Shirley scores for West Indies

JOAN SHIRLEY KELSICK’s hobby is a most unusual one — keeping cricket scores of every international game in which the West Indies have played since 1948.  An avid cricket fan,  Shirley, as she is usually called, has travelled with her score books to Australia, two World Cups in England and the islands. Her involvement in the game started when she lived in Montserrat: “Every Wednesday afternoon was half-day and I would take a former cricket umpire, Arnold Tuitt, to see cricket. He eventually became a priest but is now dead.  He got me interested, taught me how to score, and the rudiments of the game.” This totally Caribbean woman was born in Grenada to a Barbadian father De Vere Archer and Vincentian mother Freda (nee Davis). The latter went down on the ill-fated inter-island schooner “The Island Queen” in August 1944, with Shirley’s elder sister. “That day remains indelibly etched in my mind.  It was an August weekend and the schooner was en route to St Vincent from Grenada when it just disappeared.”
  
In 1946, having  completed her Senior Cambridge Exam, she moved to Montserrat with her father where he became headmaster of a secondary school. There she met her husband, Eric Kelsick, whom she married in 1952, and lived there for 13 years before coming to Trinidad.
Last Friday, Shirley was at the Oval with her official score books in the Jeffrey Stollmeyer Stand, and will take her score books to Barbados and Antigua for the two upcoming tests. On Wednesday, her friend Margaret Walcott who was at the Lions Cultural Centre where Shirley has been secretary for the past 16 years, joked: “If you want to argue with Shirley about any match, she just refers to her score books, and if she has to write a letter to the editor, it is done immediately after the game.” The two friends were discussing Patrons of Queen’s Hall business as Shirley, who has been secretary from the inception of Patrons in 1986, was going on cricket-leave from Friday, and was handing over duties to Margaret. Following West Indies cricket is an important part of Shirley’s routine: “Even overseas, I get up at 3 am or whatever time is the cricket, I am there with them cussing and getting heart attacks” — as was the case with the second innings score at Sabina last week.

“I must be old-timish,” says Shirley, “but the modern generation is not professional enough and they are not really interested in the glory of representing their country, but are more concerned with the money they are going to get.  So you have to hit them where it is going to hurt — in their pockets.  How could you get your butt kicked and go jumping up and drinking grog? They should have been fined or dropped. “Discipline is the answer and that is what we are lacking more than anything else and only management is going to enforce it in the players. To tell the truth, with the West Indies I keep seeing one thing they are consistent in, which is their inconsistency. I expect they will play good in the next match and then brakes for yourself in the next one if they lift you up one day and drop you the next.” Her assessment of the first innings in Jamaica is that they were not as wayward with the bowling as in South Africa.  “I cannot understand that there should be so many no-balls, especially a spinner who takes just two steps. People like Walsh and Sobers are willing to impart their knowledge but are these young players willing to listen and learn? Most of them feel they know everything already.”

Does this cricket enthusiast see any hope for a winning West Indies team in the near future? “I am impressed with the under 19 fellas, they seem to want it so far, but all of them get spoilt as soon as they get the money.  All the seniors studying now have earrings in their ear and gold chain on their neck.  It is a different era altogether, a little ability to play cricket has brought money that they might not normally have seen at this stage of their lives.” While Shirley agreed that maybe too much cricket is being played year round which could lead to over-tiredness in the players, this knowledgeable woman retorted: “We do not play half the amount that India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka play in any given year.  The one-day cricket has come, which is craziness but that is really entertainment for the crowds.” She is upset that spin bowling is not being encouraged and says, “The selectors believe in the myth that the West Indies could only win by pace, but that is when we had good pace bowlers like Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, Andy Roberts and Mike Holding and others.  Then we used to have good fast bowling which got us on top of the world but it is a fact we do not have that sort of bowling any longer.  These bowlers are feeble, maybe they are not eating good breadfruit and eat too much fast foods.”

The sporting enthusiast who is still playing tennis and badminton at age 73, has represented Trinidad at tennis in the Phillips Cup, many times.
“Ria Mark and I won quite a few titles in the Tranquillity tournaments and with Alan Price we won the mixed doubles.” She has also represented Grenada against the Windward Islands; the island won that leg.  She also took up badminton, representing Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean Badminton Association’s tournament with Guyana,  Suriname and Jamaica; won several local tournaments; and in 1971 was awarded a Shield as the most improved Trinidad player. Shirley has also played netball and in 1951 brought a team from Montserrat to play against Trinidad.