Lives in Cricket No 36 - WE Astill

96 The Tourist: ‘a Joy to Know’ Good performances by West Indians against MCC in 1910/11 and on the tour of England in 1923 encouraged the selection of a fairly strong team to visit the islands in the winter of 1925/26. It was, therefore, an indication of MCC’s belated recognition of Astill’s sterling cricket in the previous six years that he was now for the first time selected to tour abroad, in a party led by the Hon F.S.G.Calthorpe. Apart from the opening match against odds there were twelve in all, three in each of Barbados, Trinidad, British Guiana (now Guyana) and Jamaica, the first three hosting ‘representative matches’, or ‘Test matches’ as The Cricketer called them, against full West Indian sides. Wisden reports that it was ‘a most enjoyable tour’ vitiated only by rain and wickets too favourable for batting (the matches were scheduled for only three days each): indeed only three reached a conclusion. Of more importance was the evidence provided that West Indies merited the true status of a Test-playing ‘country’ which was granted them from the 1932 season (and retrospectively from that of 1928). The scores must be treated with caution, for playing conditions often changed rapidly. In a letter home excerpted by the Leicester Mercury Astill wrote: In the first Barbados match we hadn’t a hope. The wicket here is probably the best in the world when dry – after rain the worst, the ball turning and kicking up badly. In this first match they batted on a beautiful wicket, and not once, but twice, we batted on a real terror. Then in the first Test we … made a record score … Rain came again, and they hadn’t a hope, but in the end rain saved them … We would have liked to win the first Test, and were quite disappointed. He played in an unchanged team in all the ‘representative matches’. For the first two he batted at No.9 and the fact that his 32.25 placed him seventh in the averages indicates how he stood out as a bowler, being top with nine wickets at only 23.33. 180 The first, in which Bridgetown’s rain prevented what would surely have been a comfortable victory for the visitors, was dominated by Hammond’s 238 not out, but Astill scored 66 in a very rapid eighth-wicket partnership with the Gloucestershire player of 130 in just 90 minutes, or as he put it in the letter just quoted ‘He and I had some fun towards the end and put on over a hundred in quick time’. Victory did come in the Second Test, in Trinidad, principally due to Astill’s splendid bowling. Though making a mere eight and taking only two wickets in the first innings, one was of the West Indian captain ‘Bunny’ Austin who was threatening to shepherd the tail towards a substantial total. Then in the home side’s second attempt, when he opened the bowling with Hammond, his dismissal lbw of George Challenor, West Indies’ greatest batsman before the rise of Headley, and also of the two highest scorers for an analysis of six for 67 enabled MCC, despite constant interruptions for the supply of water to the thirsty cricketers, 181 to win in a race against time watched by Lord and Lady Harris on the former’s 75th birthday. Unlike the grass wickets elsewhere in the West Indies, the one here at Port of Spain was matting stretched over hard, rolled clay and it 180 Wisden’s and The Cricketer’s averages give him eleven at 22.72, but these figures do not square with their match scores. CricketArchive, bringing electronics to bear, reports his return in these matches as nine at 23.33. 181 The Times , 26 February 1926.