“A grand fellow”: The later years of Manny Martindale

Martindale bowls to Len Hutton at the Oval in the third Test of the 1939 series (Image: Leeds Mercury, 21 August 1939)

By the mid-1930s, the undisputed fastest bowler in the world was Manny Martindale of Barbados and the West Indies. Admittedly, there was not a great deal of competition at that time, but Martindale established a good reputation during the West Indies’ 1933 tour of England and a fearsome one when West Indies defeated England 2–1 in the 1934–35 series, particularly after breaking Bob Wyatt’s jaw. Following this performance, he was signed by Burnley Cricket Club to play professionally in the Lancashire League between 1936 and 1938. By the time he had completed three largely successful seasons at the club — albeit ones in which might have been viewed as slightly disappointing given his status — he had moved his entire family to live in Burnley and make a new life there. But looming over the 1938 season was the question of the forthcoming tour of England by the West Indies in 1939. The West Indies Board of Control were keen for Burnley to allow Martindale to play, but nothing was certain; Learie Constantine, for example, had missed most of the 1933 tour owing to his commitments with Nelson Cricket Club.

Negotiations over Martindale’s place on the 1939 tour went on through the 1938 season. There were some suspicions in the West Indies that Burnley were reluctant to release him, but the delay was largely over whether he would be released from his contract completely, or just for the Test matches. The Burnley President, at the annual meeting, emphasised that the club would never stand in the way of any player appearing in Test matches. He said that the club had agreed to release Martindale, whose wish to take part in the tour was given precedence; he would be available for the entirety of the 1939 tour. Amar Singh was to be his replacement for 1939, and the position of professional for 1940, when Martindale was expected to be available, would be reviewed later.

Behind the scenes, however, the problem lay not with Burnley but with the West Indies Cricket Board, and the issue of paying the three professionals in the team — Martindale, Constantine and Headley, who played league cricket in England. The rest of the West Indies team was entirely amateur and required no money other than expenses; the professionals would have to be paid if the West Indies Cricket Board was to have their services. Furthermore, the presence of all three men was essential to the success of the tour. They were well-known in England and were guaranteed to draw crowds; and if the West Indies were to have any chance of on-field success that summer, they would depend heavily on the trio.

All three of their clubs — Burnley, Rochdale (for whom Constantine played in 1938) and Haslingden (Headley’s club) — were happy to release their players, all of whom expressed the wish to join the West Indies. They also agreed a pay cut, but while the Board offered Constantine £600, it offered only £500 to Headley and Martindale. When the latter two became aware of the gap, they were not happy and Martindale wrote a letter to the WICB, in which he said: “My remuneration in a league season exceeds by a big margin whatever I shall receive for playing with the West Indies, with much less cricket. Therefore considering all of the above-mentioned circumstances, I feel I am doing West Indies cricket a great favour in deciding to play on tour, for which I must be paid £600 and expenses.” The WICB conceded and offered £600 to all three players, but Headley and Martindale held out a little longer, requesting the same £50 clothing allowance offered to the amateur players. The WICB, run by white Europeans, was reluctant to concede; their attitude was doubtless driven by racism and issues of class, but in the end they had little choice but to agree.

This, in turn, angered Constantine, who had been given an informal guarantee to be the best-paid professional owing to his senior status. Although the WICB suspected the three professionals had conspired to force up their wages, they added the £50 allowance to Constantine’s contract. But the unpleasantness led to a falling-out between Constantine and Martindale. Peter Mason, in his 2008 biography of Constantine, relates:

“[Constantine] was not afraid of breaking up with valued friendships if necessary, as surviving correspondence between himself and his erstwhile West Indies bowling companion Manny Martindale attests. Martindale … had a bitter falling out with Constantine. This was partly over the fact that the former had appeared to use Constantine’s pay negotiations during the 1939 Test series to hold out for extra money himself, partly due to what Constantine perceived as Martindale’s easy-come-easy-go attitude to their friendship. The often vituperative correspondence, in which Constantine gave as good as he got, showed a hard-edged side to him that was rarely revealed.”

But any schism between Martindale and Constantine was not, as we shall see, long-lasting. Furthermore, such challenges to the ruling bodies of cricket were exceptionally rare at this time, and had never taken place in West Indies cricket before. That the three professionals were the undoubted winners can be established by a comparison to the wages for MCC tours; the English professionals who toured Australia on the Bodyline tour of 1932–33 received a basic wage of £400, although bonuses could raise this above £700 for the top performers. Similarly, the nominally amateur Australian team which toured England in 1930 were paid £600.

With his place on the tour settled, Martindale and his family remained in England over the winter of 1938–39; in fact, they did not return to Barbados until 1964. When snow fell that winter, the local press reported that Gillan Martindale and their three children were seeing it for the first time. Meanwhile, in the West Indies, a team was assembled after the usual trial matches. Alongside Martindale, who was to be the spearhead of the attack, the selectors included three other fast bowlers: Leslie Hylton of Jamaica, who had been devastating in the 1934–35 series; E. A. V. “Foffie” Williams, who had played alongside Martindale for Empire Cricket Club and for Barbados; and Tyrell Johnson of Trinidad. Constantine, in contrast to his first three tours of England, was now generally a medium-paced bowler with an occasional faster ball rather than a genuine fast bowler.

Martindale and Derek Sealey sign autographs during the 1939 tour of England (Image: Newcastle Chronicle, 15 July 1939)

However, the 1939 tour was a disappointing one for Martindale. He took just 34 first-class wickets at an average of 34.50, while in the three Test series that the West Indies lost 1–0, he took four wickets at 78.50. England easily won the first Test and were on top in the second, which was ruined by rain. Only in the third were the visitors able to give England a fright, and that was largely owing to a commanding batting performance. Any hopes the West Indies may have had of a repeat of the success of the pace strategy of 1934–35 were dashed by the poor returns of not only Martindale, but also Hylton (39 wickets at 27.71 in the first-class games but only three at 55.66 in the Tests), Williams (14 wickets, and only one Test match) and Johnson (16 wickets, and only one Test match). Williams and Johnson only appeared intermittently throughout the tour. Only Constantine, who took over 100 wickets, and the leg-spinner Bertie Clarke were consistently among the wickets.

As for Martindale, he began the tour quite well, but was a little expensive, and the wickets dried up as the season progressed. In the later games, he was only used sparingly. His only five-wicket return was five for 57 against Leicestershire. Nor did his batting success in league cricket translate to first-class level, and he averaged just 12.43 with the bat. The Wisden report on the tour was scathing: “Unlike Constantine, Martindale failed to profit by his experiences in English Saturday afternoon games. He did not approach his previous success on tour when, strangely enough, he took 103 wickets, the number claimed now by Constantine at smaller cost. Martindale fell off in pace and accuracy.” It is not clear what caused such a falling off; he was still only 29 and should have been near his peak. Part of the reason may have been a very wet season which hardly suited fast bowlers, but most observers concluded he was simply not as fast as he once was. In his autobiography Everything Under the Sun (1983), Jeff Stollmeyer — a very young member of the 1939 team , who recalled in his book that watching Martindale bowl to Bob Wyatt’s team in 1935 had “struck fear into me as a youngster of thirteen — but of Martindale on that tour he wrote: “His arm had ‘dropped’ after several seasons of bowling on slow wickets in the Lancashire League, and on this tour he was nothing more than the purveyor of rather gentle out swingers”. Maybe his effectiveness suffered from altering his style for Burnley. Or perhaps his lack of top-level cricket since early 1935 may have been an issue. Or he could simply have had a bad season.

Embed from Getty Images

The 1939 West Indies team. Back row: W. Ferguson (scorer), G. Gomez, J. B. Stollmeyer, L. G. Hylton, T. Johnson, C. B. Clarke, H. P. Bayley, E. A. V. Williams. Middle row: G. Headley, I. Barrow, R. S. Grant (captain), J. M. Kidney (manager), J. H. Cameron, L. N. Constantine, E. A. Martindale. On floor: K. H. Weekes, J. E. D. Sealy, V. H. Stollmeyer.

Martindale played in the drawn Oval Test, but that was his final first-class game. With the Second World War imminent, the last matches of the tour were abandoned, and he never played another game at that level. Most of his team-mates departed for home. But he and Constantine had by then made a life in England; Martindale returned to Burnley, where he is recorded living with Gillan and their children on the 1939 Register. The family had expanded by then; their second daughter, Carol, was born in early 1939. She was followed by Monica Yvonne in 1942 and Pamela in 1944.

During the war, Martindale remained in England. He was not the only West Indies Test player in the country. Constantine began working for the Ministry of Labour, among other roles. Edwin St Hill also continued to live in England. He initially joined the army and, after being discharged, worked as a machinist. Ellis Achong played professional cricket in Lancashire. Bertie Clarke returned to study medicine in London. And throughout the war, all of them were in considerable demand as cricketers as the public looked for distractions from their troubles.

For the 1940 season, Martindale signed for Bingley in the Bradford League, one of the few places to offer professional cricket during the war. He was not alone; Constantine signed for Windhill Cricket Club (which had been a rumoured destination of both him and Martindale before war broke out) and many English professionals flocked to the League, making it the best place to see international cricketers playing competitively. Both Martindale and Constantine proved enormously popular and the matches between their two clubs were keenly contested. Martindale, who was paid less than Constantine, managed to secure local sponsorship, and his photograph advertised “Sharples Warehouse” in Bingley. On the field, he scored 449 runs at 24.00 — which included an undefeated century against Bowling Old Lane; with the ball, he took 59 wickets at 12.62, finishing seventh — one place behind Constantine — in the league averages. But he proved enormously popular with the club.

Martindale remained with Bingley in 1941, returning similar figures with the ball — 60 wickets at 12.75, 17th in the averages — but falling off with the bat, scoring 260 runs at 16.25. His wage demands caused a few financial problems for his club, and they decided not to renew his contract for the following season. However, he remained in the Bradford League, signing for Keighley for 1942. His 69 wickets at 9.79 played a large part in the club securing promotion to the “A” Division at the end of the season. He remained there in 1943, taking 73 wickets at 10.47 but averaging under 5 with the bat.

For 1944, Martindale left Bradford, moving to Radcliffe in the Central Lancashire League; Constantine also joined that league, playing for Crompton. It is not impossible that they chose to move together, indicating that any issues over the 1939 tour had long been resolved. Martindale took 71 wickets at 8.67 (10th in the averages) and scored 236 runs at 13.88. Radcliffe won the league, remaining unbeaten all season. He re-signed with the club for 1945 and despite what The Cricketer called a slow start to his season, took 68 wickets at 10.08 (although Radcliffe fell to fifth in the league).

The “Dominions” team which played at Lord’s in 1943; Martindale stands second from the left on the back row. His team-mates included D. P. B. Morkel, the former South African Test player (fourth from the right, back row); Keith Miller who played for Australia after the war (third from the right, back row); and the former New Zealand batsman C. S. Dempster (second from right, front row). Also in the team were his West Indies team-mates C. B. Clarke (second from right, back row) and Learie Constantine (far left, front row). (Image: Australian War Memorial)

If Martindale’s average looks impressive during the war, it was perhaps helped by impact of so many men being away on national service. The quality of league cricket doubtlessly suffered as the war progressed, which may explain how Martindale was able to return such spectacular figures. Perhaps more representative of his ability at this stage of his career was his record in the numerous wartime charity matches played between 1940 and 1945. He played frequently for “West Indies” or “Empire” teams, usually alongside many of his former Test team-mates. For “West Indies” teams, usually against high-profile opposition, he averaged over 40 with the ball; in all wartime charity games, he averaged around 22. In many games, he played alongside Learie Constantine, another indication that the two had made friends again, and Martindale was part of the latter’s team which toured Scotland in both 1945 and 1946. Other frequent team-mates included Edwin St Hill, Achong and Clarke.

In 1946, Martindale returned to the Bradford League, where he joined the now-amateur Constantine at Windhill, heading the league averages with 56 wickets at 9.80. He was the best-paid player in the league that season. This was not the only time the pair were associated; as Richard Bentley writes in A War to the Knife (2019): “Clearly relations improved … because Martindale worked for a short stint with Learie Constantine in the managing of a hostel in Bolton, before working as a supervisor at Lucas’ Electrical in Lancashire.”

In August 1946, Martindale agreed a return to the Lancashire League when he signed a two-year deal with Lowerhouse, to begin in the 1947 season, when he would be 37 years old. In reporting the signing of his contract at his home in Burnley, the Burnley Express stated that his salary — which was not revealed — was to be the highest ever given to a Lowerhouse professional. There was some confusion at Windhill, the secretary of whom revealed to a Bradford Observer journalist that he knew nothing of any such deal.

Despite his age, Martindale had an extraordinarily good season at Lowerhouse, using his years of experience of league cricket to great effect. With the ball, he took 106 wickets at 10.16 — his best total and average in the Lancashire League — and scored 532 runs at 24.18. He was third in the league bowling averages, with the second highest wicket total, and 28th in batting. Lowerhouse played Burnley, Martindale’s old club, three times that season; in each game he took six wickets. Although Lowerhouse only finished sixth, their season was very good: they recorded a record profit of £583 and at the annual meeting, the president, T. Redman, reflected on how well the club had recovered from being on the brink of financial collapse in 1933 — incidentally, the last time they had a West Indian professional (Edwin St Hill). Redman also enthused about Martindale’s role, calling him a “grand fellow” who had not given the club any trouble. Presenting the prizes at the same meeting, Martindale in turn offered his own praise, expressing pleasure at the playing and financial results of the season, modestly playing down his own achievements, and said that he had enjoyed his season with Lowerhouse more than that with any other club: “When we have done well we have been pleased, and when we have lost we have pulled each other’s leg. Altogether we have been one happy family.”

Martindale may have been telling the truth rather than simply being polite, because something about Lowerhouse continued to bring out the best in him. Although the club dropped to ninth in 1947, his own form — although falling away slightly from the very high peak of the previous season — was good. He scored 447 runs at 21.28 (25th in the batting averages) and took 83 wickets at 13.63 (15th in the bowling averages). Consequently, he signed a two-year extension on his contract; he also was engaged for two hours per week coaching pupils of Burnley Grammar School. He had another excellent season in 1949, scoring 589 runs at 23.56 (27th) and taking 85 wickets at 11.94 (6th). Martindale was now a distinct bridge between two eras; as a pre-war Test player, he now bowled at post-war stars including Everton Weekes and Vijay Hazare. To his credit, he continued to perform well against such cricketers; for example, he trapped Hazare lbw for 17 in one match and bowled Weekes for 5 in another. But Lowerhouse remained in ninth position.

His final season with Lowerhouse was 1950, by which time he was 40 years old. He took just 33 wickets at 21.33 (37th) and scored 532 runs at 38.00 (11th). The team were joint-eleventh and chose not to renew Martindale’s contract, instead signing another West Indian, Roy Marshall, as his replacement. For Lowerhouse, Martindale had scored 2,100 runs at 25.60 and taken 307 wickets at 12.79; in 2021, he remains 12th on the list of leading wicket-takers for Lowerhouse.

Martindale presented the prizes at a ceremony for the Burnley and District Sunday School Cricket League in 1954 (Image: Burnley Express, 16 October 1954)

But Martindale was not quite finished, and he returned to the Bradford League. He signed for Keighley in a dual role as professional and coach for 1951, and his 56 wickets at 14.28 helped the club to win the Second Division title. He was also able to use his influence to encourage several of the 1950 West Indies team to play a challenge match against his team.

But Keighley decided to become an all-amateur club over the winter of 1951–52 — mainly for financial reasons as they could not afford to re-sign Martindale — and so Martindale headed to the North Staffordshire Cricket League, something of a step down in terms of cricketing prestige. Keighley reversed their decision before the 1952 season, singing a cheaper professional, which may suggest that their change of policy was only temporary in order to remove Martindale’s wages from their books. Martindale, meanwhile, played for Norton from 1952 to 1954. In 1953, his 82 wickets at 9.60 and 394 runs at 28.10 (the best all-round record in the competition) helped the team to the league title. He also appeared once in the Worsley Cup for Lowerhouse in 1953, playing as an amateur; although this was only a one-off, it was possible because he still lived in Burnley and the mid-week Worsley Cup games did not clash with his professional commitments at the weekend. While his figures were rarely spectacular at Norton, he continued to hold his own at that level. In 1954, he scored 312 runs at 20.80 and took 43 wickets at 15.00.

Despite his clearly fading powers, Martindale had one final season in the Lancashire League when Bacup signed him as a replacement for the unavailable Everton Weekes. The gamble was unsuccessful and his record was poor: he scored 342 runs at 16.28 and took 46 wickets at 20.34. That was the end of Martindale’s career at the top level of league cricket, but his record in the Lancashire League is impressive: he played a total of 200 league matches in his three spells as a professional, scoring 4,274 runs at 24.99 and taking 573 wickets at 13.99.

After this, although Martindale remained a professional cricketer, he becomes harder to trace as he moved to more obscure leagues. He certainly continued to play; for example, we know that he had two seasons for Great Harwood in the Ribblesdale League in 1962 and 1963. And throughout this period, he remained living in Burnley where his children were raised and went to school. For example, Carole and Norma attended Burnley Wood Modern Secondary School and received some newspaper coverage when both won sports awards in 1952.

The Lowerhouse team receive the cup for winning the inaugural “A” team competition in 1949. Fred and Colin Martindale are part of the group (Image: via Lowerhouse Cricket Club)

Meanwhile, Martindale’s two sons had followed him in playing cricket for Lowerhouse. Both were involved in the inaugural “A” team competition for Lancashire League teams in 1949, and soon began to feature in the first team. Alfred (known as Fred) played for Lowerhouse as an amateur from 1949 until 1958 before moving to Burnley, where he played until 1965. He was a batsman, averaging 13.71 across his career, with one century. Colin played for Lowerhouse between 1950 and 1958 before he too moved to Burnley, for whom he played until 1964. He averaged 10.41 with the bat and 30.86 with the ball. As this overlapped with their father’s career at Lowerhouse, Fred appeared alongside him several times in 1949 and 1950. In one 1950 game against Haslingden, both sons played with their father. Neither showed any inclination to turn professional and, encouraged by their father, pursued other careers: Fred became a solicitor and Colin a teacher. Carole and Yvonne also became teachers, the latter moving to Barbados in the early 1960s to continue her career. Pamela became a secretary.

By 1964, Martindale’s playing career was at an end. That year, he and his wife returned to live in Barbados, having spent 28 years in Burnley. But he continued to be involved in sport; he worked for two years as a coach in Bermuda and then with the Barbados Government Sports Department. He also managed the Barbados National Stadium. But the most important thing for him in these years was his family. In A War to the Knife, Richard Bentley includes the memories of Martindale’s grandson Roger:

“[Roger] lived with his grandfather in Barbados and vividly remembers his grandfather taking him to the Merrivale Preparatory School, located at Pine Road, Belleville, St. Michael. Roger describes his grandparents as being ‘inseparable’ and ‘living for each other and their six children.’”

When Gillan died in December 1971, aged just 61, it must have hit Martindale hard. He never really recovered, and he died four months later in March 1972 at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital in St Peter, Barbados.

At the time of his death, and for some time after, Martindale was remembered for his contributions to the early history of the West Indies cricket team. But if he was discussed in newspapers quite regularly, and if old-timers still talked about him, his move to England, and his long-term success in league cricket there was often overlooked. The bravery of him and Gillan in building a life for themselves in a foreign country was rarely mentioned.

However, it is doubtless in the international arena that he made the greatest impact, and in many ways he was the prototype — alongside Constantine, Griffith and Francis, albeit more successfully than any of these — for the West Indies pace bowlers who dominated world cricket for over sixty years after his last Test. And descriptions of him suggest that he would not have been out of place in any of the famous bowling attacks. His technique appears to have been quite modern, from “the fashionable West Indian jump in the middle of [his run]” reported by “Second Slip” in The Cricketer in 1933 to the longer description by “Old Ebor” in the Yorkshire Evening Post during the same season:

“[Martindale] has a long but smooth run, and delivers the ball with a concentration of energy which suggests that bowling is real delight to him, whatever it may be to the man at the wicket. He could make the ball rise just that uncomfortable height that made the batsman play it whether he liked it or not. There were short pitched ones, but none that a skilled and experienced batsman would not have been able to deal with.”

Had he played more regularly, had the West Indies been given more Test matches in the 1930s, and had he maintained the form he showed in his first two series, Martindale would have had exceptional statistics. As it is, we have to base our judgements on the little cricket he could play. And there is no question that Martindale was one of the best bowlers in the world during his brief time at the top, and almost certainly the fastest. Where this places him in the line-up of great West Indian bowlers is an open question. He should certainly be part of the conversation, but after so many years, he has been forgotten. Of all those to fade from the memory in this way, Martindale — perhaps more than most — deserves rediscovery.