Famous Cricketers No 94 - Alfred Lewis Valentine

too dearly for them. His seven wickets in four first-class matches this winter cost 477 runs. Valentine’s sole consolation was that his last victim, Jim Laker, whom he bowled in the first innings at Georgetown, provided him with his 100th wicket in Test cricket. Easily his finest performance came at Bridgetown where he claimed 3/61 from 51.5 overs in the first innings of the second Test. Valentine’s batting proved even more feeble than usual, as he ended the season with five consecutive ducks. The West Indies won the first two Tests easily enough, but England drew the series on the strength of some superb batting from Len Hutton throughout and some splendid bowling by Trevor Bailey at Kingston and Brian Statham at Georgetown. For the West Indies, the major stars were Sonny Ramadhin, who took 23 Test wickets (ave 24.30), and J.K. Holt, Clyde Walcott and Everton Weekes, each of whom averaged more than 50 runs per innings. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 48. Jamaica v MCC, Kingston, January 2, 3, 5, 6 (MCC won by an innings and 21 runs) b G.A.R.Lock 5 266 18 1 99 0 457-7d b J.B.Statham 0 170 49. WEST INDIES v ENGLAND, Kingston, January 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21 (West Indies won by 140 runs) b F.S.Trueman 0 417 31 10 50 3 L.Hutton b 170 D.C.S.Compton lbw T.G.Evans c E.S.M.Kentish did not bat - 209-6d 25 6 71 0 316 50. WEST INDIES v ENGLAND, Bridgetown, February 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (West Indies won by 181 runs) not out 0 383 51.5 30 61 3 L.Hutton c S.Ramadhin 181 D.C.S.Compton c F.M.King J.B.Statham c J.K.C.Holt did not bat - 292-2d 39 18 87 0 313 51. WEST INDIES v ENGLAND, Georgetown, February 24, 25, 26, 27, March 1, 2 (England won by nine wickets) run out 0 251 44 18 109 1 J.C.Laker b 435 b J.H.Wardle 0 256 - - - - 75-1 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Test matches 3 4 1 0 0* 0.00 - - - Other match 1 2 0 5 5 2.50 - - - Season 4 6 1 5 5 1.00 - - - Career 51 61 15 187 18 4.06 - - 19 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Test matches 190.5 82 378 7 3-50 54.00 - - Other match 18 1 99 0 - - - - Season (6-ball) 208.5 83 477 7 3-50 68.14 - - Career (6-ball) 2272.1 881 } 6122 258 8-26 23.72 21 5 (8-ball) 537.3 101 1954/55 On the featherbed pitches then in vogue in the Caribbean, Valentine suffered even worse against the touring Australians than he had done the year before against England. Selected again for only three of the five Tests, he conceded 349 runs from 140 overs and had only five wickets to show for his pains. Australia amassed scores of 515/9 declared, 600/9 declared, 668 and 758/8 declared. They won the series 3-0 and became the first Test-playing touring side to leave the Caribbean unbeaten in any first-class encounter. They did so despite the heroics of Clyde Walcott, who struck five Test centuries against them and registered 827 runs in the series. Shortly before the Australians arrived, Valentine bowled extremely well against Trinidad in two games at Kingston and achieved his highest score to date (23), but could not sustain this form throughout the season. In the same match, he also claimed 19