“Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” Last week when West Indies score was 19 for 6 in reply to Sri Lanka 204, ah swore to Doc Fraser dat ah not watching another Test Match wid West Indies; he told me he had given up watching West Indies cricket long time. But dis week ah begin to eat me words, when ah hear West Indies bowled out Sri Lanka foh 204, our spinners Parmaul and Warrican took five and four wickets respectively. In reply W.I made 263. De match is far from over, but if even W.I. mess up (nothing new). ah want to Big Up Vincentian Jomel Warrican, born in Murray Village within de Richmond Hill Cadastral Block.

Jomel is No 7 among ah list of proud Vin-sin-shun “Test Cricketers” that include: Alfie Roberts, Winston Davis, Mike Findlay, Ian Allen, Nixon Mc lean, Cameron Cuffy . Honestly ah never heard about de youngster, was his uncle “John Gotti” Trimmingham who told me dat Murray Village got ah horse in de W.I. cricket team. He explained further dat Jomel was his nephew, de son of his sister, Jane Trimmingham; using his exact words he said: “He father is de ‘fellar Warrican’ out by de College, he uses to be ah policeman!” Ah took time out to explain to Gotti dat de ‘fellar Warrican’ was in fact Dr Joel Warrican, de Director at de Community College, ah UWI Professor. (Ah hope all those policemen who on ah matter ah prince-apple, resigned rather dan teking de Jab, will be inspired by de fact dat Professor Joel Warrican was once ah Police Officer).

Jomel’s uncle and I climbed his family tree and concluded dat he got his cricketing genes from both sides ah de family. He is cousin to Irvin Warrican, former SVG and Windward Islands batsman; and on de Trimmingham side his great-uncle was none other than Fred Trimmingham, Nah-shun-all cricketer and footballer.

De near-bars recalled dat before Jomel’s dad took him to Bo-bail-us, he lived with his Mom, Aunts, Uncles, Grand-parents in ah lickle timber and block wall house between de public road and ah river, “Dat public road was way daddy (Jomel’s grand-father) uncle Fred and all ah we learned to bowl and bat.” John Gotti told me : “we could not keep dat lickle fellar off de street, he used to be playing ball in de road all day till it dark.”

We Murray Villagers are proud ah Jomel, we wish him every success and hope he develops into ah world class all-rounder. When dey get around to naming places and streets after outstanding Vin-sent-shuns, we want to name de very street way he learned his cricket : “Jomel Warrican Drive!”

IS DE VILLAGE DOG FIGHT ON

News coming out ah Grenada is dat de Go-venom-mint dey, will be rewarding all of its Frontline Workers wid an extra month’s salary in December, in other words, in spite of de COVID-19 Pandemic and it Vagrants oops, vary-ants, Grenadians are getting ah Bonus foh Christmas.

No conditions like Jab foh Job is men-shuned, in fact de village dog fighter, Prime Minister Mitchell has not introduced Man-doh-tarry Vax-ah-nation yet. Compare dat wid our village dog fighter in SVG, where dis end-ah-month it will be “Ah blue Christmas widout salary” foh ah number ah frontline workers, only because dey refuse to tek de Jab. Wake up Frontline Wukers, Wake-up! And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.