English cricket team in the West Indies in 1910–11


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

The team

A party of 11 was taken:
APFC Somerset was the son of AWF Somerset, who had toured the West Indies with Lord Brackley's team six years earlier. DCF Burton and DSG Burton were cousins.
AC Johnston, LHW Troughton and GJ Thompson all withdrew from the published side and only 11 players were eventually taken on the tour. The team was thought to be quite weak but performed better than expected. The three professionals were all good players although Brown and Hearne were inexperienced at this time. Sydney Smith, although a native of Trinidad, was playing county cricket and Tom Whittington was a regular for Glamorgan in the Minor Counties Championship. An inevitable constraint was that, with only 11 players touring, there were occasions when local players had to be used to complete the team.

The tour

The team left England on the RMSP Clyde on 18 January 1911.
Matches played were:
Of the 11 first-class matches, 3 were won, 4 lost, 3 drawn and 1 tied. The minor match was won. Unlike previous tours there were no matches in any of the smaller islands.
Starting in Barbados, the tourists lost the first two matches heavily but the match against a West Indies XI was won. The West Indies XI was without any Trinidad players because of quarantine restrictions.
In British Guiana the tourists won well with some good batting by Whittington and Holloway and they then beat the West Indian side. A second match against the West Indies was organised but when Archer was dropped the two other Barbados players refused to play.
The first match in Trinidad was played immediately after the tourists had got off the boat and they lost by an innings. The second match was closer although still won by Trinidad.
After the long trip to Jamaica the tourists played four matches there. Rain ruined the first two matches and after a win against Port Antonio the final match ended in a tie.
Sydney Smith was the leading player for the tourists being top of the bowling averages and second in the batting averages. Whittington and Holloway also batted well despite having only played one first class match between them before the tour started. Hearne was a success with the ball but Brown and Young were something of a disappointment. Despite being in his mid-50s the captain also turned out to be a useful bowler.

Averages

The following averages are in the 11 first class matches:
PlayerPINORHSAve10050C/S
TAL Whittington1120267815437.66228
SG Smith112135478130.3857
L Heath121271527.002
BH Holloway1017041610024.47129
ELGN Grell120422521.001
DCF Burton101703345719.6423
JW Hearne112123445618.10213
AWF Somerset111752146017.83110/2
G Brown112112983514.9010/3
HPL Gaussen101802607714.441
CO Simpson120272713.501
HI Young111922257313.2315
DSG Burton1017513838*11.502
GBM Liddlelow12018139.00
APFC Somerset11195120338.576

Grell, Heath, Liddlelow and Simpson were local players.

Bowling

PlayerOMRWBBAve5i10m
SG Smith300.257845476–4217.9731
HI Young20441517255–6120.681
JW Hearne398.4621450677–6821.6462
APFC Somerset144.316558245–6223.251
G Brown1061540993–2645.44

External sources