Everton Weekes
Sir Everton DeCourcy Weekes, KCMG, GCM, OBE was a cricketer from Barbados. A right-handed batsman, he was known as one of the hardest hitters in world cricket. Weekes holds the record for the most consecutive Test hundreds, with five. Along with Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott, he formed what was known as "The Three Ws" of the West Indies cricket team. Weekes played in 48 Test matches for the West Indies cricket team from 1948 to 1958. Weekes occasionally donned the wicketkeeping gloves as well. He continued to play first-class cricket until 1964, surpassing 12,000 first-class runs in his final innings. As a coach he was in charge of the Canadian team at the 1979 Cricket World Cup, and he was also a commentator and international match referee.
Youth and early career
Born in a wooden shack on Pickwick Gap in Westbury, Saint Michael, Barbados, near Kensington Oval, Weekes was named by his father after English football team Everton Weekes was unaware of the source of DeCourcy, his middle name, although he believed there was a French influence in his family.Weekes's family was poor and his father was forced to leave his family to work in the Trinidad oilfields when Weekes was eight. He did not return to Barbados for eleven years. In the absence of his father, Weekes and his sister were raised by his mother Lenore and an aunt, whom Weekes credits with his successful upbringing. Weekes attended St Leonard's Boys' School, where he later bragged that he never passed an exam and preferred to concentrate on sport. In addition to cricket, Weekes was also a keen football player, representing Barbados. As a boy, Weekes assisted the groundsmen at Kensington Oval and often acted as a substitute fielder in exchange for free entry to the cricket, giving himself the opportunity to watch leading international cricketers at close range. At age 13 Weekes began playing for Westshire Cricket Club in the Barbados Cricket League. He would have preferred to have played for his local club, Pickwick, but the club only catered to white players.
Weekes left school in 1939, aged 14, and, not having a job, spent his days playing cricket and football. He later attributed much of his cricketing success to this time spent practising. In 1943, Weekes enlisted in the Barbados Regiment and served as a lance corporal until his discharge in 1947 and while he never saw active service, the fact he was in the military meant he was eligible to play cricket for Garrison Sports Club in the higher standard Barbados Cricket Association in addition to Westshire in the BCL.
Early first-class career
Weekes's performances in Barbados club cricket led to his selection in a 1945 trial match to select a first-class side to represent Barbados on a Goodwill tour of Trinidad and Tobago. Weekes scored 88 and 117 retired and was selected for the tour, making his first-class debut on 24 February 1945, aged 19 years, 364 days, for Barbados against Trinidad and Tobago at Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain. Batting at number six, he scored 0 and eight as Barbados lost by ten wickets.Weekes scored his maiden first-class half century in his next match, making 53 as an opener against Trinidad in March 1945. In his first two first-class seasons Weekes was only a moderate success with the bat, averaging 16.62 by the end of the 1945/46 season but began to find form in 1946/47, when, batting at number four, his maiden first-class century, 126 against British Guiana at Bourda, Georgetown, and averaged 67.57 for the season. The 1947/48 season included a tour by MCC and Weekes impressed West Indian selectors with an unbeaten 118 against the tourists prior to the first Test in Bridgetown.
The Three Ws
Weekes was one of the "Three Ws", along with Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell, noted as outstanding batsmen from Barbados who all made their Test debut in 1948 against England. The three were all born within seventeen months of each other and within a mile of Kensington Oval in Barbados and Walcott believed that the same midwife delivered each of them. Weekes first met Walcott in 1941, aged 16, when they were team mates in a trial match. They shared a room together when on tour and, along with Worrell, would go dancing together on Saturday nights after playing cricket.The name "Three Ws" was coined by an English journalist during the 1950 West Indian tour of England. Walcott believed that Weekes was the best all-round batsman of the three, while Worrell was the best all-rounder and modestly referred to himself as the best wicket keeper of the trio. After their retirement from cricket, the three remained close and, following the death of Worrell in 1967, Weekes acted as one of the pallbearers at his funeral. The 3Ws Oval, situated on the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies was named in their honour, and a monument to the Three Ws is opposite the oval. Worrell and Walcott are buried on ground overlooking the oval.
Test career
Weekes made his Test debut for the West Indies against England at Kensington Oval on 21 January 1948, aged 22 years and 329 days. He was one of 12 debutants; seven from the West Indies and five for England; Jim Laker, Maurice Tremlett, Dennis Brookes, Winston Place and Gerald Smithson. Batting at number three, Weekes made 35 and 25 as the match ended in a draw.Weekes's performance in his next two Tests, in the words of Wisden, "did little to indicate the remarkable feats which lay ahead" and was initially dropped from the Fourth and final Test of the series against England before an injury to George Headley allowed Weekes to return to the side. After being dropped on 0, Weekes scored 141, his maiden Test century and was subsequently chosen for the West Indies tour of India, Pakistan and Ceylon.
In his next Test, the First against India, at Delhi, in November 1948, Weekes scored 128, followed by 194 in the Second Test in Bombay and 162 and 101 in the Third Test in Calcutta. Weekes then made 90 in the Fourth Test in Madras, being controversially run out and 56 and 48 in the Fifth Test at Bombay. Weekes's five Test centuries in consecutive innings is a Test record, passing the record previously held by Jack Fingleton and Alan Melville as was his achievement of seven Test half-centuries in consecutive innings, passing the record previously jointly held by Jack Ryder, Patsy Hendren, George Headley and Melville..
By the end of the series, which also included a century against Ceylon, at that time a non-Test cricketing nation, and a half-century against Pakistan in a match not classed as a Test match, Weekes had a Test batting average of 82.46 and had passed 1,000 Test runs in his twelfth innings, one fewer than Donald Bradman. Early in the tour the West Indian team's cricket kit disappeared and Weekes was surprised to see Indian fishermen wearing flannels and West Indian cricket jumpers. As a result of his series, Weekes was named one of the 1949 Indian Cricket "Cricketers of the Year". The next season saw no Test cricket played by West Indies but Weekes scored 236* against British Guiana at Bridgetown, averaged 219.50 for the season and raised his career first-class average to 72.64.
West Indies in England 1950
In 1950, West Indies toured England and Weekes continued his excellent form, scoring 338 runs at 56.33 and playing a significant part in the West Indies 3–1 victory in the Test series, as well as 2310 first-class runs at 79.65. By the end of the series, Weekes had scored 1,410 Test runs at 74.21 and had enhanced his reputation as one of the finest slip fielders in world cricket, taking 11 catches in the series. Additionally, his 304* against University of Cambridge remains the only triple century by a West Indian on tour in England. In recognition of his performance, Weekes was named a 1951 Wisden Cricketer of the Year.West Indies in Australia and New Zealand 1951/52
Named as a member of the West Indian team to tour Australia in 1951/52, Weekes was troubled by a range of injuries throughout the tour, including an ongoing thigh injury and a badly bruised right thumb when a door slammed shut on it while he was helping an injured Walcott out of his room, subsequently leaving his performances below expectations.Additionally, as the leading West Indian batsman, Weekes was targeted by the Australian fast bowlers, in particular Ray Lindwall, subjecting him to Bodyline-like tactics of sustained short pitched bowling. Reviewing the series, the Sydney Morning Herald claimed that the Australian tactics to contain Weekes may have been just within the laws of cricket but infringed on the spirit of the game. Leading cricket commentator Alan McGilvray later wrote "I remain convinced to this day the bumpers hurled at Weekes had a definite influence on charging up West Indian competitiveness in future series." Following the Australian tour, the West Indies visited New Zealand. In a tour match against Wellington, Weekes kept wicket in the absence of the injured Simpson Guillen and effected the only stumping of his first class career.
India in the West Indies 1952/53
During the Port of Spain Test against India in February 1953, Weekes surpassed George Headley's record of 2190 as West Indies' highest Test run scorer. Weekes would hold this record until June 1966 when surpassed by Gary Sobers.Australia in the West Indies 1954/55
Weekes took his sole Test wicket in this series. In the First Test at Sabina Park, Kingston, with Australia requiring just 20 runs in their second innings to win the Test, Weekes opened the bowling and had Arthur Morris caught by Glendon Gibbs. The Australians were surprised at the level of racism evident throughout the West Indies at the time, and were embarrassed to find that Weekes, Worrall and Walcott had not been invited to a cocktail party at the home of a white West Indian player.Other achievements include three centuries in consecutive innings against New Zealand in 1956, and a partnership of 338 with Worrell against England in 1954, still a West Indian record for the third wicket. In 1954 Weekes was chosen as the first tenured black captain of Barbados and the second black captain overall following Herman Griffith's temporary captaincy in 1941.