English cricket team in the West Indies in 1912–13


The seventh team of English cricketers toured the West Indies in the 1912–13 season. The tour was organised by MCC. As in 1910–11, the team was captained by AWF Somerset. The tour involved a total of 9 matches, all of which are regarded as first-class, between January and March 1913.

The players

A party of 13 was taken:
AWF Somerset, his son APFC Somerset, Burton, Sydney Smith and Whittington had toured with the previous MCC team of 1910–11. Three good professionals were included, Humphreys, Relf and Razor Smith. Burton, Sydney Smith and Whittington had performed well on the previous tour and were arguably the best of the amateurs. As in the previous MCC tour the remaining players had little first-class experience. Despite being 57 years old the captain kept wicket in all the matches.

The tour

The side arrived in Barbados on the RMS Magdalena on 27 January.
Matches played were:
Of the 9 first class matches played in Barbados, Trinidad and British Guiana, 5 were won, 3 lost and 1 drawn.
The tourists lost the first two matches against Barbados by an innings but then defeated a West Indies XI with Humphreys taking 13 wickets.
Moving on to Trinidad, the tourists won the first match but were lucky to draw the second. In the second match against the West Indies XI, Ince made 167 for the home side and they won by an innings. Cumberbatch was bowled when he shouldered his bat because he had been distracted by leaves blowing across the pitch. Given out by the umpire, he appealed to Somerset and was allowed to continue his innings, a sporting gesture by the captain. Burton and the captain added 89 for the last wicket in the MCC second innings and were only separated with 20 minutes remaining.
In British Guiana, the two matches against the colony were won comfortably and the third match against the West Indies XI was also won by 10 wickets with Humphreys scoring a century adding 152 with Whittington. Jaques and the captain added 80 for the last wicket. Moulder carried his bat in the West Indies second innings.
The three professionals headed the batting averages and, with Sydney Smith, took most of the wickets. Burton, Whittington and Sydney Smith also performed well with the bat.

Averages

The following averages are in the 9 first class matches.

Batting

PlayerPINORHSAve10050C/S
AE Relf91525389241.38–410
E Humphreys915156110640.07218
WC Smith46213212633.001–7
DCF Burton81313787131.50–34
TAL Whittington6902526228.00–32
SG Smith91513547125.28–36
AWF Somerset913419255*21.33–19/2
SG Fairbairn814224162*20.08–13
MHC Doll81302395218.38–23
BP Dobson713215955*14.45–12
GAM Docker711212936*14.33––2
A Jaques81341064811.77––10
APFC Somerset711197349.70––2

Bowling

PlayerOMRWBBAve5i10m
E Humphreys250.554670407–7516.7551
SG Smith22060532296–4518.341–
AE Relf204.555506225–3223.001–
A Jaques40614552–3129.00––
SG Fairbairn10014373123–5531.08––
MHC Doll66.21129195–5232.331–
GAM Docker35016952–6633.80––
WC Smith962526852–11653.60––
APFC Somerset67725442–4563.50––

External sources