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

JOHN GODDARD John Douglas Claude Goddard was born into a well-to-do white Barbadian family in Fontabelle, St. Michael, on 21 April 1919. He was the youngest of the nine sons of the legendary Joseph Nathaniel Goddard, originally a poor ‘red leg’, who had singlehandedly built up from scratch a commercial empire in Bridgetown, the island’s capital. John attended Harrison College, one of the leading secondary schools in the old British Empire, for a few years in the early 1930s. He then transferred to the Lodge School, another élite college, in the parish of St. John, where he soon established an enviable reputation as an athlete. He was an excellent sprinter, a brilliant footballer and an exceptionally promising cricketer. He was, in fact, still a student at the Lodge when selected, at 17 years of age, to represent Barbados both in cricket and soccer. As a track and field performer he often threw the cricket ball in excess of 100 metres; he was an accomplished long jumper who often exceeded 20 feet; and he also held for many years the Barbadian interschool record for the 100 yards dash. On one memorable occasion in the annual interschool competition at the Kensington Oval he was penalized three yards for false-starting in the 100 yards dash, but he still proceeded to win the event with relative ease. This natural speed stood John in good stead both on the cricket and soccer fields while at the Lodge. In soccer, he was always a dangerous winger and it often took double-teaming to keep him in check. He kicked the ball extremely hard and scored a number of beautiful goals for the Lodge and (later on) for the Pickwick club. In cricket, he was a superb fieldsman who could patrol the boundary or the mid-field with feline skills. His sharp reflexes also allowed him to field brilliantly close to the wicket. In a word, along with Roger Blackman (another talented cricketer who had made a mockery of the majority of interschool athletic records in 1934), Goddard was the outstanding Barbadian schoolboy athlete of the 1930s. Not surprisingly, the Lodge was one of the strongest teams in Barbados during Goddard’s stay there. Joined by such promising cricketers as Frankie Austin, Hilary Bourne and Tony Skinner, he helped the school finish second (its best showing so far) in the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) First Division competition in 1936/37. After his departure from the Lodge in 1937, the young Goddard joined the powerful Pickwick Club, one of the oldest sports institutions in Barbados. Pickwick had established itself as the leading cricket club in the colony and its headquarters at the spacious Kensington Oval had become the regular venue for intercolonial competitions. Among a host of other stars, Pickwick (an upper-middle class white club) already had produced the four famous Goodmans (Aubrey, Clifford, Evan and Percy) as well as P.H. ‘Tim’ Tarilton whose 1,885 runs (amassed during 1905-30) long reigned as the record aggregate in first-class cricket for the island. Goddard, who became only the second player (after Clyde Walcott) to eclipse Tarilton’s record, remained an important member of the Pickwick club until his death. While his team won only three First Division championships in the BCA competition (1943, 1949 and 1959) during his playing career, Pickwick was always among the island’s leading contenders when he was on the field. Goddard made his first-class début in 1937. He emerged at a time when Barbadian cricket was at a low ebb. The colony, which had been so very successful in regional competition during the long period from 1865 to 1930, could not easily replace such former stars as ‘Johnnie’ Browne, George Challenor, Harry Ince and Tarilton. Barbados began to lose with ‘depressing regularity’ to teams from Trinidad and even British Guiana, which had previously been considered something of a weak sister. Goddard was in the forefront among those young lions who transformed the Barbados XI into a very powerful force in West Indies cricket during the 1940s. He proved himself a very consistent left-handed batsman and penetrative right-arm bowler during the ‘Goodwill’ series. Between 1943 and 1947, in a mere handful of games, he struck 5 centuries in regional competition - while Frank Worrell was scoring 4, Clyde Walcott 3, and Everton Weekes 2. He and Worrell led the way in their markedly contrasting styles. Goddard batted left-handed and bowled right, while Worrell batted right-handed and bowled left. John struck the ball with tremendous power while Frank tended, more 5