Vincent Valentine (cricketer)

Vincent Adolphus Valentine (4 April 1908 – 6 July 1972) was a West Indiean cricketer. He was born at Portland, Jamaica in 1908, and died at Kingston, Jamaica in 1972, aged 64. He was a fast-medium bowler that never really gave batsmen an easy shot, keeping as he did a perfect length, turning the ball both ways off the pitch and swinging it sharply through the air. He was also a forceful lower-order batsman and a safe fielder. He made his first-class debut for Jamaica in a memorable match at Melbourne Park, in February 1932 playing against Lord Tennyson's touring team. Although he did not bat, due solely to Jamaica's first innings score of 702 for 5 declared, he took four wickets in the match to play his part in Jamaica's victory by an innings and 97 runs. It was in this particular match that George Headley (344 not out) and Clarence Passailaigue (261 not out) made an unbeaten stand of 487 that remains a sixth-wicket record. After just one further match a year later, a match in which he did nothing of note with either the bat or the ball, he was selected for the West Indies tour to England in 1933. In truth, he only made the tour as a substitute for Learie Constantine who had availability restrictions due to his Lancashire League commitments for Nelson. Nineteen of Valentine's 24 first-class matches came on the tour, including his two Test matches (the 2nd and 3rd of the trip) in which his most noted achievement was his 19 not out in the visitor's second innings at Old Trafford. Valentine's death in 1972 went unreported at the time and therefore no obituary appeared for him within the pages of Wisden.

Vincent Valentine

Cricket information
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm fast-medium
International information
National side	West Indies
Test debut (cap 34)	22 July 1933 v England
Last Test	12 August 1933 v England
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 2 24 Runs scored 35 500 Batting average 11.66 17.85 100s/50s 0/0 0/1 Top score 19* 59* Balls bowled 288 4,604 Wickets 1 49 Bowling average 104.00 40.40 5 wickets in innings 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 0 Best bowling 1/55 4/83 Catches/stumpings 0/– 11/–
Source: CricInfo, 30 October 2022

Works cited

• Martin-Jenkins, Christopher (1996). World Cricketers: A Biographical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-210005-4.
• The Wisden Book of Test Cricket, Volume 1 (1877–1977) compiled and edited by Bill Frindall published by Headline Book Publishing (1995),
• The Complete Record of West Indian Test Cricketers by Bridgette Lawrence & Ray Goble published by ACL & Polar Publishing (UK) Ltd. (1991),