Through the 1929 Caribbean season the 20-year-old George Headley scored consistently for Jamaica against the visiting Tennyson XI and in inter-colonial matches. By December 1929 he had been selected for the West Indies' first home Test series against MCC the following month — a tour that would produce his breakthrough.
Headley was already known in Caribbean cricket as a batsman of unusual concentration and footwork. The MCC's 1929-30 tour, captained by the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe, was the West Indies' first home Test series, played 18 months after their inaugural Test at Lord's.
George Headley had been born in Panama and grew up in Jamaica. By 1929 his Caribbean batting reputation was already such that the MCC tour of 1929-30 chose him for the West Indies' first home Test series. He was 20 years old at the start of the series.
The first Test at Bridgetown was drawn. Headley made 21 in the first innings and 176 in the second — his first Test innings of substance — to give the West Indies a fighting position in only their fourth Test as a nation. The second Test at Port-of-Spain was lost; the third Test at Georgetown was won by the West Indies by 289 runs — their first ever Test win — with Headley making 114 and 112, the second instance of twin hundreds in a Test by a West Indian (and his own first such instance). The fourth Test at Kingston, played in early April 1930, produced his 223 — at the time the highest score by a West Indian in a Test.
Headley scored 703 runs in the four-Test series at 87.87 — equivalent to Hammond's 1928-29 average. He went on to play 22 Tests over a 25-year career and average 60.83, second only to Bradman among batsmen with at least 20 Tests for any country at the time of his last Test in 1954.
First Test, Bridgetown: Headley 21 and 176; match drawn
Second Test, Port-of-Spain: England win
Third Test, Georgetown: Headley 114 and 112; West Indies' first Test win by 289
Fourth Test, Kingston: Headley 223 — highest Test score by a West Indian to that point
Series ends 1-1 with two drawn; Headley 703 runs at 87.87
Jan 1930
First Test, Bridgetown — Headley 176 in second innings
Feb 1930
Third Test, Georgetown — Headley 114 and 112; WI win by 289
Apr 1930
Fourth Test, Kingston — Headley 223
“When you face an attack as great as that England side, you do not think about averages. You think only about the next ball.”
Headley's 1929-30 series was the founding act of West Indian Test batting and produced the man whom contemporary opinion in the 1930s called 'the Black Bradman' — a comparison Headley himself preferred to invert.
Headley's 60.83 Test average remained the second-highest by any batsman with at least 20 Tests until 2026, exceeded only by Bradman. He is remembered in the Caribbean as the founder of the West Indian batting tradition.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.