Famous Cricketers No 61 - Wes Hall

(where he served from 1986 to 1994) to tears of laughter as he invariably provided some comic relief even during his most serious speeches. He is an eloquent and witty speaker as well as a delightful conversationalist. It is a rare pleasure to listen to Hall’s tall tales about himself and his colleagues during their heyday and the best feature about his humour is that the bulk of jokes are at his own expense. Several hundred enthusiasts had the pleasure of listening to Hall recently when he was invited by the University of the West Indies to deliver the fourth annual Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Lecture at the Cave Hill campus (Barbados) in April 1997. Wesley Winfield Hall deserves a full-fledged biography written by a reputable social historian. He has made a significant contribution to West Indian sport, politics, life and culture. In the meantime, however, we have to be satisfied with this modest offering which is largely intended to throw light on the arithmetic of his cricket. But there will always, of course, be a great deal more to ‘Big Wes’ than just sport and jokes. Like the ‘Three Terrible Ws’ and Sir Garfield Sobers, Hall certainly deserves a knighthood not only for his faithful service to Caribbean cricket over the years but for his role in Barbadian life, politics and religion. 1955/56 Hall made his début for Barbados in March 1956 when he was only 18 years, 191 days old. He was selected to play in the second colony match against E.W.Swanton’s XI at Bridgetown. But the drawn match was dominated by the magnificence of Graveney who struck a glorious 154 for the tourists. Barbadian centuries were also achieved by C.B. ‘Boogles’ Williams (133) in the first innings and Clyde Walcott (130) in the second. The bowlers therefore fared ill, and none more so than young Wes whose 24 overs during the match cost 112 runs and brought him no joy at all. He did, however, have the satisfaction of holding his first two catches in first-class cricket. His very first victim was David Blake, whom he caught off Norman Marshall’s bowling for 46 in the first innings. Although Hall was to participate with some success in the trial matches which took place at Port-of-Spain early in 1957, this match against the Swanton team proved to be his only first-class appearance before he toured England with the West Indies in 1957. His total record at that stage, somewhat amazingly, read: 4 runs, 0 wickets and 2 catches. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 1. Barbados v E.W.Swanton’s XI, Bridgetown, March 21, 22, 23, 24 (Match drawn) not out 4 288 21 1 78 0 488 2 did not bat - 328-7d 3 0 34 0 95-4 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Other match 1 1 1 4 4* - - - 2 Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5wi 10wm Other match 24 1 112 0 - - - - 1957 - West Indians in England Hall was not yet 20 years old when he undertook his first overseas tour with the West Indians. Led by John Goddard, his team fared much worse than their supporters had expected. Although the tourists avoided defeat at the hands of any county, they could not withstand the full power of England, then in the midst of a golden streak. The team won 14 of 31 first-class matches, drew 13 and lost only 3. All of those losses, however, occurred in the Tests, none of which the West Indies won. Hall himself did little to justify his selection. From 15 matches he gleaned only 178 runs at less than 14 per innings while capturing only 27 expensive wickets. He was the least impressive of all the specialist bowlers and naturally failed to gain selection to any of the Tests. He never came to grips with the English 9