“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.

The Slow-Burning Career of Vin Valentine

Vincent Valentine (Image: The Complete Record of West Indian Test Cricketers (1991) by Bridgette Lawrence and Ray Goble)

To play just one Test match for England or Australia is almost to guarantee a form of cricketing immortality. Representative cricketers from elsewhere are not so fortunate. While there were some superb cricketers in the West Indies teams of the 1920s and 1930s, little is known about many of them. Other than Learie Constantine and George Headley, most are long-forgotten mysteries; and even Headley has been poorly served, being the subject of only two fairly obscure biographies. Test players such as C. R. Browne, Joe Small, George Francis, Manny Martindale and Clifford Roach — all of whom played many times for the West Indies — do not feature in the pages of history books. What chance then those on the fringes of the team, such as Victor Pascall, James Neblett, Ellis Achong, Ken Weekes or Vin Valentine? To find information involves locating meagre snippets which might tell us something. And occasionally, someone’s story can be reconstructed. In the case of Vin Valentine, we find a cricketer who was selected to tour England in 1933 in the hope that he would follow in the fast bowling tradition already established in the West Indies team. He fell some way short, but he was a far better cricketer than attested by his mediocre playing record. His tale involves a varied life away from sport, a family scandal and a cricket career more successful than hinted at in the pages of Wisden or ESPNcricinfo.

Vincent Adolphus Valentine was born at Buff Bay in Portland, Jamaica, on 4 April 1908, the son of William Adolphus Valentine (1879–1961) and his wife Edith Frederica (née Thompson, 1880–1953). He had an older sister Edith Gwendoline (1906–1960) and five younger brothers: Rudolph Wentworth (1909–1923), Clifford Howard (1911–1996), Herbert Vernon (1912–1984), Sydney Albert St George (1915–1996) and Arthur Lloyd (1917–1983). We know little about Valentine’s early life; a feature in the Jamaica Gleaner in 1937 and his obituary in the same newspaper provide most of what we know.

Valentine came from a cricketing family. His father William was a good bowler at a local level, and played for St Georges Cricket Club in Jamaica for many years, but his main job was in accounting. He worked as the cashier for the United Fruit Company from around 1898 until 1930. Several of Valentine’s brothers also played for St Georges, often alongside each other. Valentine was educated at Jamaica College from 1920, and by 1923 he was part of the school cricket team, where he established a reputation as a promising all-round cricketer. As early as 1926, Valentine was playing alongside his father for St Georges and the pair often opened the bowling together. Away from sport, Valentine qualified as a teacher and by the 1930s, he was working at Hope Farm, a government-run school which mainly taught agriculture.

Any progress Valentine may have made as a bowler was hampered by a lack of opportunity. Jamaica, owing to its distance from other cricket-playing regions in the Caribbean, took no part in the first-class Intercolonial Tournament. As a result, Jamaican cricketers of this period lacked exposure at the highest level. Visits by English teams, such as those organised in the 1920s and 1930s by Lionel Tennyson, were crucial, and it was against Tennyson’s team in 1927 that Valentine first suggested that he might be more than just a good prospect; in one match, playing for a “Portland Combination XV”, he returned figures of five for 104. He also played against teams organised by Tennyson in 1928, playing for Middlesex, and in 1929, playing for “Jamaica Next XV”. By 1929, Valentine had reached the top level of Jamaican cricket, making his debut in the Senior Cup for St Catherine Cricket Club. At this point, his progress seems to have temporarily halted. Possibly he lost form or fell behind his bowling peers. But there may be another explanation.

In October 1930, the Gleaner solemnly reported that William Valentine, Vincent’s father, had been found guilty of fraud. He had been entering false amounts into the accounts of the United Fruit Company which meant that over £100 was missing. Although he was only charged on two counts, there were suggestions that he had been committing fraud for some time. Although the report was very discrete, it looks as if Valentine senior had been in financial difficulty and had felt that he needed to take the money to support his family. He pleaded guilty, and several witnesses gave evidence of his previous exemplary character. Nevertheless, the judge — while expressing his regret — sentenced him to twelve months. After this, William largely disappears from the records until his death in 1961 (although he stood as an umpire in some local cricket matches in the late 1930s) but the disgrace must have badly affected both him and his family.

Embed from Getty Images

Vin Valentine in 1933

Meanwhile, his son continued to progress slowly. In 1931, he left St Catherine and joined Kensington. He played a crucial role in his new team winning the Senior Cup — not least when he dismissed a well-set George Headley in a crucial game — and his good form took him to the brink of the Jamaica team. When Lord Tennyson brought yet another team to Jamaica in 1932, Valentine made his first-class debut. He did not need to bat, as Jamaica scored 702 for five declared; Headley scored an unbeaten 344 and shared an unbroken partnership of 487 with Clarence Passailaigue. When Tennyson’s side batted, Valentine took one for 71 from 28 overs, dismissing Charles Dacre. In the follow-on, he took three for 57 (all three wickets were top-order batsmen) but suffered an injury stopping a hard drive from George Geary which ruled him out of the remaining matches played by Jamaica that season.

At a lower level, he continued to make his name known, not least when, in September 1932, he scored 30 (including two sixes) and took five for 16 in eight overs while playing for a Civil Service team against St Catherine. What type of cricketer was he? As a bowler, he had a smooth, economical action which took advantage of his height; this allowed him to bowl long spells without tiring. He bowled a good out-swinger, not something that West Indies pace bowlers often produced in this period. As a batter, he liked to score quickly and was more likely to attempt big shots rather than defend; when his batting came off, it was usually entertaining.

At this time, all attention was fixed on the tour of England which was to take place in the 1933 season. Although this was to be just the second Test-playing tour by a West Indies team to England, the side was already in transition. In the 1920s, the strength of West Indian cricket lay in its fast bowling. George John and George Francis had been instrumental in the team attaining Test status, and in the first three series played by the West Indies — against England in 1928 and 1929–30, and against Australia in 1930–31 — Francis, Learie Constantine and Herman Griffith were generally very effective. By 1933, Francis and Griffith were past their best. Francis was not selected for the 1933 tour, although he played one Test as a reinforcement after injuries depleted the team — he was in England playing league cricket. Griffith was included but at the age of 39 was a shadow of the bowler he had been. As Constantine was not able to play often owing to his commitments with Nelson in the Lancashire League, the West Indies selectors needed to find new fast bowlers.

When trial matches were held in Trinidad during late January and early February 1933 to assist in the selection of the team, Valentine was among those given an opportunity. His elevation came from nowhere as a preview piece in the Gleaner, printed in January before the matches were held, did not mention him as a candidate. He played in a non-first-class match game for G. C. Grant’s XI against J. R. Edwards’ XI (although in the event, both teams used thirteen players); after a wicketless nine overs in the first innings, he took three for 19 in eleven overs in the second. Although in the next match — one designated as first-class and played between G. C. Grant’s XI and C. A. Merry’s XI — he took only one wicket, he had evidently impressed the selectors (There may also have been some one-day games, unrecorded on CricketArchive, according to a report in The Cricketer’s Spring Annual). He was chosen in the West Indies team, at the expense of another Jamaican fast bowler, Leslie Hylton. A comparison of their overall playing records suggests that the selectors made a mistake, and factors other than ability may have been behind Hylton’s omission.

Embed from Getty Images

The West Indies team in 1933. Back row: Manny Martindale, Freddie Martin, Cyril Merry, Vincent Valentine, Ivan Barrow, Oscar Da Costa, Ellis Achong. Middle row: Herman Griffith, Teddy Hoad, John Kidney (manager), Jackie Grant (captain), Archie Wiles, Clifford Roach. Front row: Ben Sealy, Cyril Christiani and George Headley.

The preview of the 1933 tour in The Cricketer observed that Valentine was one of a number of fast bowlers in the West Indies team — alongside Constantine (when available), Griffith and the untried Manny Martindale — and had been selected on the strength of his performance in the first trial match. His batting had also been a factor. Despite his lack of experience, having played just once for Jamaica, F. J. C. Gustard, who wrote the feature, thought that Valentine might prove the “dark horse” of the team.

Instead it was Martindale who established himself as the leading bowler in the team — and within a few years as one of the best in the world. Valentine bore a heavy workload throughout the tour, but he was a failure, finishing bottom of the bowling averages among the team’s regular bowlers. Wisden simply said: “Valentine was the next fastest man [after Martindale], but his 36 wickets cost a lot of runs, and he was never in the same class as Martindale.”

Valentine made a slow start to the tour, hardly bowling in the warm-up games and taking only four wickets in his first two first-class games. He did better against Hampshire, taking six wickets in the game, three in each innings. After a quiet match against Middlesex, against Derbyshire he took four for 83 in the first innings; these were to remain his best figures in first-class cricket. Apart from three for 80 against Lancashire, he continued to find it hard to take wickets; he was omitted from the team for the first Test and played in the second despite his poor form. This was the game, played at Manchester, in which Constantine (playing his only Test of the series) and Martindale used bodyline bowling — short-pitched deliveries aimed at the body with a leg-side field in place — against the English batsmen who found such bowling at the pace delivered by the two fast bowlers almost impossible to play. As a result, West Indies took a narrow first innings lead and held out for a draw, the first time they had avoided defeat in a Test match in England. Newspaper reports noted, however, that the pressure evaporated whenever Valentine came on to bowl, despite his pace. He recorded figures of none for 49 from 28 overs — economical but lacking any threat. With the bat, he scored 6 in the first innings and an unbeaten 19 (in 15 minutes with three fours) in the second.

Valentine bowling to Cyril Walters at Old Trafford in the second Test of 1933

In a series of minor games after the second Test, Valentine finally began taking wickets: four for 42 and four for 44 against Northumberland; five for 73 against Durham; and two for 20 against Norfolk, all in the same week. Despite a quieter time when first-class games resumed, he held his place for the third Test, which the West Indies lost heavily. Valentine took his only Test wicket — Wally Hammond — at a cost of 55 runs in England’s innings, and scored 6 and 0 as the batting collapsed twice to the English leg-spinner C. S. Marriott, who in his only Test took eleven for 96. This was the end of Valentine’s brief Test career: his final record was one wicket for 104 runs and 35 runs at 11.66.

He proved expensive in the final games, not least in conceding none for 150 from 36 overs against Gloucestershire and he took only four wickets in his final five first-class games (although he managed three for 33 in a minor game against the Eastern Counties). Valentine recalled, in a 1939 interview, that by the end of the season, he and the other players were exhausted: “Just dying for the day when the tour would be over.”

Valentine ended the tour with 36 wickets at 42.80. With the bat, he managed a few useful innings. His only fifty of the tour in first-class games was scored against Middlesex; he scored an unbeaten 59 batting at number nine but more importantly shared a last-wicket partnership of 132 in 58 minutes with Griffith (who scored 62), taking the total from 250 for nine to 380 all out. Late in the tour, he managed a couple of 40s, one against Gloucestershire and another against an England XI. Overall, he scored 391 runs at 17.00. If a 1937 piece in the Gleaner indicated that he had been unlucky and bowled better than his figures suggested, Valentine never again came close to the West Indies team.

Valentine, along with most of the other Jamaican members of the team, departed slightly before the others, on 14 September. But when he returned home, he was ill for some time and did not play any cricket in the 1934 season, which may have affected his chances of re-establishing himself. He did not play in Jamaica’s match against the MCC touring team in 1935. He recovered well enough in 1935 to top the Senior Cup bowling averages with 30 wickets at 9.16. Around this time, he was probably at his best as a bowler, and he reached the peak of his career soon after. Although the opposition were English, his success came not in a Test match but when Yorkshire toured Jamaica in 1936. Valentine took five for 54 against the visitors in a non-first-class game for “Jamaica Next” (and scored an unbeaten 53) but was omitted from the Jamaican team for the first of three first-class games against Yorkshire (which the home team lost). He played the final two matches, and the Gleaner in 1937 suggested that the Yorkshire players considered him Jamaica’s best bowler. In two very high-scoring draws, he took seven wickets at 32.42: he took three for 98 out of a total of 465 in the second game and four for 119 (from 56 overs) out of Yorkshire’s 556 for nine in the second. He was top of the Jamaican bowling averages. He also scored 93 runs in three innings, with a top score of 36. It was comfortably his best performance as a first-class cricketer.

Out of contention for the Test team, and as Jamaica played so few first-class games, Valentine’s career at the highest level was effectively over. His final first-class match was played for Jamaica against the visiting Oxford and Cambridge Universities in 1938; he took one wicket in the game. In 24 matches, he had scored 500 runs at 17.85 and taken 49 wickets at 40.40. But he was not done as a cricketer in Jamaica.

He continued to play in the Senior Cup, and moved to Melbourne for 1936. His form fell away, perhaps owing to his heavy workload against Yorkshire, with 19 wickets at 21.47. From 1937, he played less frequently, preferring to appear in the less competitive Evelyn Cup for the Farm School cricket team. He gradually drifted away from cricket — presumably owing to his career outside the game — although he was still playing for St George’s in 1939 (alongside his brother Herbert) and for Melbourne in the Senior Cup in 1941 (he scored an unbeaten 96 in one game) but seems to have retired in the early 1940s. Even in the late 1940s, he remained a good bowler. In a sensational return for Melbourne in the Senior Cup that year, he took seven for 45 against St Catherine. Meanwhile, he continued to play in friendly matches, appearing for a number of teams. One of these, the Musketeers’ Cricket Club, he captained. When he retired as a player, he took up umpiring, which he performed into the 1960s.

Former West Indies cricketers at the Machado Cricket Festival at Sabina Park in 1963. Back row: John Holt Senior, Raymond Phillips, Ernest Rae, Rolf Grant, George Mudie, Vin Valentine, Hines Johnson, Dickie Fuller, Esmond Kentish, Ivan Barrow, Peter Bayley, Franz Alexander. Front row: Jackie Hendriks, Ken Rickards Senior, Allan Rae, Everton Weekes, Alf Scott, George Headley Clyde Walcott, John Holt Junior, Jimmy Cameron (Image: Gleaner Archives)

Unsurprisingly, information about Valentine’s life away from cricket is sparse. In 1942, he married Winsome May Thomas (1914–1982), a dressmaker, in Kingston. They had two children, Judy and Denis.Valentine’s occupation at this time is unclear. At the time of the 1933 tour, he was still a teacher. Alongside the other teachers in the team — the captain Jackie Grant and Ben Sealey — he was a guest at a function organised by the National Union of Teachers in London. On his marriage certificate in 1942, he gave his occupation as a clerk, while his death certificate stated that he was an accountant. At some point before the mid-1950s, Valentine moved into marketing, the occupation given in his Gleaner obituary. He worked in the Marketing Department in Kingston, although it is not quite clear when he made the switch. Between May and October 1954, he took a course in mechanical accounting in England. Arriving on the Northern Lights and departing on the Bayano, he travelled first-class both ways. While in England, in between his studies, he played cricket for Dulwich, doing quite well. By this time, another Valentine had surpassed him in cricketing fame; the unrelated Alf Valentine had been one of the stars of the West Indies’ triumphant 1950 tour of England. Some newspapers reporting on Dulwich’s cricket confused the two men and reported that A. Valentine had played for the team.

The course may have been connected to Valentine’s promotion in the Marketing Department; by the time of his retirement in 1962, he had reached the position of Deputy Marketing Administrator. Otherwise, Valentine seems to have led a quiet life away from the spotlight, largely forgotten as a cricketer, although in 1971, he was made a life member of Kensington Cricket Club. Valentine died on 6 July 1972 at Half Way Tree, Saint Andrew, Jamaica, aged 64. His cause of death was listed as recurrent pyelonephritis (kidney inflammation) which was linked to a cerebral thrombosis from two months earlier (which had left him partially paralysed). A generous obituary was printed in the Gleaner, but nothing appeared in Wisden, despite his presence on the 1933 tour and his two Test matches for the West Indies.