back of the West Indies, that Lord Hawke had little difficulty in getting together an amateur side to go out a couple of years later.
We sailed from Southampton in January 1897, and after a pleasant fortnight's voyage arrived at Port of Spain, Trinidad. Here we opened with a big score against the Queen's Park Cricket Club, but came to grief when opposing the island team, chiefly owing to some excellent bowling by two black men. Woods and Cumberbatch, on not a very easy wicket of the kind where one ball bumped and the next shot. But admitting that they received considerable assistance from the wicket, Woods and Cumberbatch bowled excellently, and took thirty-nine out of the forty wickets that fell in the two matches. As it happened, these two defeats were the only ones we experienced in the fourteen matches which we played, and though I do not by any means wish to make excuses, Trinidad certainly caught us at a disadvantage, as we had not become acclimatised to the great heat, and, moreover, had not had sufficient opportunities to get into form. But the Trinidad side were a good one, their strength lying in their bowling. The batting was, with one or two exceptions, rather rough, but the fielding was excellent, and this, coupled with the bowling of Woods and Cumberbatch, proved too much for us.
Cricket is, or was at the time I was there, established on a firmer basis in Trinidad than in any other of the West Indian islands, and the game was well supported by all classes.
