John Alleyne did his part for sport in South

THE EDITOR: I knew Mr John Alleyne, the South Sports reporter and adviser for many years. Mr Alleyne grew up in Brown’s Land. At age of ten he was seen playing table tennis on his board which was under a plum tree. The street in which he lived was that one north of Leotaud Street. In my youthful days I used to frequent that area to fly my kite. The area is east of our street, Prince of Wales Street, San Fernando.

John and I got along very well when he was working at the Guardian in South. He started as a Court reporter and took his notes in shorthand. John and I got along very good with our sporting notes and the solution of our various complaints from clubs. He gave me good advice whenever I asked for it and whenever there were very serious complaints from clubs. He always published our club activities. At the German Olympics I was going to my seat to witness the football game, when I heard a loud call which surprised me greatly for I wanted to know who in this huge crowd knew my home name. John called out “Sato” and when I turned round it was him on the top of an open concrete pavilion.

For many years John was one of our Auditors. The other was Ayoub Hassanali who was working at the Town Hall at that time. John indulged in all sports that were being played at Skinner Park in his younger days. The tennis coach to John Alleyne was Rai Jaggernauth, who was then a senior member of the Palms Tennis Club. After several lessons he arranged tournaments and with the experience of both playing and coaching he turned to coaching the young ones who were interested in tennis. John liked his sports. I remember when sports writers were printing a book named Sports and Music Cavalcade and John came to my father to get some information about the history of the Rahamut First Class Competition and the North-South Beaumont Classic. In that magazine he wrote historical articles on their competitions.

The Jaggernauth Competition which is for clubs in the country districts of South, became very popular because of John’s kind deeds of publishing and writing stories of cricketers who did well on the previous Sundays. John was also an official of the “Elljay” (“LJ”). That was when it started as a Sunday morning competition at Skinner Park. John did his part. He served, in his younger days in all the sports that were played at Skinner Park. The Jaggernauth family take this opportunity of extending their condolences to his family. May he rest in peace.

SATNARAYAN JAGGERNAUTH HBM
San Fernando