant manager), G. C. Grant (captain), R. H. Mallett (manager), L. S. Birkett (vice-captain), F. R. Martin, E. L. Bartlett, G. N. Francis. Front row: J. E. D. Sealey (Image: State Library of South Australia)

Given his experience and his record for Jamaica, Martin was always a certainty for the West Indies team that toured Australia in 1930–31, even though he was 37 years old when it began. The tour was regarded as a success; although the playing record of the team was poor, they were popular with spectators and it was generally believed that they performed better than results indicated. Martin was not a success for the most part; The Cricketer considered him “disappointing”. He had several low scores in the early games, and when he did make a start, he was dismissed in the 20s and 30s. He did not reach fifty until the West Indies had been in Australia for over a month, and his unbeaten 79 came against a weak Tasmania team. Apart from a fifty against a “Victoria Country” team, he did not make another substantial score until hitting 56 in the return game against New South Wales in the penultimate match. By then, Australia had won the first four Tests (three by an innings and the other by ten wickets) without too much difficulty; Martin’s highest score had been 39. At times he was used quite heavily as a bowler, for example taking three for 35 in the first match against New South Wales, and bowling long spells in the first and third Tests. And in the fourth Test, he took three for 91 from 30.2 overs.

The visiting team had been surprised by the slow pace of the pitches in Australia, and as the tour drew to a conclusion, pleaded behind the scenes for something with more life so that they could play better cricket for the public. Coincidentally or not, the pitch for the final Test, played at Sydney, was faster and Martin finally found his form. Opening after the West Indies won the toss, he batted throughout the first day. He had George Headley had added 152 for the second wicket in 146 minutes, out of which Headley scored 105. Martin reached fifty from 96 deliveries in 102 minutes (with five fours), his first such score at Test level in his ninth game. But after that, he slowed down as Headley reached his century from 169 deliveries and faced most of the bowling. After Headley was dismissed, Martin played a similarly supporting role alongside his captain, Jackie Grant. Just before the close of play, Martin reached his century in 273 minutes from 288 deliveries (his second fifty had taken three hours and 192 deliveries) and finished the day on 100 not out, and the West Indies were 299 for two.

On the second day, he and Grant took their third wicket partnership to 110, out of which Grant scored 62. But rain fell to affect the pitch, and wickets fell rapidly. In this period, Martin excelled; Wisden noted: “He showed marked skill especially when the pitch was getting treacherous.” The increasingly sticky pitch prompted Grant to declare with the total on 350 for six; Martin was left unbeaten on 123 not out (after 347 minutes). He was quickly into the attack and in the helpful conditions removed Bill Woodfull and Donald Bradman before the end of play, when Australia were 89 for five. In easier batting conditions after the Sunday rest day, Australia recovered to 224 but still conceded a first-innings lead of 126. However, more rain again made run-scoring difficult and the West Indies struggled to 124 for five at the close of the third day. Martin had again opened, but could only manage 20 runs.

Frank Martin batting in the nets at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1930–31 (Image: Wikipedia)

Rain completely washed out the fourth day, and the prospect of further difficult conditions persuaded Grant to declare on the overnight total, leaving Australia needing 251 to win; because Australian Test matches were played to a finish, there was no time limit for Australia to score the runs, and this was the first time in an Australian Test that any captain had declared both of his team’s innings closed. Martin again struck early, removing Bill Ponsford, and Australia were soon 76 for six. But Alan Fairfax and Stan McCabe added 79 for the seventh wicket; Martin had McCabe caught, but runs continued to come and the touring team became a little nervy before the last man was run out to give the West Indies a 30-run win. It was their first overseas victory in a Test match and when combined with the teams win over New South Wales in the immediately preceding match meant that the tour ended well, and the result was acclaimed both by the Australian crowds and back at home in the Caribbean.

Martin ended the tour with 606 first-class runs at 27.54 and 21 wickets at 45.23. In the Tests, he scored 254 runs at 28.22 and took seven wickets at 64.00. But the match at Sydney was his final Test. After the tour, when he had returned home, Martin announced (at a dinner given by the Jamaica Cricket Association in honour of the Jamaican members of the touring team) that he felt he had to retire from representative cricket. Stating that his employers, the United Fruit Company, had been very generous in allowing him time off to tour, he felt that he owed it to “give them of his best services without interruption.” Therefore when another team organised by Lionel Tennyson visited Jamaica in 1931–32, Martin was absent.

Nevertheless, he was not quite done and would probably have played more Tests but for injury. After what was likely some behind-the-scenes negotiations, he was chosen for the West Indies team that toured England in 1933. As he was 39, his selection was not universally popular and in some quarters he was described as a “has-been”. A preview in The Cricketer noted that his selection had been a surprise but noted his steadiness and ability on the “big occasion”, although it was critical of his fielding. He began the tour steadily, and scored a first-class fifty against Oxford University. But when playing against Middlesex in early June, he suffered a leg injury while chasing the ball. It was so serious that he was unable to play again on the tour, and therefore that match was his final appearance in first-class cricket. His absence affected the balance of the team, and Wisden noted: “The loss of such a valuable all-round man could not fail to be very severely felt.” C. L. R. James, writing in the Manchester Guardian at the end of the 1933 season, suggested that Martin’s absence made the team vulnerable to collapse and meant that there was no-one to counter the leg-spin bowling and slow-left-arm bowling against which the batters generally struggled.

Nevertheless, Martin remained with the team until the end of the tour (he acted as the team scorer in at least one match) and as had been the case on the 1928 tour was joined by his wife towards the end; they travelled home together with the rest of the side.

Martin’s final career figures were respectable: 3,589 first-class runs (at 37.77), 74 first-class wickets (at 42.55), 486 Test runs (at 28.58) and 8 Test wickets (at 77.37) in nine matches for the West Indies. In 15 matches for Jamaica, he scored 1,262 runs at 70.11, including four centuries (with one on each of his first and last appearances for the team).

The rest of his life was lived away from the spotlight; a friend called him “reticent and quiet”. When discussing cricket, he always advised people to “play their natural game”. He continued to work for the United Fruit Company, and later founded the Unifruitee Senior Cup Club cricket competition. Little else is known of him or his life. His wife died at the age of 57 in 1950 of arteriosclerosis and cerebral thrombosis. Martin died in Kingston in 1967, at the age of 74, from a coronary thrombosis. There is probably a lot more that could be said of him, but like so many of his contemporaries in the West Indies, he remains a mystery except in his achievements on the cricket field.

Only Peaks and Troughs: The Inconsistency of Clifford Roach

Clifford Roach in Australia in 1930 (Image: National Library of Australia)

Before the emergence of George Headley, who remains — statistically and by reputation — one of the greatest cricketers to play the game, there had been several good batsmen for the West Indies. However, the success of players such as Charles Ollivierre, George Challenor, Tim Tarilton, Wilton St Hill or Joseph Small came almost exclusively at first-class level. None had succeeded in Tests; they either did not get the opportunity or could not translate their success at a lower level into runs against international attacks. But there was one batsman who briefly shone in Test matches just as Headley made his debut. Although Clifford Roach never had the remarkable consistency or mental strength of Headley, he had notable success; he even became the first Test centurion and later the first double-centurion for the West Indies. But he was overshadowed by his team-mate, and suffers by comparison.

Clifford Archibald Roach was from Port-of-Spain in Trinidad and Tobago and played in the local competition, the Beaumont Cup, for Maple Cricket Club. Like several of his contemporaries, he features in the famous Beyond a Boundary (1963) by C. L. R. James, who characterised Maple as “the club of the brown-skinned middle-class” which rejected any cricketers “with a distinctly dark skin”. A substantial part of Beyond a Boundary concerns how James agonised over which team to play for after leaving school; it was Roach’s father who persuaded James — who like Roach had a darker skin than would usually have been acceptable to the club — to join Maple. But James — who is often surprisingly silent regarding cricketers with whom he must have spent a lot of time — has little to say on Roach. He describes him as “an untalkative but cheerful soul” who enjoyed many battles against the fast bowling of Learie Constantine. James, who worked as a teacher in this period of his life, also recalled giving private tuition to Roach, “and even coached him at cricket a little, though he was rapidly able to coach me.” Later, when he played alongside Roach for Maple, they opened the batting together.

As well as James, Roach received coaching from George John and quickly began to emerge as a player of distinct promise in Trinidad. His timing was fortunate; the reputation of West Indian cricket was in the ascendant following a successful tour of England in 1923, and a very competitive series against a strong MCC team in 1926. Trinidad, too, had emerged from a long spell under the shadow of a dominant Barbados team to become the strongest side in the Caribbean. Roach first played cricket for Trinidad in 1924 at the age of 19, but had no great success at first-class level before the 1928 West Indies visit to England.

This was a hugely important tour as it would include the West Indies’ first Test matches. Team selection was a hot topic in newspapers across the region, and long discussions of the merits of likely players occupied a period of almost eighteen months. The composition of the West Indies team was hindered by the convention that each of Barbados, British Guiana, Trinidad and Jamaica would contribute a certain proportion of players. The original intention was for Trinidad to have five players in the team, although only four actually took part in the tour — one selection, the wicket-keeper George Dewhurst, pulled out at the last minute, with catastrophic results for the balance of the side. The other Trinidad players had strong records: Learie Constantine had toured England in 1923 and was an accomplished and improving all-rounder; Joe Small, who had also visited England in 1923, was a very stylish batsman and good bowler; and Wilton St Hill had a record second-to-none and was probably the best batsman in the West Indies in the mid-1920s.

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Clifford Roach (left) and Archie Wiles during the 1933 tour of England

But Roach was in the mind of the Trinidad selectors from an early date; he was one of nine players who were asked in July 1927 if they would be available to tour England. Largely based on his promise and his success with Maple — certainly not on his first-class record, which at the time consisted of four matches, no fifties, 171 runs and an average of 24.42 — he was chosen in the trial matches to assist with team selection. At the time, the most likely selection from Trinidad was a batsman called Archie Wiles who had a long and distinguished record at first-class level. He also, at a time when West Indies cricket was run by Europeans, who dominated every aspect of life in the region, had the advantage of being white. Although the success of Small and St Hill had challenged the traditional perception among the West Indian cricket elite that only white batsmen were good enough, discrimination against black cricketers lingered. Therefore, Roach’s 84 in the opening game — his maiden first-class fifty — was important, particularly as St Hill scored a century and Wiles failed. The latter was unsuccessful in the other two matches as well, despite being given every opportunity. Even though Roach achieved little after the opening game, he had done enough to be included in the West Indies team alongside St Hill; there was no room for Wiles, and the role of “veteran white batsman” was taken by Barbados’ E. L. G. Hoad.

Even allowing for his success and Wiles’ failure, it is still surprising that Roach was chosen for the tour on little more than potential. Several newspaper articles suggested that his excellent fielding was a big factor, and here he had the advantage of being twelve years younger than Wiles. Some reports even indicated that his ability to bowl played a part in his selection; but this was something he rarely did at first-class level. While he may have been a useful bowler on Trinidad’s matting pitches, he posed little threat on other surfaces and took just five first-class wickets in his entire career. And on the 1928 tour, he bowled only 48 overs, taking two for 194. Incidentally, the omission of Wiles was controversial, particularly in Trinidad; he was eventually chosen to tour England in 1933, when he was 40. Unsurprisingly, he failed badly.

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The West Indies team at the Oval in May 1928. Back row: Wilton St Hill, George Francis, James Neblett, Frank Martin, George Challenor, Joe Small, Clifford Roach, Learie Constantine. Front row: Maurice Fernandes, Claude Wight, Karl Nunes, “Snuffy” Browne and Herman Griffith.

The tour of 1928 was a chastening one for the West Indies. The batting was an abject failure and all three Test matches were lost by an innings. Internal feuds and poor leadership from the captain Karl Nunes meant that no recovery was possible and results collapsed as the tour neared its end; the 1928 West Indies had one of the worst records of any touring side to visit England before the Second World War. However, Roach was a relative success with the bat, finishing fifth in the team’s first-class averages with 26.56. He did not score a century but managed nine fifties.

Roach played in the West Indies first ever Test match, a complete mis-match. While the West Indies bowlers impressed, the batsmen were helpless. Roach’s debut innings was ignominious: batting at number six, he was run out without scoring. His second innings was slightly more successful; although he made just 16 runs, he shared a partnership of 56 with Joe Small, who hit the West Indies’ only fifty of the game. For the next two Tests, Roach was the only success of the visiting team. Promoted to open, he passed fifty in both games, the only batsman to score a half-century in the series other than Small, although his highest score was just 53 (scored out of an opening partnership with George Challenor of 91 in 70 minutes) and his average 21.83.

The summer was successful in another way too as he qualified as a solicitor while the tour was ongoing. He joined several of his team-mates in having careers in the legal profession: Karl Nunes and Vibart Wight (the vice-captain) were also solicitors; C. R. “Snuffy” Browne was a barrister; and Learie Constantine was a solicitor’s clerk at the time and qualified as a barrister in the 1950s. Roach worked as a solicitor for the rest of his life — long after his cricket career ended and even after his health began to fail.

Nevertheless, after a tour during which several reputations were ruined completely and no batsman came to the fore, the promise shown by Roach was seized upon. His success led to predictions that he would succeed George Challenor — who at the age of forty was past his best — as the premier batsman in the Caribbean. But it was not to be; he remained inconsistent throughout his career, mainly owing to an unwillingness to defend and play the situation. Clayton Goodwin, in his Caribbean Cricketers from the Pioneers to Packer (1980), wrote: “Roach was in such a hurry to score runs and to entertain that he ignored tactical considerations at his peril. He would have suited present-day instant cricket, and would have interested the patrons of the commercial game.”

As the only new discovery from the tour, he continued to improve when he returned home. In the 1928–29 Intercolonial Tournament, he scored 48 in the first game against British Guiana, then in the final against Barbados, he scored 86, his first fifty for Trinidad as his team won by an innings. In October 1929, his scores of 26 and 72 could not prevent British Guiana winning the tournament but firmly established him as one of the leading batsmen in the Caribbean. Therefore, he was a certain selection when an MCC team arrived in the West Indies to play a four-match Test series.

The 1929–30 series was a strange one; the matches were only later confirmed as official Tests and their status was a little fluid when the tour took place. The English team was one of two MCC sides touring that winter and this uncertainty meant that the record books show that England played two Test matches on the same days (11 January 1930 and 21 February 1930) in different parts of the world. The need to send two English teams also diluted the available talent, and the team that toured the West Indies contained many veterans, including the 52-year-old Wilfred Rhodes and the 50-year-old George Gunn.

Nor were the home team at their strongest. As ever, selection for the West Indies was complicated by matters of finance and regional differences; a huge number of players appeared for the home side in the four Tests, many only selected on their home territory. The reason was that local selectors chose each Test team. In total, 27 players appeared for the West Indies in the series, and each Test had a different captain, selected from the host nation. Only two men played in all four Tests for the West Indies — George Headley and Roach. And for Roach, although he went into each game with a different opening partner, the series was a triumph. In the first match, which was drawn, he scored 122 on the first day to become the West Indies’ first Test centurion, and followed up with a 77 in the second innings. But nothing better encapsulates the wild inconsistency of Roach’s career than what happened next when the MCC visited his home island of Trinidad. In the two first-class games played against the tourists by the Trinidad team, Roach scored 2, 13, 9 and 0. In the Test match, he scored a pair, dismissed for 0 by Bill Voce in both innings, and England won by 167 runs.

Writing about the series in Cricket and I (1933), Learie Constantine recalled what happened next:

“Before his six failures Roach had been invited to play in British Guiana [the venue of the next Test], but after his disastrous experiences he did not know what to do and cabled offering to stand down and avoid embarrassing them if they wished to drop him. The Selection Committee replied instantly, telling him to come as he was very much wanted. Before Roach left, [the former West Indies and Trinidad fast bowler] George John, who had coached him in his early days, paid him a visit at his office.
‘Well, what are you going to do over there?’ asked John.
‘I am going to fight for the first hundred,’ said Roach, ‘and if they let me get that, then I am going to get my own back in the second.'”

According to Constantine, when the West Indies won the toss in that third Test, Roach and his opening partner Errol Hunte batted very carefully, scoring only 38 before lunch; Roach “took not the shadow of a chance, playing every ball with the utmost care in the very centre of the bat” and Hunte followed suite. Eventually, their partnership was worth 144 when Hunte was out but Roach went on to his century, and “with his reputation restored proceeded to make up longstanding arrears. He hit the bowlers as if with malice. No theory, no arrangement of field, could stop boundary after boundary, and despite his slow beginning, when he was caught in the last over of the day he had scored 209, as complete and satisfactory a reversal of ill-fortune as any day-dreamer could have wished.” He was out to the last ball of the day, having scored the first Test double-century for the West Indies; his team won on the fifth day by 289 runs, their first Test victory.

The final Test was something of an anti-climax for Roach; his scores of 15 and 22 made little impact on a match that lasted nine days before being drawn, after some huge scores. The series ended 1–1 which was probably a fair result even if it did not reflect the bizarre way that the two teams had been chosen. Roach scored 467 runs at 58.37 in the series, but even as he apparently established himself, he was eclipsed. George Headley scored 703 runs at 87.87, and was regarded as one of the world’s best batsmen — second only to Bradman, and perhaps surpassing him on difficult pitches — for the next decade. Roach will always be the first centurion and double-centurion for the West Indies, but after that series, his moment had passed.

It is worth remembering, when considering Roach’s success (Headley later proved himself in more difficult conditions against better bowlers) that the English attack was a limited one. During the series, Roach faced Ewart Astill, a 41-year-old medium paced bowler who never played a home Test; Nigel Haig, a 42-year-old fast-medium bowler who had played once for England in 1921 but was some way past his best; and Wilfred Rhodes, the 52-year-old legend who was nearing retirement and was little threat compared to his great days of thirty years before. The only bowlers anywhere near their peak were Greville Stevens, an erratic leg-spinning all-rounder who never quite reached Test standard; Les Townsend, a Derbyshire all-rounder whose formidable county record never translated to Test level; and Bill Voce, who was then a promising 20-year-old fast bowler some way short of his best and fearsome post-bodyline reputation.

The Trinidad and West Indies team-mates Clifford Roach (left) and Edwin St Hill (right) in Australia in 1930-31 (Image: National Library of Australia)

Given the limited nature of the England attack, perhaps it is unsurprising that Roach enjoyed by far his best series. He never again replicated this success at Test level. Although he was an obvious choice for the West Indies team that toured Australia in 1930–31, apart from an innings of fifty in the first Test he achieved little, too often falling to medium-paced bowling or to the Australian spinners. The West Indies team was out-matched in the first four Tests and only in the final Test was there a recovery. Roach played his part with two innings in the thirties; West Indies managed a creditable win by 30 runs. His only other success was a century against Victoria, but as he had been expected to be, alongside Headley, the leading batsman in the team, it was a disappointing tour. The suspicion was that he had been unable to temper his aggression; given the Australian approach at the time of strangling scoring opportunities, it is quite likely that he fell prey to his own impatience, not least as he made starts in many of his innings.

This lack of restraint, and a poor season for Trinidad, led to some calls for him to be omitted from the West Indies team that toured England in 1933. Nevertheless, he was selected and drew praise from Wisden, which stated: “If not nearly so sound as Headley, Roach was easily the best man in the team to watch, his batting on many occasions being brilliant to a degree. Nothing, indeed, in the whole tour was so dazzling as the innings of 180 Roach played against Surrey at the Oval.” That innings, lasting just 170 minutes and including a century before lunch, was his biggest success of a tour which brought him 1,286 runs 25.72, a poorer return than his debut tour five years before. His Test record was similar too; after a pair in the first Test, he scored half centuries in the other two games to finish with 141 runs at 23.50. For all his attractive strokeplay, his defensive play was poor, and post-mortems on the tour in the Caribbean seized on his unreliability. In an interview given when the players arrived home (and reported in the Jamaica Gleaner), the West Indies captain, Jackie Grant, defended Roach’s aggressive approach because it was attractive to spectators, and implied that he had been unwilling to bat lower in the order, a position several critics suggested would have better suited his approach.

Back in the Trinidad team, Roach scored the last of his five first-class centuries in September 1934 but was dropped from the West Indies team after playing the first Test against England in 1935. Although he was not yet 31, his Test career was over. There were frequent calls in the 1930s for him to be recalled, but while he continued to have success at first-class level, he never was. After playing on until 1937, he was dropped by Trinidad too, despite remaining on the fringes of the team. He continued to play for Maple a little longer, opening the batting for Maple alongside the future Test player Andy Ganteaume — who later recalled how Roach had “a mischievous sense of humour and a somewhat carefree disposition” — in 1939 and casually taking 14 runs from one over by an opposition fast bowler. His overall Test record — 952 runs at an average of 30.70 — seems low for someone of such evident talent, and disguises a career that consisted solely of peaks and troughs.

Roach was, however, far more than just a cricketer. He was just as famous in Trinidad and Tobago for his exploits as a footballer, although he perhaps never reached as wide an audience as he did in cricket. He played for the Maple team during the 1920s and 1930s, but also represented Trinidad at international level, competing in football’s version of the Intercolonial Tournament. One of his team-mates was Ellis Achong, who also played Test cricket for the West Indies. While there are no records readily available, Roach was still revered as one of the best players to appear for the island in the 1950s.

Roach spent time in England during the Second World War — although it is unclear why — and played several wartime charity matches for the various “West Indies” teams that appeared regularly around England. In these, he was joined by several of his former Test colleagues, including Constantine, Achong and Edwin St Hill. After this, Roach seems to have lived a quiet life and largely faded into obscurity. He could sometimes be found in the pages of newspapers, commenting on cricket issues of the day, and he enjoyed some fame in later years, when the West Indies were the strongest side in the world, by virtue of his status as the first man to score a Test century for the team. He was particularly impressed by the leadership of Frank Worrell in the 1960s, and maintained that he was the best Test captain that the West Indies had ever had.

At some point in the 1930s, Roach married Edna Violet Winter. The couple had nine children in total, several of whom eventually moved to England. Later, Roach struggled with diabetes. He also suffered from arteriosclerosis, made worse by his diabetes, and had to have one of his legs amputated in 1968. When his second leg also had to be amputated in 1970, he travelled to London — where many of his children lived — for the operation and to have artificial legs fitted. The costs were considerable: tickets to London for he and his wife cost J$433 (Jamaican dollars); the two legs cost a total of $500; and their expenses in London amounted to $220. However, the London-based West Indies National Association paid the costs of renting a flat, hiring a television and telephone, and for transportation to and from the hospital for his twice-weekly appointments.

A report in the Jamaica Gleaner in 1970 stated:

“When the weather is good in London … [Roach] goes window-shopping from his wheelchair. He is philosophic about his future life in Trinidad where he intends to continue with his career as a solicitor … On his future without a leg, Clifford Roach quietly says: ‘I admit to some fears about having to walk with two artificial legs. I had enough hell to walk with one. But it’s not good crying about it. I have had to adapt and accommodate myself to the problem.’ Let us applaud Clifford Roach, man with courage.”

Although many of his contemporaries — such as Small or the St Hill brothers — faded into obscurity and were forgotten once their careers ended, Roach remained a respected figure right up until his death in 1988. In 1984, he was entered into the Trinidad and Tobago Sports Hall of Fame for his sporting achievements. As late as 2008, he was honoured by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation as part of their centenary celebrations. But at the same time, he suffered from playing at the same time as the peerless Headley; he barely features in Michael Manley’s History of West Indies Cricket (1995) except to be compared unfavourably with Headley. But there were few, if any, batsmen in the world in the 1930s who were Headley’s equal, and Roach should not be judged unfavourably for being a mere mortal. If his career was marked by inconsistency, his highs can never be equalled, simply because he was the first to get there. If he is remembered less today than he once was, at least Roach was one of the few West Indian cricketers from the 1920s and 1930s to receive the recognition that he was due.