Charles Archibald Wiles (11 August 1892 – 4 November 1957) was a

cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

who played one

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

for

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

in 1933. A useful middle-order

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

whose first-class career extended from 1920 to 1936, Archie Wiles remains the second-oldest Test debutant for West Indies. He was 40 years and 345 days old when he appeared in the Second Test against England in 1933. He is surpassed in age only by

Nelson Betancourt Nelson Betancourt ISO (4 June 1887 – 12 October 1947) was a cricketer, a right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman. He was born in Trinidad and Tobago and died there. Betancourt's first-class cricket extended from 1905 to 1930 but he played only spora ...

who was 42 years, 242 days old on his Test debut in 1930. In spite of some good performances with the bat in first-class cricket, Wiles failed when the big occasion came at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

in 1933, scoring just 0 and 2. Although he was born in Barbados, he played his domestic cricket for

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

’s annual

inter-colonial tournament The Inter-Colonial Tournament was the main first class cricket, first class cricket competition in the West Indian cricket team, West Indies held between 1892–93 and 1938-39. Competing teams * Barbados national cricket team, Barbados * Guya ...

. During his career, he surpassed fifty runs in an

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

on eight occasions, twice going on to make a century: in February 1925 he scored 110 against

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

Port-of-Spain Port of Spain ( ; Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Trinidadian English: ''Port ah Spain'' ) is the capital and chief port of Trinidad and Tobago. With a municipal population of 49,867 (2017), an urban population of 81,142 and a transient dail ...

, Trinidad, and two years later scored 192 against

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

at Bridgetown. This game, a timeless match played over eight days, was remarkable insofar as despite Wiles's first innings total, which included a fourth-wicket partnership of 146 with Joe Small, and Trinidad’s first innings lead of 384, Barbados won by 146 runs (Barbados 175 and 726, Trinidad 559 and 217).

References

External links

* * 1892 births 1957 deaths West Indies Test cricketers Barbadian cricketers Trinidad and Tobago cricketers {{Barbados-cricket-bio-stub