A team of amateur cricketers under the captaincy of Arthur Priestley toured the West Indies in the 1896–97 season, playing matches between January and March 1897. They played a total of sixteen matches of which nine are regarded as first-class. They did not play in British Guiana.
A party of thirteen was taken:
Bush, Barratt and Priestley had been in the Slade Lucas's tour to the West Indies two years previously. Priestley had played a single first-class match for the M.C.C. in 1895 but otherwise none of the three had played first-class cricket between the two tours. Elliott had not played first-class cricket before the tour while Williams and Leigh had not played first-class cricket for almost 10 years. However the remaining seven had played first-class cricket in 1896, and so the team was clearly stronger than Lucas's two years earlier. In 1896 Palairet, Stanley and Woods had played for Somerset, Beldam and Stoddart for Middlesex, Stone for Leicestershire and Lewis for Oxford University. Stoddart had played for England during the 1896 season while Woods had played against South Africa in 1895–96. All the 13 played at least three first-class matches on the tour. G.A. Maclean played in a minor match.
The team left Southampton on December 30 and arrived back in England on April 14.
Matches played were:
First class matches are highlighted.
Of the nine first class matches, four were won and five lost. Overall 10 matches were won, 5 lost and 1 drawn. All 5 matches in Jamaica were won, Gilbert Livingston being the only effective player for Jamaica. The results achieved by the tourists were regarded as disappointing, Stoddart being the one great success.
Stoddart was the leading batsman, scoring over 1000 runs in all games at an average of over 50. In first-class matches he scored 416 runs at an average of 27. He scored all six of the centuries scored by the tourists including two in first-class games. Stoddart was also the leading bowling with over 100 wickets in all matches at an average under 8 and over 50 in first-class games alone averaging under 10.
The most important match was that against All West Indies in Port of Spain in February. The West Indies team contained players from Trinidad, British Guiana and Barbados and was captained by Aucher Warner, the brother of Plum Warner. The tourists set their opponents 141 to win in the last innings which they achieved for the loss of 7 wickets, having been 41 for 6 at one stage. Richard Palairet was leading scorer in both the tourists' innings with 45 and 46. Clifford Goodman and Archie Cumberbatch took nine wickets each for the West Indians, as did Andrew Stoddart for the tourists. The leading batsmen for the West Indies were Harold Austin and Lebrun Constantine.[1]
The following averages are from the nine first class matches (Batting Bowling).
| align=left | Player ! | P | I | NO | R | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 | C/S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | 9 | 15 | 0 | 416 | 143 | 27.73 | 2 | - | 10 | ||
| align=left | 8 | 14 | 1 | 336 | 65* | 25.84 | - | 1 | 8 | ||
| align=left | FW Bush | 8 | 13 | 1 | 169 | 45* | 14.08 | - | - | 6 | |
| align=left | 9 | 14 | 0 | 193 | 28 | 13.78 | - | - | 8 | ||
| align=left | G Elliott | 5 | 8 | 2 | 78 | 36* | 13.00 | - | - | 3 | |
| align=left | CA Beldam | 7 | 11 | 2 | 115 | 24* | 12.77 | - | - | 3 | |
| align=left | J Leigh | 8 | 13 | 0 | 149 | 26 | 11.46 | - | - | 4 | |
| align=left | L Barratt | 9 | 15 | 0 | 171 | 38 | 11.40 | - | - | 7 | |
| align=left | HT Stanley | 9 | 15 | 0 | 151 | 38 | 10.06 | - | - | 6 | |
| align=left | W Williams | 9 | 15 | 3 | 98 | 40 | 8.16 | - | - | 6 | |
| align=left | CC Stone | 3 | 6 | 1 | 38 | 16* | 7.60 | - | - | - | |
| align=left | RP Lewis | 8 | 12 | 7 | 16 | 7 | 3.20 | - | - | 7/6 | |
| align=left | 9 | 15 | 1 | 37 | 9 | 2.64 | - | - | 5 |
| align=left | Player ! | O | M | R | W | BB | Ave | 5i | 10m | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | 303.4 | 128 | 520 | 53 | 7-67 | 9.81 | 5 | 2 | ||
| align=left | W Williams | 203.2 | 55 | 464 | 43 | 7-38 | 10.79 | 3 | 1 | |
| align=left | 230.2 | 75 | 501 | 35 | 6-60 | 14.31 | 2 | - | ||
| align=left | HT Stanley | 9 | 2 | 39 | 2 | 2-20 | 19.50 | - | - | |
| align=left | G Elliott | 12 | 3 | 29 | 1 | 1-13 | 29.00 | - | - | |
| align=left | FW Bush | 102.4 | 19 | 245 | 8 | 2-15 | 30.62 | - | - | |
| align=left | L Barratt | 113 | 41 | 225 | 6 | 3-40 | 37.50 | - | - | |
| align=left | CA Beldam | 11 | 1 | 54 | 1 | 1-30 | 54.00 | - | - | |
| align=left | CC Stone | 4 | 2 | 8 | 0 | |||||
| align=left | J Leigh | 3.2 | 0 | 14 | 0 | |||||