KCOBA Jamaica's Annual Reunion Dinner was held on November 21, 2009
Ray Ford
The weekend in Kingston, Jamaica to honor the Kingston College football teams of 1949, 1964 and 1965, and O’Neil Gordon `Collie’ Smith, of Boys Town, Kingston College and the West Indies, was the sort, if I had missed, I would have been mortified.
The spell-bounding keynote speech delivered by the legendary Reverend Wesley Hall – a pillar in West Indies cricket, and a team-mate of Smith, was in of itself, not only a treat, but a treatise impregnated with volleys of facts, morals, instructiveness and wisdom. It was delivered with breath-taking oratory.
Reverend Hall, who may be best known for bowling that final over in the first ever tied Test cricket match at the Brisbane Cricket Ground in Woollongabba, Queensland, Australia, on the 1960-61 West Indies tour, and for being the first West Indies cricketer to take a hat-trick (at Bagh-i-Jinnah in Lahore, Pakistan on the 1958-59 tour), was in fine fettle.
First he placed West Indies cricket at the nucleus of the atom – in sociological context, at the hub of the Caribbean society. As such, he lent pity on those who have, or are attempting to deface it.
He made no small point when he recalled that on the 1957 West Indies tour of England, when himself and Collie were being paid £1.00 per day, the `Mighty Mouse’ still found it in his heart to buy presents for the needy in a poorer section of London. Contrast that benevolence, to the current-day me-myself-and-all ethos. Millions are being made. Little is being given back. And most on the receiving end, are still jockeying for position to make more.
“Name something for Collie,” the big former West Indies fast bowler implored.
Bowla and Mouse
Hall also encouraged the Kingston College fraternity to strive for excellence. On message, he singled out the current crop of West Indies cricketers who at best, is mediocre in delivery, but which wants top dollar as reward. The loquacious Barbadian also struck a theme for unity, noting the fractiousness in West Indies cricket in particular, and in Caribbean society in general. Hall visited the recently-ended public mud-slinging between the West Indies Cricket Board, and the West Indies Players Association. He characterized it as a stain in our copy-book.
From the rumblings one hears, the management team of the Kingston College Old Boys Association, in particular, the Jamaica Chapter, could take a cue.
Michael Fray and Rupert Hoilette
It was fitting though, that Hall encouraged us to remember our heroes. Fitting, because at the New Kingston Hilton Hotel function, the exploits of the 1949, 1964 and 1965 KC football teams, were justly, and not a minute too soon, being recognized.
On the Friday night before, the same 1964 and 1965 Kingston College football team-members staged a Reunion fundraising `bashment’ for their alma mater, at Curphey Place. Few will disagree that members of those teams were well-loved by most of their opponents on and off the field. And from the turn-out, and strong representation from other high schools in Jamaica at the event, this observation is still not misplaced, over forty-years on. The event cleared, I am told, a tidy sum. And not forgetting their own, a period of silence was observed, in memory of Patrick `Patto’ Kirkwood, the center-half on the ’65 side, who passed away recently, in New York.
Trevor Harris and Tony Keyes
Then on Sunday evening after, Trevor Harris – a member of both teams, opened up his Coopers Hill residence to a `Cool Down’ session. That too, was a night to remember, with luminaries from the track & field and football eras of that time, lumbering around, traded stories and posited scenarios. One of the most perennial of the latter was: What if Allan Cole was attending Kingston College in the 1964-65 era?
I have always found that scenario, both provocative and amusing. Because, to such a hypothetical question, there is no right answer. It is similar to one of those planted, rabble-rousing `Joe-the-Plumber’ questions, which calls for a politically correct response. But there is none. And as usual, Frank Morant the left-half on both squads was to have none of it.
a grand time was had by all
“It must have been you who were going to give him your game,” he chided Michael Vernon, his antagonist, good friend and former team mate. `Mouse’ as Vernon is popularly known, was the right link on both squads, and has always been on what some would say, the `wrong’ side of the answer. One suspects that Vernon knows that the topic has always infuriated Morant. And so he has never been loath to heap coal on that particular fire. That is the trademark of Michael Vernon – provocation. Luckily for Frank, Baldwin Fisher was on hand to step in and lend support. `Skill’ Cole might not have fitted in, was the sentiment that prevailed.
Ray Ford, John Prescod Jr, Junior Higgins, Doug MacDonald
For the week, I was privileged to have been a house guest at Mr. Harris’s. Other guests at the residence for the period, were, Dr Tony Keyes, Leslie Lucas, Noel `Marley’ Miller and David `Big Reid’. The years may have rolled along. But the personae of the personalities have not changed. Those who were arrogant still are. Those who were autocratic still are. Those who were empathetic still are. Those who were irascible still are. And those who hid food in their rooms still do.
The Monday following, the core team-members visited the physical plant at the Kingston College North Street Campus. And no spin can be put on this. The condition of the campus was a downer and left many shaking their heads.
The question on every legend’s lips was: Where are all the funds that are being raised by the network of KCOB associations, being used? There was a unanimous feeling that in the future, funds raised, needed commensurate stewardship. And the present student body could take more pride in the upkeep of their infrastructure. In-house vandalism to some extent was evident.
