Everton Weekes
Cricketer
against England in 1950.
Everton Weekes batting in the Third Test
THE CRICKETER Sir Everton Weekes, who has died at 95, was a legendary batsman for the West Indies, and the only man to make centuries in five consecutive Test innings.
Known from 1950 as one of the ‘Three Ws’ alongside Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell, his teammates in the first West Indies side to win a Test in
England, Weekes holds the 10th highest average in Test history among those to have played at least 20 innings.
He was also the third oldest surviving men’s Test cricketer, after the South African John Watkins and England’s Don Smith, both of whom are 97.
Everton DeCourcy Weekes was born in an inner-city slum
district of Bridgetown, Barbados in February 1925 and named after the Liverpool football team his father supported.
Leaving school at 14, he served in the Barbados Defence Force, but had already made his debut in the local league – graduating to the Barbados team in 1944.
He appeared in 10 first-class games for Barbados before being called up to face England at Kensington Oval, in Bridgetown, a month before his 23rd birthday.
His first Test century in the final game of that series in Jamaica marked the start of
an unparalleled run of form. Touring India later that year, he hit further centuries in Delhi, Bombay and two in Calcutta.
He was run out for 90 in the fourth Test in Madras while chasing a sixth century, but in only his 12th innings notched up his 1,000th Test run, a record – matched by Yorkshire’s Herbert Sutcliffe – which still stands.
In 1949 Weekes accepted an offer of £500 to play as the professional for Bacup in the Lancashire League. Taken
aback by the cold, he took to wearing an Army greatcoat everywhere, a “uniform” with which he became synonymous, but his homesickness for Barbados was tempered by the presence of Worrell and Walcott, in the nearby towns of Radcliffe and Accrington.
Weekes retired in 1958 and was knighted in 1995.
He is survived by three sons and a daughter. Two of his sons and his grandson, Ricky Hoyte, have also turned out for Barbados.