Learie Constantine - Cutting a dash

On the centenary of his birth, the eye-popping bravado of LEARIE CONSTANTINE on West Indies' inaugural Test tour of England is celebrated by ANTHONY MEREDITH

When Learie Constantine visited England with the 1928 West Indians aged 25, he could never have imagined that he would one day end up in England as a broadcaster, barrister, High Commissioner and the first black peer in the House of Lord's.

Constantine's grandfather had been an illiterate slave. He himself was brought up modestly on a Trinidad cocoa estate. But his father had been a good enough cricketer to join the first two West Indian teams to England, and now here Learie was, on his second tour, leaving an uninspiring job as a clerk. It was now or never.

The Tests, which were the first played by the tourists in England, were to go badly. But the unexpected defeat of mighty Middlesex at Lord's was a turning-point for Constantine personally and for West Indian cricket generally. It very nearly didn't happen.

Constantine had torn a muscle and played very much against medical advice. The first day he bowled cautiously, the outfield being treacherously damp. Accordingly, with Middlesex on 313 for 6, no surprises seemed in store. Constantine's athletic fielding, however, did not escape notice. The ball, said The Times, seemed to follow him around everywhere: 'As a fieldsman not even Robinson of Yorkshire has more original ideas of getting a batsman out.'

The second day likewise suggested no upset. Only Constantine's whirlwind 86 saved the follow-on. 'Driving, cutting and pulling with great power,' noted the Daily Mail, 'he reached 50 from four overs in 18 minutes.' 'Some of his strokes were a revelation to those who had forgetten where runs could be made,' said The Times. 'He hit the fast bowling over mid-wicket's head, and a remarkable six over cover-point's head which landed high up in the new Grandstand.'

On the third day the sun came out. 'I let myself go,' wrote Constantine later, 'muscle or no muscle, swinging the ball from leg and bowling an off-break. The Middlesex batsmen ran. That is the only word for it.' An unusually large crowd had assembled, said The Times, 'of people who left their work unaccountably early' as the news of a possible upset spread.

Five times Constantine sent the stumps flying. Twice fierce snicks were held off him in the slips. 'As fast as Kortright,' was Plum Warner's verdict, and you cannot say faster than that. Six overs from the Pavilion End brought him 6 for 11. The whole pavilion rose to him.

That left 259 needed for victory. The scoreboard read 121 for 5 as Constantine hurried out: 103 runs from his bat later, he returned to the pavilion for a second standing ovation in the same day. The spectators, said The Times, stood on the seats and applauded each thunderous stroke.

'Oh Constantine!' rejoiced the Daily Herald, 'what a remarkable 40 minutes you gave us. The greybeards who sit in the members' pavilion were almost standing on their heads with excitement as you scored boundary after boundary, and raced up and down the pitch for twos and threes.

'That one you put into the new stand narrowly missed Father Time. We seemed to see Jessop's shoulders and Ranji's turn of the wrist in your sparkling cricket. What did it matter when you over-reached one and turned a somersault? You were up and running the byes almost before you were down.'

Thousands raced to the pavilion after the three-wicket win, said the Daily Chronicle, 'calling for Constantine whom they cheered and cheered again'. An important offer from Nelson to play in the Lancashire League resulted. Next year the Constantines were settling in amidst the cotton mills, Learie's cricketing feats attracting massive adulation. He packed in the crowds, scoring 6,363 runs at an average of 37.65 and taking 776 wickets at 9.52.

Lancashire struggled to compete. 'Ah don't hold wi' playing anything but county men in t' Lancashire side,' said one supporter in Neville Cardus's hearing. 'Still, tha can't deny that he'd liven up Old Trafford a bit, and tha knows it wants it some days.'

But the Constantines were happy to sink roots in Nelson, though for long they were something of a curiosity as the first black people in town. To the end of his days, Constantine would remain a slightly controversial figure. His intense self-belief was not always appreciated. Racial prejudice was strong. And back in the West Indies, where Constantine attempted a political career, he never allayed fears that he was too pro-British.

Today, from the perspective of a multi-cultural society, his later years can be better appreciated. And although the public figure had less success than the cricketing crowd-pleaser, he probably achieved even more in the long term.