First-Class Matches Trinidad and Guyana 1958/59 to 1989/90

112 The franchise matches began in 2016; but the senior inter-county series, in place since 1954/55, was no more. To conclude the history of major internal matches in Guyana, mention should be made of another tournament that, for a few seasons during the time when the Jones Cup final was recognised as first-class, also pitted the senior counties against each other. This was the competition for the Dr Dennis Irvine Cup, held in each of the seven seasons from 1976/77 to 1982/83. Dr Irvine was the well-respected Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana until he left that post, and the country, at the end of 1982. For its first four seasons, Dr Irvine’s Cup was contested in just a single two-innings match between Demerara and Berbice, but for its last three seasons Essequibo joined the competition and the matches were played on the same basis as the contemporary Jones Cup, with a semi-final between Essequibo and the current non-holders (and as with the Jones Cup, the Irvine Cup would only be awarded if the final were won outright), leading to a final between the holders and the winners of the semi-final. As far as can be gathered from the very limited scores available, the matches for this Cup were contested between full-strength sides from the respective counties. It is arguable whether these matches should be, or should have been, regarded as first-class. According to a report in the Guyana Chronicle in 1989, the West Indies Board’s decision in 1969 to confer first-class status on the Jones Cup final was worded to refer to ‘inter-county matches between Demerara and Berbice’ generally, without specific reference to the Jones Cup. If that was the case – and there is some doubt as to whether this 1989 report is a wholly accurate representation of events 20 years earlier – then when the competition for the Dr Dennis Irvine Cup began in 1976 the matches between those two counties, at least, should have automatically been regarded as first-class. But contemporary cricket-followers do not seem to have treated them as such, and in the absence (despite diligent searching) of full scores of most of the games, it is not possible to judge whether they would truly have merited that status. In any case, it would not be proper now for anyone other than Cricket West Indies (as successors to the former Board of Control) to review the position and to consider granting first-class status to them retrospectively. And at this distance, it is questionable whether any such review would be appropriate. Brief scores of the matches for the Dr Dennis Irvine Cup, so far as they are known, are included in the summary scores of the non-first-class inter-county matches elsewhere in this volume. First-class matches: Season-by-season review 1971/72 The first first-class Jones Cup match ended in an indecisive draw. Test batsman Steve Camacho (Demerara) scored the first century, and also took five catches in Berbice’s first innings – a fielding record never equalled in any of the later games. Milton Pydanna’s three stumpings in the match for Berbice also remained the record for these matches. Basil Butcher made his last first-class appearance, and future Test all-rounder Sew Shivnarine his first. 1972/73 Despite fielding only one Test cricketer to their opponents’ three, Demerara won the Cup thanks largely to ten wickets from Lance Gibbs, making his only appearance in these matches. The final was the only internal first-class match in Guyana in which all 40 wickets fell. 1973/74 After the semi-final of the Jones Cup had been ruined by the weather, and there was insufficient time to arrange a replay, Berbice and Demerara met for the GCB President’s Trophy rather than the Jones Cup. Berbice won on first innings, in which stolid opener Leonard Baichan made the only double-century in these matches. Both he and his opening partner Romain Etwaroo retired soon after reaching centuries in their team’s second innings; together they added 185 in the first innings and 205 in the second. Guyana – History