First Official Tour of West Indies

 By Brian Sanderson

Whilst the Test matches were being played in New Zealand in 1930 some other Test matches were being played by M.C.C in the West Indies. MCC  played 13 matches, of which they won 4, lost 2 and drew 7.They were led by The Hon Frederick Somerset Gough Calthorpe  who was the captain of Warwickshire. These 4 Test matches were the only Test matches played by Calthorpe.Included in the side were two Yorkshire players Wilfred Rhodes and Lt-Colonel Ronald Thomas "Rony" Stanyforth CVO,MC. Two completely different cricketers.

This was Wilfred's last tour with M.C.C and as quoted in Sidney Rogerson's biography, Wilfred felt he was the "donkey" of the Calthorpe team. Later in the 1930s he decided to retire after 33 years of playing first class cricket. He topped the bowling averages taking 41 wickets at 23.68, not
bad for a 53 year old cricketer.

The second Yorkshire cricketer was Rony Stanyforth who only played 61 first class matches in 4 of which  he captained England.when they toured South Africa in 1928.The story goes that he was only given the captaincy because he was a good after dinner speaker. On the West Indian tour he could only play in 4 matches because he badly cut his figure during the Second Representative match  at Port of Spain.so had to leave the tour.