Famous Cricketers No 71 - J.D.C.Goddard

1936/37 While still a student at the Lodge School, for which he had already batted and bowled with conspicuous success in the BCA First Division competition, John Goddard made his first-class début in January 1937. He was 17 years, 270 days old when selected to represent Barbados against Trinidad at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. The Barbadians failed to cope with the jute-matting surface and lost by 4 wickets. Goddard’s contribution was a mere 5 runs and 2 wickets. Rupert Tang Choon had the distinction of being the first bowler to claim his wicket. In the second innings, Goddard was dismissed by Rolf Grant, who would later become a West Indies Test captain. As a bowler, Goddard’s first victim was Clifford Roach, who (in 1930) had been the first batsman to score a Test century and the first to achieve a double century for the West Indies. One of the highlights of this match was a careful century by Stanton Gittens who scored 105 of Barbados’s 242 in the first innings. In fact, Barbados had begun rather well, scoring 184/2 before Grant (3/37) and Tang Choon (4/70) caused a sensational collapse. Batting at No. 6 after Barbados had won the toss, Goddard entered the fray at 202/4 but was fifth out at 215. Although C.L.Bourne (73 & 75) and E.A.V. ‘Foffie’ Williams (15 & 80) batted well, the visitors could not recover, but ‘Foffie’ (who would later play for the West Indies) gave the home side a scare with some fiery fast bowling in the second innings. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 1. Barbados v Trinidad, Port-of-Spain, January 16, 18, 19, 20, 21 (Trinidad won by four wickets) c A.E.Agard b R.P.Tang Choon 4 242 11 2 31 1 C.A.Roach c J.R.Edwards 373 st A.E.Agard b R.S.Grant 1 339 10 3 31 1 A.E.Agard c J.R.Edwards 210-6 SEASON’S AVERAGES Batting and Fielding M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct Season 1 2 0 5 4 2.50 - - - Bowling O M R W BB Ave 5i 10m Season (6b) 21 5 62 2 1-31 31.00 - - 1937/38 Eight months later Barbados travelled to British Guiana and were overwhelmed by an innings and 229 runs. The hosts also defeated Trinidad by 2 wickets and could therefore lay claim to the territorial championship. Barbados failed to take advantage of a perfect wicket after winning the toss and mustered only 301, despite half-centuries from George Carew (67), E.L.G.Hoad (57 not out) and Clifford Inniss (55). British Guiana then batted for over two days to amass 629 runs and skittled out Barbados in the second innings on a really bad pitch for a paltry 99. Peter Bayley scored a brilliant 268 (then the highest ever achieved by a Guyanese batsman) and shared a record third-wicket stand of 381 runs with Chatterpaul Persaud (174). C.R. ‘Snuffie’ Browne, a Barbadian native, did most of the damage with the ball, capturing 8/63 in the match after hitting powerfully for 69 in British Guiana’s only innings. For Goddard, it was another disappointing effort. He registered only 16 runs and failed to take a wicket. He did, however, record his first catch in first-class cricket, when he held a chance off ‘Teddy’ Hoad’s bowling to dismiss Bayley. Own Team O M R W Opp Ct Total Total 2. Barbados v British Guiana, Georgetown, September 27, 28, 29, 30, October 1 (British Guiana won by an innings and 229 runs) lbw B.McG.Gaskin 14 301 15 1 52 0 629 1 lbw W.M. Green 2 99 9