Tommie Burton
Tommie Burton in 1906
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | William Thomas Burton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
31 January 1878 St Michael, Barbados |
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| Died | 22 August 1946 (aged 68) Saint Michael, Barbados |
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| Batting style | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1901/02–1904/05 | British Guiana | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: CricketArchive, 14 October 2011
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William Thomas Burton (31 January 1878 in Black Rock, St Michael, Barbados – 22 August 1946, St Michael, Barbados) was a coloured West Indian first-class cricketer best known as a member of the 1900 and 1906 West Indian tourists to England. He is generally known as Tommie Burton.
He was the son of a black mother and a white father. He was brought up in Barbados and served for some years there as a practice bowler and in trial matches. Realising that his colour and roots would severely limit his opportunities in Barbados he emigrated to British Guiana in 1899 where there were more chances for coloured cricketers. Even in British Guiana his role as a practice bolwer resulted in him being classed as a Professional and hence excluded from the Inter-Colonial Tournament.
He sufficiently impressed in British Guiana to be selected for the 1900 tour to England even though he had not played a single important match. He was described before the tour as "Probably the best bowler in the West Indies, using his head to great advantage. Hard hitting, run-getting bat". On the tour he was second in the bowling averages marginally behind Float Woods and leading wicket taker with 78. He had one good innings of 64* against the Gentlemen of the M.C.C. but otherwise his batting was disappointing. Compared to Woods he was "generally thought in England to be the better bowler of the two. His length was always excellent, and he possessed more finesse and head work than the Trinidad bowler. He sent down a good yorker, and it was with this ball that he twice had the honour of bowling W.G. Though Woods headed him by the merest fraction in the bowling analyses, it was pretty generally admitted that Burton on the whole accomplished the best work".
As noted above his batting was of limited use, scoring 291 runs at an average of 11.64. His innings of 64* against the Gentlemen of the M.C.C. included a 9th wicket stand of 162 in 65 minutes with Lebrun Constantine. He took 5 wickets in an innings 8 times during the tour. The highlight was in the last match against Norfolk when he was unplayable and took 8–9 in 10.4 overs including a spell of 5–0 in 5 overs. With Woods, who took 2–22 in 10 overs, they bowled unchanged and dismissed the county for just 32. In the match against Gloucestershire when Gilbert Jessop scored 157 in an hour, Burton was injured and didn't bowl during Jessop's innings.
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