Cricket – the Philadelphia story … the 1909 tour of Jamaica
Martin Chandler |Published: 2025
Pages: 105
Author: Smith, Steve
Publisher: Private
With remarkable speed Steve Smith has produced another look backwards at a long forgotten tour involving the Gentlemen of Philadelphia, and this time it is probably the least known of all.
The Philadelphians embarked on four tours altogether, and followers of English cricket history are familiar with those to England in 1897, 1903 and 1908. But there was another when, less than six months after the end of the last of those visits to England, a short tour of Jamaica was undertaken.
There were six matches in all, three of which have First Class status, although that has to be questionable classification. It comes as a surprise to learn that despite having first played the best part of twenty First Class fixtures before the Philadelphians visit the Jamaicans had won only once, and lost all but one of their remaining matches.
That the Philadelphians were entitled to play at First Class level, after their previous successes, must be conceded but, by the time the side arrived in Jamaica it contained only three of those who had enjoyed some success in England the previous year, and there was no Bart King.
In many ways the most interesting part of the book is the introduction which explains the difficulties experienced in putting a side together. In the end there are just two Philadelphians whose names were familiar to me those being the Australian leg spinner ‘Ranji’ Hordern, by far the best player on either side, and William Newhall, albeit in his case it is because of his forebears that I recognised the name rather than the doings of William himself,
And the Jamaicans? The only familiar name there is Joseph Holt, and that is only because his son John, another JK Holt, was capped 17 times by West Indies in the 1950s.
But the tour turned out to be an interesting one, both socially and on the pitch. The three First Class matches were all completed, Jamaica winning the first and the Gentlemen of Philadelphia restoring their reputation by winning the next two.
Smith naturally spends a good deal of the book quoting from contemporary sources in Jamaica and, in addition to his introduction, provides interesting biographical details of the members of both teams. Privately published on Amazon the book is also available at a discounted price from Red Rose Books and in Australia from Roger Page.
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