George Headley's Twin Centuries at Lord's — 106 and 107, June 1939

Headley had already toured England in 1933, when he scored 169* at Old Trafford, and had played in West Indies' breakthrough Test win at Bourda in 1930. By 1939 he was the senior West Indian batter, captaining his country in some matches when health permitted. He was the only Caribbean player whose Test average — by then 64 — was openly compared with Bradman's.

England won the toss and batted; Hutton 196 carried them to 404. West Indies began their reply on the second day. Headley came in at 1/29 after Stollmeyer fell early.

England, batting first, made 404 (Hutton 196). West Indies replied with 277. Headley, batting at three, made 106 in his first innings: orthodox driving, late cuts, the cover stroke that he played late and with a high front elbow. The crowd, which had come to see Hutton, stayed for him.

England declared at 5 for 128 in the second innings, setting West Indies an overnight target. Headley, walking in at 1 for 18, batted for nearly four hours and made 107. He lost partners — JET Barrow caught at slip, Stollmeyer bowled, Constantine yorked — but kept attacking, hitting 11 fours and one six. He was sixth out for 107 with the chase still hopeless; West Indies fell for 225 chasing 277. England won by eight wickets.

The twin centuries made Headley the first batsman to score two centuries in a Test at Lord's, a record Bradman never matched, and only the second to do so in a Test in England (after the same Headley in 1930 at Bourda — he had now done it on three occasions, more than anyone in history at that point). 'The Black Bradman' tag, never one Headley enjoyed, became unavoidable: Caribbean papers had taken to calling Bradman 'the white Headley.'

“He played the off drive better than any man I ever saw.”

“If Bradman had been a black West Indian, he would have been called the white Headley.”

Headley returned to Jamaica in late 1939; the war began two months later and ended his peak years. He played one more Test in 1947-48, was made the first black West Indian Test captain (one match), and retired with a Test average of 60.83 from 22 Tests. The Lord's twin tons were his career peak.