posted by John Winn
The gas man finally came to call, not on Monday morning but shortly after lunch and whilst waiting for him I took my 1940 Wisden from its resting place and turned to coverage of the West Indies' tour of the previous summer, a summer firmly enshrined in the history books as the world went to war for the second time in a generation. With England starting another series against that opposition this afternoon it seemed appropriate on this most frosty of mornings to look back eighty years to when Trinidadian Rolph Stewart Grant brought his sixteen men for what was only their third tour of what, at that time, they might have called 'the mother country'.
In his postings Tony often uses the phrase 'proper' cricket, and if I might partially borrow from his lexicon, this was a 'proper tour' for they arrived in time to play a match at Gravesend on May 3rd, more than seven weeks before they met England at Lord's and only the outbreak of war which caused five matches to be cancelled prevented the tour continuing into September. Amongst the cancelled matches was the traditional Scarborough Festival game against HDG Leveson-Gower's XI. That game scheduled to start on September 7th should have been preceded by Yorkshire v MCC and Gentlemen v Players but these too were cancelled.
The tour began in 'miserable' weather but better conditions followed and a popular bunch of cricketers attracted good crowds and took home a decent profit. Eight first class matches were won, six lost and eleven drawn. Casting an eye down the list of players names like Headley, Stollmeyer, Gomez and Constantine catch one's attention but as the late Tony Cozier wrote 'responsibility rested heavily on the shoulders of too few'. By the time they got to Lord's on June 24th they had 13 first class matches under their belts, four of which had been won and although England won by eight wickets, 55,000 paying customers saw some excellent cricket with Headley scoring centuries in both innings.Those lucky enough to be there on the second day saw a wonderful partnership between Hutton and Compton who added 248 for the fourth wicket in two hours twenty minutes. At one point on the third and last day it looked as though the tourists might save the game but three quick wickets for Doug Wright caused a collapse and England were left to get 99 which they achieved in 17 overs.
A month elapsed before the second test at Old Trafford but although the weather was not as bad as it had been in 1938 when the match against Australia was abandoned without a ball being bowled, only 35 minutes play was possible on the first day and by the time both first innings had been completed there was less than five hours left for play. England's approach was cautious and Hammond's declaration left West Indies to get 160 in 70 minutes. The loss of four wickets for 43 runs suggests a more enterprising approach might have paid dividends.
The schedule allowed another four weeks cricket between tests before the teams came to The Oval on August 19th. Once again good crowds saw excellent batting, estimated attendances of 20000 and 23500 on the first two days, and over the three days 1216 runs were scored while only 23 wickets fell. Centuries for Hutton and Hammond who added 264 in three hours graced the last day after West Indies had scored almost 500 in their only knock, 137 for KH Weekes. There is a wonderfully evocative photograph taken as the players left the field on the evening of August 22nd. It shows Martindale and Sealy each carrying a stump as long shadows stretch across the ground. It was to be the last test these two were to play and there would be no more test cricket at the famous ground for almost exactly seven years when rain ruined the 1946 test with India. Further cricket should have been played at the ground in 1939 but Surrey's match with Lancashire was switched to Old Trafford and was left abandoned as a draw with no play on the third day 'owing to Crisis'.
With war only a little over a week away the rest of the tour was cancelled and the tourists sailed for Montreal in third class accommodation on SS Montrose. They had been scheduled to play at Hove on Saturday August 26th and the day before received a telegram from Sussex which read 'Essential to play tomorrow. Keep the flag flying.' Whether it was signed by Colonel Blimp is not known. Had the tourists delayed their departure to satisfy Sussex's request Tony Cozier suggests they would have travelled on SS Athenia which was sunk by a U Boat a week later.
As some may be aware there was further cricket played at Hove that season for whilst championship matches at Lord's, Gloucester and Old Trafford were cancelled Yorkshire, having beaten Hants at Bournemouth travelled along the coast to play Sussex. In his book 'The Sweetest Rose' David Warner suggests two reasons why the match was completed. Firstly because skipper Sellars 'had received no order to the contrary' and secondly the match was to be 'Jim Park's benefit and they did not want to let him down.' The match was completed on Friday September 1st and with experimental blackout regulations in force they travelled home by coach stopping overnight in Leicester. Back in Yorkshire early on Saturday morning the fine writer JM Kilburn describes the end of an era thus. 'Halts began, one passenger dropping off here, another there. Finally came journey's end in City Square Leeds and thence departed their several ways one of the finest county teams in the history of cricket. It never assembled again'. For Verity of course it was the end of his career, he was to be killed in action in 1943. His final analysis in the nine wicket win was 6 overs, 1 maiden, 7 for 9. On the Sunday war was declared against Germany.
Finally as promised here is the Yorkshire team that played at Guilford in 2002. MJ Wood, VJ Craven, A McGrath, DS Lehmann, MJ Lumb, GM Fellows, RJ Blakey, RKJ Dawson, CEW Silverwood, RJ Sidebottom, and DH Wigley.
