My Song Shall Be Cricket by Franklyn Bracegirdle

My Song Shall Be Cricket by Franklyn Bracegirdle

Author:Franklyn Bracegirdle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER ELEVEN

It is Going to Happen

RETURNING to Barbados in September 1982 meant another period of being reunited in my mom’s house. We had moved often while she had been raising and extending her family but now she had settled in King’s Village, near Holders Hill.

It wasn’t an easy move, as naturally Mom would have felt that she was starting all over again with so many mouths to feed and so little help. I had felt quite comfortable that I was doing my bit but it was still going to be tough and I soon found that it was time for my wife and I to free up some space by finding some accommodation of our own.

I approached the National Housing Corporation seeking a house to rent but was informed that they had none. They told me there was one for sale but I promptly informed them that I could not afford to buy a house. Never having held a steady job, it was the furthest thing from my mind – taking out a loan or having a mortgage. A very pleasant man named Mr George Edghill, who was an avid cricket fan and a manager in the National Housing Corporation, was extremely helpful and the very next day, for a down payment of 5,000 Barbados dollars, I had a set of keys. We then moved into our house, Lot no. 4, Heathlane, Haynesville, St James.

It was a two-bedroomed single unit built on 2,600sq ft of land. Essentially it was situated in the midst of everything: roughly 140 yards from the Holders Hill playing field and in very close proximity to the homes of Esther Graham and Maraviah Young, two of Julia’s sisters.

The down payment and furnishings put a hefty dent in our savings but I would soon be off to England again and be able to make my term payments.

We were young. I was 23 years old and married to my ‘angel’. She was eight months younger and we had a baby daughter. I was responsible for them and our home.

It could be considered that I knew little of life and the hardships and processes it brings, but the one and most important thing that I knew from the start was that I was determined to make our new life work.

Meanwhile, the new first-class season was looming in the Caribbean and the battle lines were being drawn. Trialists for the Barbados squad had been selected – a mix of the usual suspects and a few unknowns who might have had a couple of stand-out performances during the previous season.

I worked tirelessly in the nets during the trials, learning the art form of bowling. It would ordinarily be 10 or 12 pairs of batsmen to bat, so for the bowling all-rounders, like me and one or two others, it was tough to get a go at the crease. It was either get a few guys to pitch up early or hang on and get a few hits without pads in the twilight.



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