Roy Marshall
Roy Edwin Marshall was a Barbadian cricketer who played in four Test matches for the West Indies and had an extensive domestic career with Hampshire in English county cricket. Marshall was born in Saint Thomas, Barbados. He made his debut in first-class cricket at the age of 15 for Barbados in January 1946, and three years later he established himself in the Barbadian side as an attacking opening batsman. After several strong performances for Barbados in West Indian domestic cricket, he was selected in the West Indian representative team. He played Test cricket between November 1951 and February 1952, making two appearances apiece against Australia and New Zealand. With several players surpassing him in the pecking order for Test selection, coupled with a disagreement with his teammates, he decided to end his brief international career and pursue a career in English county cricket.
Marshall joined Hampshire in 1953, and after completing his two-year residential qualification period he established himself as one of their opening batsmen. He would form a successful opening partnership with Jimmy Gray that spanned over a decade and was considered at the time the strongest in county cricket. He became a consistent and attacking opening batsman for Hampshire, and in 1959 he was chosen as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. He was a member of the Hampshire side which won their first County Championship in 1961, and was appointed Hampshire's first professional captain in 1966. He held the captaincy until 1970, and retired in 1972. For Hampshire, he made 504 first-class appearances and scored 30,303 runs, a total for the county that is only surpassed by Phil Mead, who played for Hampshire between 1905 and 1936. In retirement, he moved to Taunton where he coached cricket at King's College and was a publican. He was appointed chairman of the Somerset County Cricket Club committee in 1987, a position he held until 1991, when ill-health forced him to step down. He died from skin cancer in October 1992.
Cricket
Early cricket and Test career
The son of a wealthy plantation owner of Scottish descent, Roy Marshall was born in Farmers Plantation in Saint Thomas, Barbados. He was educated in Barbados at The Foundation School, where he initially developed his skills as a cricketer. Seeing potential in his son's skills, his father moved him to The Lodge School to further develop his cricketing prospects. By attending The Lodge School, considered one of the nurseries of Barbadian cricket, he was able to partake in the First Division of the National Men's League, the highest level of club cricket on the island. This enabled him to play alongside many of the leading Barbadian cricketers of the time. His success as a batsman for The Lodge gained him a place in a trial match for selection to the Barbadian team for their tour to Trinidad and Tobago; his scores of 72 and 80 runs earned him selection for that tour. Thus whilst still a schoolboy, Marshall made his debut in first-class cricket in January 1946, aged 15, against Trinidad at Port-of-Spain. On debut he struggled with nerves, making only 2 runs in the lone innings in which he batted.He did not appear for Barbados again until 1949, playing in the interim for the elite Wanderers Club. Strong performances in club cricket led to his recall to the Barbadian team, where he met with immediate success in two matches against Trinidad at Bridgetown. In the first match he made a century opening the batting alongside Charlie Taylor, sharing in an opening partnership of 278 runs. In the second match, he made a second century, which was also complemented by a half century. His success continued the following season against British Guiana, with Marshall making 191 runs opening the batting. This earned him selection to the West Indian team for their tour of England in 1950, where he was chosen as a third opening batsman behind the Jamaican Allan Rae and the Trinidadian Jeff Stollmeyer. At 20 years of age, he was the youngest member of the sixteen-man squad.
On the journey across the Atlantic he contracted measles, and in England news reached him of the death of his father back in Barbados from a heart attack. Despite these hardships, Marshall played in twenty first-class tour matches, mostly against English county sides, scoring 1,117 runs at an average of 39.89. He made three centuries on the tour, notably scoring 135 runs against Hampshire at Southampton, which bought him to the attention of their captain and secretary Desmond Eagar. Despite playing well in the tour matches, he was unable to dislodge either Rae or Stollmeyer from the Test team. The following year he played in England in the Lancashire League for Lowerhouse, before returning to the West Indies to play first-class cricket. He was selected for the West Indies 1951–52 tour of Australia and New Zealand, where he made his Test debut against Australia at Brisbane on 9 November. Marshall scored 28 and 30 from the lower middle order, but did not feature in the 2nd Test. He returned to play in the 3rd Test at Adelaide, where a pulled muscle in his leg saw him bat with a runner for over 100 minutes. The injury subsequently kept him out of the 4th and 5th Tests. The tour then travelled to New Zealand, where Marshall played in both Test matches against New Zealand at Christchurch and Auckland. His four Test matches during the tour yielded him 143 runs at an average of 20.42, with a highest score of 30.
Returning to the West Indies, he played just once more for Barbados against the touring Indian national team in January 1953, but did not fare well in the match, making 25 runs in Barbados's only innings of 606 for 7 declared. With the emergence of John Holt, Conrad Hunte, and Bruce Pairaudeau, Marshall fell down the Test pecking-order. This, coupled with disagreements with senior Trinidadian members of the Test team, convinced Marshall to end his Test career and seek to further his career in England. Writing in 1998, Keith Sandiford opined that had he not decided to quit Test cricket at his peak, he may well have contributed more to West Indian cricket and provided a suitable opening partner for Hunte, who consistently lacked a reliable opening partner.
Move to England
Early years at Hampshire
After playing a second season in the Lancashire League for Lowerhouse in 1953, Marshall was offered a contract by Hampshire, just as he was on the verge of returning to Barbados; the contract offer came as a direct result of impressing Eagar when he played for the West Indians against Hampshire on their 1950 tour. Upon accepting the offer, Marshall began his two-year qualification period to play for Hampshire. Due to the qualification rules of the time, which required a player to be resident in the county he wished to represent for two years, he was unable to play in the County Championship. He could play in friendly matches, and thus made his debut for Hampshire against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's in 1953. In the same season he played against the touring Australians, making 71 runs in 85 minutes on a pitch described as "fierce", with Marshall striking five sixes during his innings. During the winter of 1953, he toured India with the Commonwealth XI led by the Australian Ben Barnett. He played in 17 first-class matches on the tour, scoring 761 runs, but did not score a century. In the absence of fast bowlers in the team, Marshall was utilised as a medium pace bowler tasked with swinging the ball; he bowled 254 overs, claiming 25 wickets. Whilst still waiting to qualify to play in the County Championship in 1954, Marshall featured in four friendly first-class matches. The first for Hampshire came against the touring Pakistanis, later playing two matches for the Commonwealth XI, which were separated by an appearance for the South in the North-versus-South fixture at Torquay.Marshall completed his qualification period ahead of the 1955 season, making him eligible for the County Championship. As an opening batsman alongside Jimmy Gray, his batting played a large part in taking Hampshire to a third-placed finish in the County Championship, having finished fourteenth in 1954. In 28 matches in the 1955 County Championship, he scored 1,705 runs at an average of 34.79, making two centuries; whilst in all first-class matches, he scored over 2,100 runs. He also had success as an off-break bowler in 1955, taking 28 wickets at an average of 15.67. Against Yorkshire at Bradford, he took 6 for 44 to lead Hampshire to an innings victory. By the end of the season, he had topped Hampshire's bowling averages. The summer of 1956 was characterised by its wet weather, with Marshall taking time to adapt to the resultant wet pitches. As a consequence he was less successful, averaging under 30 across the season with the bat. Though he continued to excel with the ball, taking 36 wickets at an average of 20.55, which included career–best figures of 6 for 36 against Surrey at Portsmouth, on what was later described as a "responsive strip" by Sandiford.
Following the 1956 season, Marshall toured Jamaica with an ad hoc team managed by and named for the Duke of Norfolk. He was easily the most successful batsman on the tour, scoring over 1,000 runs across all fixtures, including 273 runs in the three first-class fixtures against Jamaica. In the 1957 season, he made an attacking century made in 66 minutes against Nottinghamshire in June; this was the fastest century by a Hampshire batsman since 1927. Later in the season against Surrey, he contributed 56 runs in Hampshire's first innings and 110 runs, made in 111 minutes, in their second. These scores were made as Hampshire were dismissed for 120 in their first innings and 153 in their second. Marshall scored 1,888 runs at an average of 32.55 during the season. However, Sandiford noted that he was hampered throughout it by having a tendency to give away his wicket when well established in his innings. He was subsequently selected to play in the season-ending North-versus-South and The Rest-versus-Surrey fixtures.