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

113 1974/75 With the Jones Cup once again at stake, Berbice’s last two recognised batsmen shared an unbroken stand of 51 in the fourth innings to stave off defeat. Leading players Leonard Baichan, Roy Fredericks and Alvin Kallicharran were unavailable because they were on tour in India and Pakistan with the full WI team. 1975/76 Demerara’s big first innings total made sure that they were not beaten. Steve Camacho became the first player to score centuries in two separate first-class Jones Cup matches. Once again, leading players were unavailable because of the clash with the WI tour to Australia. 1976/77 Berbice recorded their first victory in any first-class match. Keith Glasgow, playing in his last first-class game, scored an unlikely century for them at number 10. In eleven previous first-class matches his best score had been just 35. Colin Croft took seven wickets for Demerara; a couple of months later he was to begin his Test career with 33 wickets in five Tests for West Indies against Pakistan. 1977/78 Their strong batting line-up, backed up by effective fast-medium bowling from Keith Cameron and Vibert Johashen, took Berbice to their second successive victory. Leonard Baichan and Hubern Evans shared century partnerships for Berbice in each innings, adding 159 for the third wicket in the first innings, and 134 for the second wicket in the second. 1978/79 For the first time, the first-class Jones Cup final moved away from Georgetown (Demerara) and Rose Hall (Berbice), and was played at Albion (Berbice). Berbice led on first innings in a high-scoring game, in which their wicket-keeper Milton Pydanna made his maiden century in his 40th first-class match. Colin Croft played for Demerara shortly before making his first appearances in World Series Cricket, also in the West Indies. 1979/80 Rain ruined the final, with only 83 legal deliveries bowled over the first three of the scheduled four days; the match was then abandoned. Roger Harper (Demerara and, later, West Indies) made his first-class debut. 1980/81 Essequibo surprised everyone by qualifying for the final for the first (and only) time, thanks in no small part to the bowling of Courtney Gonsalves, who took 7-74 in Demerara’s only innings in the semi-final. But in the final they could not get anywhere near repeating their semi-final success and fell to a nine-wicket defeat. This was the only internal first-class match in Guyana in which no past, present or future Test cricketers appeared. 1981/82 A tame draw featured a close contest for first-innings lead, with Berbice losing their last two wickets when needing only four more runs to overtake Demerara’s score. Three brothers Etwaroo played on the Berbice side, and three Harpers played for Demerara – but only two of them (Roger and Mark) were brothers. 1982/83 In a drawn game, Leonard Baichan bowed out of first-class cricket with a century in each innings – only the second player to perform this feat in his last game (the other was William Lambert in 1817; their feat has since been matched by Chris Rogers in 2016). He carried his bat through Berbice’s second innings, after being last out in the first. Among the bowlers, there were two hat-tricks – one for each side, and both taken on the same day. Surrey, Gloucestershire and (briefly) England player Monte Lynch, born in Demerara, made the first of his six first-class appearances in the West Indies. 1983/84 In the last match for the Jones Cup, future Test cricketers Carl Hooper and Clayton Lambert both made their first-class debuts, and Berbice recorded the highest innings total in any internal first-class match in Guyana – coincidentally matching exactly the highest total in the equivalent matches in Trinidad & Tobago. In a drawn game, Tyrone Etwaroo fell two runs short of what would have been the second double- century in these matches. The bowling honours went to Suresh Ganouri, whose off- breaks brought him the best match analysis in any of these games. In their semi-final against Demerara, Essequibo’s Jeff Jones recorded his county’s first and only Jones Cup century. Guyana – History