In this week’s edition of In Search of West Indies Cricket, Roger Seymour fuses fact with fiction to compose a diary of wicketkeeper Cyril Christiani’s participation in the 1935 Series against England.
Introduction (no date) – I have decided to write a journal of this series against the MCC- Marylebone Cricket Club/England. It’s still befuddling that they play Test matches as England and the colonies as the MCC. The 1933 Tour of England has really consolidated my interest in the game. As the youngest member of the side and the only representative from British Guiana, I did not know what to expect. Apart from the long ocean voyages to and from England, it was the trip of a lifetime. In a hot and sunny summer we travelled all over England and played 44 matches, including 3 Tests. We lost the Three Test Match Series, 2-0, with the Jamaican, Ivan Barrow doing the honours behind the stumps in the Tests. The game is more competitive at Test Level, and I learnt a great deal just sitting on the balconies of Lord’s, Old Trafford and the Oval and intensely watching the shifts in the game. I played in 13 first-class games and only managed 179 runs, and had the honour of playing at Oxford, Cambridge, Lord’s and Trent Bridge.
