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Icy Wickets and Marshy Outfields: Cricket in the Americas Today when we think of cricket in the Americas few places beyond the West Indies spring to mind. This mental geography is understandable, given the successes of the West Indies and the great cricketers the Caribbean islands have produced; however, it is not the whole story of cricket in the Americas. In fact, cricket has a long history across North America, South America and the Caribbean region and has been the site of many famous cricketing moments; not least the first ever English overseas tour, to Canada and the United States in 1859.1 While this paper will draw attention to a number of such events a history of cricket in the Americas is not its main focus. Instead its aim is to illustrate how this history has led to a significant collection of material relating to cricket across the Americas being part of the British Library’s collections. It also suggests ways in which these collections can now be used to further our contemporary understanding of cricket, the Americas and the British Empire. To flag up a common misunderstanding from the off, the British Library holds more than just books and the newspapers, journals, pamphlets, almanacs, microfiches and maps referred to in this paper are still only a fraction of the types of its material. That said, this paper will highlight these resources and the insights that can be gleaned from them across three time frames and sub-headings; early cricket in North America (1700 – 1800); cricket across the Americas (1800 – 1900); and a changing wicket (1900 onwards). In each of these sections highlights from the collection as well as key reference works will be given in order to support and promote future work by researchers. Collection items also have Library shelfmarks included as part of the bibliographic reference.2 Early Cricket in North America (1700 – 1800) Some of the earliest textual references to cricket being played in the Americas hail from pre-revolution British North America in the early eighteenth century; Martin Wilson notes that some of the earliest references are by William Byrd, of Virginia, in 1709.3 One of the earliest references in the Library’s collections is by William Stephens in his, Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia.4 Between 1741 and 1745 Stephens makes multiple references to the playing of cricket in Georgia, for example: “This being the Titular Saint’s day of Scotland, I ordered the usual Compliment to be paid of hoisting the Flag. Most North Britons in Town assembled in the Square, diverting themselves at Cricket &c. with a Barrel of New York Ale placed open to regale them as they saw fit.” (30 November 1742) The assorted newspapers printed in the English colonies of North America provide a surprisingly rich resource of notes regarding cricket in various

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settlements. Largely these papers provide game reports or detail games to be played in the near future: “A match is proposed to be played to-morrow. Those who chuse to be of the party must meet at the Exchange precisely at eight o’clock in the morning.” Georgia Gazette, 7th January 1767.5 Newspapers of particular note from the middle of the eighteenth century onwards are, in no particular order, The Connecticut Courant,6 The Georgia Gazette,7 The New York Gazette,8 and The Essex Gazette.9 These are all held by the Library as microfilm/microfiche and the newspapers provide a useful insight into cricket in North American society and how it was played alongside other pastimes and activities also noted in these publications. In terms of early representations and literary verse regarding cricket the Library holds two useful post-revolution American items, although they are only present as reproductions. A Little Pretty Pocket-Book was published in Massachusetts in 1787 and contains an illustration of cricket being played with an old-fashioned curved bat along with a short poem about the game. The book is now very rare and not held by the Library but the 1944 reproduction is.10 Published not long after the Pocket-Book, the earliest known illustration of cricket being played in America, according to Padwick’s bibliography of cricket, depicts a game being played at Dartmouth College and was printed in the Massachusetts Magazine.11 The scene will be familiar to anyone keen on the game and the setting, in the town’s civic spaces, is one which will be encountered at other points in this paper. While the Library does not hold an original copy of the Magazine it is held in microfiche.12 The above illustrates the long history cricket has had in the Americas and the significant material records pertaining to this which are in the Library’s collections and may also be found elsewhere in the UK.13 However, the range and scope of material is somewhat limited, for a long list of reasons which I will not go into here.14 Come the nineteenth century though and the situation changes, with cricket expanding across the Americas in various ways and a resulting explosion of interesting material. Cricket Across the Americas (1800 – 1900) The nineteenth century is an important time period in the history of cricket in the Americas, with official histories noting its introduction to the West Indies; and England playing their first foreign tour matches in Canada and the United States.15 These are perhaps the highlights of the period and will feature in the text below, but there is a great deal happening in this period and it has mostly to do with the British Empire in its formal and informal guises. While cricket in the formal empire and former parts of the empire will be the focus here I want to open with some of the most interesting and unique cricket material held in the Library’s collections. British primacy in the naval sphere

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and the volume of naval expeditions undertaken in the nineteenth century meant that British crews were present around the world throughout the century. This meant that cricket ended up being played in some unusual places. In a less unusual example, the 1872 – 1876 voyage of HMS Challenger seems to have contained a crew with a particular fondness for cricket. As a result a match was played between expatriate Britons and the crew on the Campo Grande in San Salvador (Bahia). Such matches were not uncommon outside the formal empire and occurred when such expedition crews made contact with expatriates involved in local financial ventures (in San Salvador’s case it was British investment in the construction of the city’s tram line). It is more unusual for these matches to be recorded with more than a passing mention and in this case the narrative of the voyage, At Anchor, contains an etched illustration of the match being played (as can be seen in Figure 1).16 Another incident of a cricket playing ship’s crew recorded in the collection that has rarely been written about, overlooking Thompson’s, Penguins Stopped Play.17 During one of the many journeys to chart the fabled Northwest Passage, to be specific that of HMS Fury and HMS Hecla from 1821 – 23, it would appear that the crew managed to pass some of their over-winter (where the ships were locked in ice) by playing cricket on the ice. Again, this is recorded and illustrated in the publication associated with the voyage, Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific (see Figure 2).18 These two illustrations represent particularly interesting and eye catching examples of the collection’s holdings regarding the playing of cricket by the crews of various British ships. Illustrations may be rare but potentially there are a number of printed references in the various published accounts of expeditions which visited the Americas and the rest of the world.19 It is worth noting too that, corresponding to cricket’s continued popularity in America and Canada in the nineteenth century, the collection contains a significant amount of materials relating to cricket in these countries published between 1800 and 1900. One of the highlights of this body of material is Fred Lillywhite’s, The English Cricketers Trip to Canada and the United States.20 As mentioned above, this tour marks the start of England’s overseas matches and its seventy nine pages give a detailed account of the trip. It is also quite a whimsical publication, with memorabilia adverts and comical sketches of the goings-on of the tour included (an example of which can be seen in Figure 3). Canada’s cricket in the nineteenth century gets a substantial historical overview from J. Hall and R. McCulloch in 1895, the size and weight of the book communicating that there is much to report on the subject.21 The book has a distinctly statistical bent, making it slightly unusual as many of these accounts tended to be published as magazines, journals or almanacs, as will be seen in the next few paragraphs. It is worth noting too that cricket has a role to play in more diverse histories of Canada and its provinces, as chapter sixteen of Hargreave’s, Red River illustrates.22 A relatively well known

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historical account (to Canadianists at least), the recently established North West Cricket Club figures as an important part of the community described by Hargreave and the club is still well regarded in contemporary Manitoba. The post-1800 upsurge in printed materials regarding cricket in the collection should come as little surprise given the general trend in the nineteenth century which saw cricket become a more structured, organised and published sport in the UK and elsewhere. This meant cricket was published about more frequently in one off, individual accounts, such as the above English Cricketers Trip to Canada and the United States and Cricket Across the Sea; or the Wanderings and Matches of the Gentlemen of Canada, By Two of the Vagrants. 23 A number of regular publications which documented the activities of clubs from the Americas also began to spring up. It would be remiss not to mention Wisden’s work here, even though the publication did not explicitly deal with the goings-on of cricket outside of England during its early years.24 Nevertheless publications from the 1860s, 1870s, 1880s and onwards do list the results of foreign touring teams who played against county or England teams on home turf. Attempts at similar publications began to appear in some parts of the Americas towards the end of the nineteenth century and while these were short-lived affairs they may provide interesting material for the history of the game in the Americas. In the United States, The American Cricket Annual,25 ran in the 1890s and 1900s as Spalding’s Official Cricket Guide,26 before folding around 1914.27 The Library’s holdings are imperfect but the publication provides an insightful overview of a year, results of matches, as well as various records and averages. It is worth noting too that the early volumes bear an illustration of W G Grace stood defending his wicket, a testament to the global fame of this Victorian icon (see Figure 4). This was not a solitary publication on the continent, with similar efforts being made in the Caribbean. An example from the collection is, The Jamaica Cricket Annual for 1897 but, as with its American counterpart, the venture of producing a yearly account was short-lived.28 The lack of mention for collection items from the Caribbean can be addressed a little further here. While there is a significant amount of material from later in the nineteenth century and onwards the collection yields little printed material regarding Caribbean cricket in the earlier parts of the century.29 However, there are still some very interesting materials on nineteenth century Caribbean cricket in the collection, as evidenced by this early photograph of cricket being played on the George Town Parade Ground (see Figure 5).30 Returning to the theme of empire, cricket seems to have played an important role in the late nineteenth century celebration of various colonial centenaries and this is recorded in the collections. Of particular note is the commemorative piece, Souvenir Album of the Centenary of Trinidad, which notes the contribution made by Queen’s Park Cricket Club to the celebrations and provides a photograph of the commemorative game in progress (see Figure 6).31 This is one of a number of such works which could contribute to

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the established discussion regarding empire, ‘Britishness’ and resistance in British Caribbean territories. A Changing Wicket (1900 onwards) From 1900 the cricketing landscape in the Americas, and the geography of the Library’s cricketing publications, begins to change and take the form we recognise today. This section will not deal with the whole of the twentieth century, progressing only as far as the 1960s and the publications of C L R James and Learie Constantine, and will only provide some highlights from the collections, but hopefully it will illustrate the breadth available. The drop in the representation of North American cricket in the collection is notable from the start of the twentieth century, with West Indian publications taking a precedence they did not have in the nineteenth century. Publications from North America go from few, such as the Spalding Official Cricket Guide, to none by the outbreak of the First World War and it goes without saying that the few (admittedly interesting) items from the wider Americas also disappear. However, the presence of West Indian cricket grows significantly as the century progresses. West Indian cricket periodicals continue to be present, such as the Barbados Cricketer’s Annual,32 but these seem to have been acquired sporadically and the publications themselves continued to display the lack of longevity seen in other parts of the Americas. It should also be noted that the Library’s large collection of Caribbean newspapers provide a significant resource regarding the results, history and politics of West Indian cricket.33 During the earlier part of the twentieth century writing about the history of West Indian cricket begins to creep into the collection. This is generally local in view and attempts to solidify the history of relatively young clubs and international teams. History of the Kingston Cricket Club (1868 – 1938) is an example of such a local account,34 while West Indies Cricket History and Cricket Tours to England, represents a relatively early attempt to chart the history of a new player on the international stage.35 Documentation of the cricketing achievements of the West Indian team continues, indeed increases, through the rest of the twentieth century. However, to close this section I want to draw attention to items from the collection which illustrate the effects the ascent of West Indian cricket would have on the Caribbean, Britain and the world at large. There are a number of publications, especially secondary analyses, which could be mentioned here but for brevity I wish to focus on the impact Trinidad’s cricketers and writers had. In particular, the writings of Learie Constantine, coupled with his cricketing and legal achievements, are exemplary of ‘the empire writing back’ and ‘the empire batting back’.36 Constantine’s writings, Cricket and I,37 Cricket in the Sun,38 and The Changing Face of Cricket,39 illustrate not only the growth of cricket in the West Indies but the effect it was having on the British game too.

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Significantly, West Indian cricket was not just affecting British cricket but questioning and challenging British society and colonial norms as well. Constantine’s legal activism and books such as, Colour Bar,40 articulated a strong argument against racism in Britain, providing momentum for the Race Relations Act of 1965 and many other changes. In this vein it would be remiss not to mention what many hold up as the greatest book on cricket, indeed one of the greatest books on sport ever written, C L R James’ Beyond a Boundary.41 While in no way dedicated to cricket in the Caribbean, James’ work situates cricket within globalised networks of culture, politics and power, illustrating its socio-political significance particularly in the decolonisation period in which James published the book. This sums up how far cricket in the Americas came during the time period spanned by the items mentioned here, from occasional pastime in New England to a means of resistance and challenge from the twentieth century Caribbean. As such, the materials highlighted here are not just sources for research on sport but on history and social science too. Conclusions The collection items mentioned in the pages above represent highlights of the Library’s materials on cricket from across the Americas and a more exhaustive list can be found in the ‘tags’ section of Explore the British Library. As well as attempting to demonstrate the surprising breadth of material pertaining to cricket in the Americas available in the British Library’s collections, the paper has also sought to illustrate a few of the ways these materials might be useful to researchers beyond historians of cricket. There is much to understand from these materials about the relationships between sport and culture, sport and society and the way values and relationships are exchanged and developed through sport. The available literature on these subjects is already significant and this piece has not sought to engage with this or provide a bibliography of it, instead seeking to point researchers to further interesting primary materials which may provide future insights. The paper also highlights the long-term contact the Americas as a whole have had with the sport of cricket. A number of deeper points can be developed by considering this relationship but it also speaks to the long history of a game which many have affection for across the world today – even if some of the places mentioned in the preceding pages no longer hold the love of the game they once used to.

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Illustrations

Figure 1: Cricket being played on the Campo Grande, illustration from; Wild, At Anchor

Figure 2: Cricket on the ice during expedition to find the Northwest Passage, illustration from;

Parry, Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific

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Figure 3: Frontispiece from; Lillywhite, The English Cricketers Trip to Canada and the United

States

Figure 4: Cover of; The American Cricket Annual

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Figure 5: Cricket on the George Town Parade Ground, in; Bennett, An Illustrated History of

British Guiana

Figure 6: Queen’s Park Cricket Ground and Pavilion during the Trinidad Centenary

Celebrations, from; Paget, Souvenir Album of the Centenary of Trinidad

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1 Major, J. (2007), More Than a Game: The Story of Cricket’s Early Years, London: Harper –

Collins (p. 212) [YK.2008.a.10755] 2 To supplement this a group has been made in Explore the British Library’s ‘Tags’

subsection, this is titled ‘cricket in the americas’ [sic] and contains catalogue records and notes about particularly pertinent items. The group is also open to public edits should anyone wish to add to it. 3 Wilson, M. (2008), Dawn’s Early Light: Cricket in America Before 1820, Newnham-on-

Severn: Christopher Saunders (pp. 2 – 5) [Shelfmark: YK.2011.a.23635] 4 Stephens, W. (n.d.), A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, beginning October 20,1737

[Shelfmark: 1196.1.22,23]. There are other items in the collection which refer to this piece, largely it seems due to acrimony over the state of the colony; Stephens, T. (n.d.), A Brief Account of the Causes that have retarded the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America [Shelfmark: 103.k.27] 5 As referenced in, Wilson, Dawn’s Early Light (p. 14)

6 Connecticut Courant [Shelfmark: MA548, Microfilm]

7 Georgia Gazette [Shelfmark: MMISC335, Microfilm]

8 The New York Gazette [Shelfmark: M.misc.611, Microfilm]

9 The Essex Gazette [Shelfmark: AMISC163(49), Microfilm]

10 A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, (orig. Mass. 1787, facsimile reprint New York, 1944)

[Shelfmark: 12809.de.36] 11

Padwick, E. W. (1984, 2nd

Ed.), A Bibliography of Cricket, London: Library Association [Shelfmark: Open Access HLR 796.385] 12

Massachusetts Magazine [Shelfmark: Mic.a.145, Microfilm] 13

There are many notable collections for researching the history of cricket at home and abroad, not least is the Marylebone Cricket Club Library at Lord’s 14

I would suggest a few factors including, the relatively limited geography of cricket at the time, availability of leisure time, and the amount of printing activity being undertaken in various areas 15

For a history of West Indies cricket see; Beckles, H. (1998), The Development of West Indies Cricket, London: Pluto [Shelfmark: YC.2001.a.9399 & YC.2001.a.9400] 16

Wild, J. J. (1878), At Anchor: Sketches from the Many Shores Visited by HMS Challenger, London: Marcus Ward and Co. (p. 45) [Shelfmark: 1786.a.6] 17

Even then it is in another hemisphere; Thompson, H. (2006), Penguins Stopped Play: Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World, London: John Murray [Shelfmark: YK.2006.a.15317] 18

Parry, W. E. (1824), Journal of a second voyage for the discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific; performed in the years 1821-22-23, in His Majesty's Ships Fury and Hecla, under the orders of Captain William Edward Parry, London: John Murray [Shelfmark: G.7394] 19

A good example here are Darwin’s notes regarding the playing of cricket by members of the Maori community in New Zealand, December 1895; Darwin, C. (1891), Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries visited during the Voyage of HMS Beagle Round the World, London: George Routledge and Sons [Shelfmark: X.319/3182]. Collection also holds abridged versions such as the 1989 Penguin edition [Shelfmark: YC.1989.a.7689] 20

Lillywhite, F. (1860), The English Cricketers Trip to Canada and the United States, London [Shelfmark: 7906.a.31] 21

Hall, J. E. and McCulloch, R. O. (1895), Sixty Years of Canadian Cricket, Toronto: Bryant Printing and Publishing Co. 22

Hargreave, J. J. (1871), Red River, Montreal: John Lovell [Shelfmark: 10470.dd.16] 23

Saunders, D. W. and Lindsey, G. G. S. (1888) Cricket Across the Sea; or the Wanderings and Matches of the Gentlemen of Canada, By Two of the Vagrants, Toronto: James Murray and Co. [Shelfmark: 07926.b.9] 24

Some of the earliest publications of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack can be found at Shelfmark: RH.9.X.1553 25

The American Cricket Annual [Shelfmark: P. P. 2523.fd, holdings incomplete] 26

Spalding’s Official Cricket Guide [Shelfmark: YD.2009.a.5605, holdings incomplete] 27

According to Padwick, A Bibliography of Cricket

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28

The Jamaica Cricket Annual for 1897 [Shelfmark: P.P.2585.o] 29

It is worth mentioning though that this paper has not conducted a detailed search of Caribbean manuscripts and newspapers on this subject and there is surely much interesting material to be found in those resources 30

Photographic illustration can be found in; Bennett, G. W. (1866), An Illustrated History of British Guiana, George Town: Richardson and Co. [Shelfmark: 10470.i.3] 31

Paget, J. (ed.) (1897), Souvenir Album of the Centenary of Trinidad, Trinidad: Government Printing Office [Shelfmark: Cup.1247.ee.29] 32

Barbados Cricketers’ Annual (from 1907-08 to 1912-13) [Shelfmark: X.629/8213] 33

Newspapers such as, The Jamaica Times, The Trinidad Guardian, The Nation and many others were collected. This was the case until the end of the colonial period when the Library’s newspaper acquisitions from the area declined 34

MacDonald, H. G. (1938), History of the Kingston Cricket Club (1863 – 1938), Kingston: Gleaner Co. [Shelfmark: L.49/20] 35

Smith, L. S. (n.d.), West Indies Cricket History and Cricket Tours to England, 1900, 1906, 1923, Including Matches in Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Port of Spain: Yuille’s Printerie [Shelfmark: X.629/8229] 36

Ashcroft, B. et al (1989), The Empire Writes Back: theory and practice in postcolonial literatures, London: Routledge [ Shelfmark: YC.1989.a.10321] 37

Constantine, L. N. (1933), Cricket and I, London: Phillip Allan [Shelfmark: 2271.d.15] 38

Constantine, L. N. (1946), Cricket in the Sun, London: Stanley Paul and Co. [Shelfmark: 7916.f.44] 39

Constantine, L. N. and Batchelor, D. (1966), The Changing Face of Cricket, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode [ Shelfmark: X.449/1918] 40

Constantine, L. N. (1954), Colour Bar, London: Stanley Paul and Co. [Shelfmark: 8289.p.30] 41

James, C. L. R. (1963), Beyond a Boundary, London: Hutchinson [Shelfmark: 7926.n.25]