By Cosmo Hamilton

If you are a West Indies cricket fan of the post second world war and into the modern era you would have been familiar with the exploits of the so called 3 W’s that was to form the most iconic troika in the game. Born within 17 months of each other from August of 1924 to January of 1926, and within a radius of two miles of each other on the island of Barbados, Sir Frank Maglinne Worrell, Sir Everton DeCourcy Weekes, and Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott dominated West Indies cricket and left an indelible impression on the game internationally. Prolific batsmen, each with a delightfully distinctive style of strokeplay – Worrell with scintillating, incisive grace, Walcott with a sort of burly tower of power, and Weekes with nimble, hard-hitting panache.

In March 1967 Sir Frank Worrell, first Black West Indies captain having played 51 Tests, scoring 3860 runs at an average of 49.48, died at age 42. Sir Clyde Walcott, first Black captain of Guyana in 1955, tallied 3798 runs in 44 Tests at a healthy average of 56.68 including 15 centuries, and passed on August 26, 2006. And on July 2, 2020 at the age of 95, it was the end of play for Sir Everton Weekes, first Black captain of his native Barbados who in 48 Tests amassed 4455 runs at an average of 58.61 with 15 centuries.

Of the 3 W’s, Weekes was perhaps the most entertaining batsman, prolific in Tests and First Class matches. On the West Indies historic tour of England, Weekes compiled one of the best ever stretches of high-scoring innings including 304 not out against Cambridge University at the well-known featherbed pitch at Fenners. As the story goes, Weekes woke up that morning and was heard to have said ‘Today is a good day for a hundred, I think I’ll make a double.’ He proceeded to score a hundred before lunch, a hundred after lunch, and a hundred after tea.

Weekes followed that in mid-June with 279 in 235 minutes versus Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, after which England batsman George Gunn said, ‘I have seen them all since Victor Trumper and including Bradman; I have never seen a more brilliant array of strokes nor heard the ball so sweetly struck.’ Sir Everton followed those innings with 246 not out versus Hampshire, and 200 not out against Leicestershire, hitting the fastest century of the season in 65 minutes.

But Sir Everton’s most noteworthy achievement would have been his world record 5 Test centuries in consecutive innings, barely missing a sixth when he was controversially run out at 90 in the 4th Test at Madras in 1949. Those centuries included 141 versus England in Jamaica in 1948, followed by 128 in Delhi, 194 in Bombay, and 162 and 101 in Calcutta.

My pleasant encounter with Weekes, one of the greatest batsmen to have ever played the game, would have been back in October 2006 when I was persuaded by former West Indies off-spinner Lance Gibbs, to arrange a memorial service for the late Sir Clyde Walcott in New York. Although Sir Everton was invited to attend the event as a special guest, he never sought any special arrangement. Apart from his complementary Caribbean Airlines ticket, the great West Indian eschewed any special protocol or liaison for his participation at the memorial service in Brooklyn, where he addressed the congregation and received a Proclamation from the Brooklyn Borough President on behalf of the Walcott family.

Evidently it was the typical simplicity that characterized Sir Everton’s later life in Barbados in the modest neighborhood of Oistins, in Christ Church where he resided. He reportedly swam often in the nearby Caribbean sea. Those of us ardent followers of Windies cricket on television will miss seeing Sir Everton in his familiar seat at the Sir Garfield Sobers pavilion at his beloved Kensington Oval. Rest in eternal peace Sir Everton Weekes. And thanks for the memories.