During the period 1975-1995 Kingston College dominated schoolboy cricket more than it had ever done before. As such, if the development of cricket within the school is assessed by the number of trophies won, then there is absolutely no doubt that tremendous development occurred during the era. If, however, such factors as the numbers of students participating in cricket within the School, the attitude of the School's administrators to the support of cricket, the general awareness of the pr ogress in cricket by the School population as a whole; then paradoxical as it may seem, the significance of the game within the School was experiencing progressive marginalization, to the point where the cricket fraternity became almost an entity onto itself within the School.
The peculiarity of this era seems to be that, the significance and development of cricket within Kingston College had inversely proportional experiences, one to the other. While there was much development in terms of success in competitions entered over the period, the significance of the game within the School itself decreased in importance, certainly relative to other sports such as football and track and field.
In evaluating the School's achievements in cricket throughout this era, one finds that after the Sunlight Cup victory in 1973, and the Colts titles of 1974 and 1975, another drought of "cup" victories was experienced until 1979, when the dominance began. During the interval however, Kingston College invariably challenged for top placings in the competitions entered. The School contested the Sunlight Cup final of 1975, the limited overs Tappin Cup competition final in 1976, a Sunlight Cup semi-final in 1977, before re-capturing the Sunlight Cup title in 1979 and also taking the Spaulding Cup, thus reigning supreme in all-island schoolboy cricket. 1979 was the first of three consecutive years of Sunlight Cup victories for Kingston College.
In 1980 the School was triple champion, taking the Tappin and Spaulding Cups also, while in 1981 only the Tappin Cup eluded the senior team. Probably as a consolation, the School's youngest cricket representatives, numbered among whom was the writer, captured the Under-14 cricket competition title. In the following year, 1982, the same aggregation came up joint holders along with Jamaica College, of the Colts cricket competition for the Whitaker Shield. In 1984, Kingston College lost in the semi-final of the Sunlight Cup, and under the captaincy of the writer challenged unsuccessfully in the final of the Colts Competition. In 1985, the School again achieved all-island cricket supremacy by taking both the Sunlight and Spaulding Cups.
In the following year, 1986, the School was defeated in a highly controversial Sunlight Cup final which was marred by extremely wet playing conditions, which proved disadvantageous to one team more so than the other. It is quite a pity that a Sunlight Cup final was allowed to be reduced to such a farcical display. This was soon recovered from, as again, under the writer's captaincy the School was victorious in the 1987 limited overs Tappin Cup final. Subsequent to this, Kingston College again retained the Sunlight Cup for three consecutive years, 1989, 1990 and 1991, also taking the Spaulding Cup in 1991. The School then lost in consecutive Sunlight Cup finals in the years 1992 and 1993, but won both the Whitaker Shield for Colts and the Jackie Hendricks Cup for Under-14 cricket in 1994. Kingston College then registered a phenomenal year of cricket achievement in 1995, winning all the competitions entered. Unfortunately the Spaulding Cup match was not played in that year. However, the Sunlight and Tappin Cups, the Whitaker Shield, and the Jackie Hendricks Cup all rested at Kingston College in 1995.
It may also be of interest to note, that the Championship teams of 1979 and 1980 were led by Marlon Tucker, who also led a victorious Jamaica Under-19 team, in addition to representing the West Indies on an Under-19 tour of England, after which he led the team during England's return tour of the West Indies. Tucker was to go on to lead the Jamaican senior team to consecutive regional Red Stripe Cup titles in 1988 and 1989, having not won a regional title since 1969, under the leadership of another past Kingston College student, Easton "Bull" McMorris. Also of interest is the fact that included in the victorious Jamaica teams of 1988 and 1989 were five Kingston College past students :- Marlon Tucker (Capt.), Michael Holding (Vice-Capt.), Robert Haynes, Wayne Lewis and Mark Neita.
The honor-roll does not end there for this era. Robert Haynes, referred to above, represented the senior Jamaica team in regional competition while still attending Kingston College, and represented the West Indies Under-19's alongside Marlon Tucker. He went on to represent the West Indies at the One Day International level, and has been captain of the Jamaica team. Deron Dixon, captain of Kingston College between 1983 and 1985 also represented Jamaica at the senior level in 1985 while still attending Kingston College. He also was captain of the Jamaica Under-19 team, and was vice-captain of the West Indies Under-19 team which hosted England on a tour of the Caribbean in 1985.
The Kingston College senior teams of 1989 through 1991 were led by Robert Samuels who represented the West Indies credibly against New Zealand in the West Indies during 1996, and Australia in Australia 1996-7. Samuels had represented the Jamaica senior team while still in school against the touring Indians, and also against England, and had toured Australia with the Brian Lara led West Indies Under-19 team. Also during the latter part of this era, the strong Kingston College tradition was kept alive in young Mario Ventura, son of Mabricio, who credibly represented the West Indies Under-19 team on a tour of England. In 1992, Mario Ventura, along with Roger Neill, son of Gladstone, and Andre Coley, all of whom were Kingston College students, represented the Jamaica Under-19's against the touring South Africans. This match, played at Chedwin Park, was the first being played by any South African team since their re-admission into International cricket. Neill and Ventura figured prominently in the match, each scoring half-centuries, to secure a Jamaica victory.
The evidence clearly shows that Kingston College enjoyed many successes in cricket during the period 1975-1995. However, coming on the heels of the negatives outlined in the early 1970's, again, an examination of the dynamics in the midst of the "embarrassment of riches" in achievements at cricket, will furnish explanations as to how all this became possible.
In the chapter prior to this, it was suggested that for a number of reasons, less students were showing an interest or being encouraged to play cricket. With the return of Jimmy Richards to active involvement in cricket coaching /management at Kingston College, this began to change. Given the fact of an absence of "feeder" systems into representative cricket within Kingston College and the resulting relative dearth of talent coming forward, there was little resistance to Richards' idea of identifying cricket talent outside of Kingston College, in fact outside of the High School system; and in a benefactoral gesture, offering High School education, and an opportunity to develop the raw cricket talent of some eager young men.
Among others, one such young man was Marlon Tucker who caught the eye of Mr. Richards and was entered into Kingston College at age fifteen years. It was not long before Tucker's influence became noticeable, and before the School began to win again and display dominance in cricket. As people will always be attracted to winners, the numbers coming forward to involve themselves in cricket within the school experienced a marginal increase. This may also have resulted from an attempt between 1979 and 1981, to revive inter-Form cricket by the Sportsmaster, Mr. Kenneth Plummer, at Melbourne Park which is the junior campus of Kingston College.
The writer can bear witness to the merits of this short-lived program, through which an attraction to cricket was engendered, and talent was duly recognized and encouraged. Although the numbers in the school playing cricket did not experience a tremendous boom, an appreciable nucleus of young talent emerged upon which Mr. Richards steadily worked, encouraged and built, into a somewhat sustainable magnet for more talent into the 1980's.Whether this was an orchestrated plan of genius by Mr. Richards in collaboration with Mr. Plummer, or just Divine intervention, is not here known. What is known however, is that it augured well for the remaining years of the era, coming on the heels of the pivotal early 1970's.
As Mr. Richards is a past student of the School, he understood the role which cricket was known to play in the life of the School and its charges, and sought to rebuild the transference of the values associated with the game as related in the first chapter. As a result of this, and of his being a worthy role model, the effect on the cricket playing students again revived memories of earlier days. Unfortunately, the support from within the School, especially from the decreasing number of male teachers was non-existent for the main part, which obviously hindered the broader effect of Mr. Richards' efforts.
By the dawning of the 1980's, the School population had grown to approximately two thousand students, of which considerably less than fifty were actively involved in cricket. The student body was not regularly sensitized to the progress in cricket, as the practice of making announcements of matches and their results, and general school encouragement of the cricket teams was not undertaken during general assemblies as was the norm in the eras up to the 1970's.
The School administration often proved oblivious to what was happening in cricket. Groundsmen who were so critical to the development of cricket in years gone by, were not assigned to prepare facilities for the use of the cricket teams. In fact, during the 1979 season when Kingston College won the Sunlight and Spaulding Cups, the cricketers had no home ground, as none of the fields on the School's two campuses were suitable for cricket. To illustrate how oblivious the School's administration had been to the affairs of cricket, Mr. Richards tells of the team having to practice on loose dirt in the northern corner of Melbourne Park.
Midway through the season this came to be noticed by then Vice-Principal Canon J.A.H. Ramsey, who at that point in time became cognizant of the fact that while the grounds at Clovelly Park on the North Street campus had been dug up to prepare it for the exclusive use of the football and track and field teams, no attention had been given to preparing Melbourne Park for the use of cricket. 18 This was the type of oversight typical of the School administration's attention to, and regard for cricket. Reverend Ramsey then saw to the preparation of the ground, after the embarrassment of the School having to play home matches at the grounds of their opponents had already occurred.
This, one will recall, was a year in which Kingston College was to become Sunlight and Spaulding Cup champion; signaling the strength of character of the team to overcome adversity and neglect, the discipline to practice tirelessly in sharpening their skills albeit in sub-standard conditions, so as to proudly represent a School which had paid them scant regard. But then, they were fortunately being guided by someone who understood that "cricket mirrors life", someone who stood by them and inculcated what he knew to be the true meaning of representing Kingston College, someone who understood that quiet, diligent achievement could better make the point to the School administration, than constant complaining. The cricketers simply got on with the job at hand. Mr. Richards is to be congratulated for the important role he played in not allowing cricket at Kingston College to falter.
