Sports in History A moment in time…Ivan Madray’s spectacular catch sixty years ago

Ivan Madray’s demise in 2009 brought back memories of a spectacular catch which he took some sixty years ago. I can see in my mind’s eyes that catch as if it occurred only yesterday. Madray was about 16-years-old and attending Corentyne High School. It was some time in the mid-1950s in the Rohlehr Cup final between City Stars, a little club at Miss Sibi (Miss Phobe) and Police Sports Club (PSC) at Parade Ground, New Amsterdam some exciting cricket prevailed.

Perhaps, I should tell you a little more about the ground. For the fans from Georgetown and the surrounding East Coast and West Bank areas, the ground is not much bigger than the present Guyana National Engineering Cooperation (GNEC) ground on Woolford Avenue. On the northern side are the Scots School, Church and burial ground. There is a clock on the tower of the church, which batsmen usually aim at. I can still remember burly policeman Leroy Bentick with a “wicked” moustache, finding delight in hitting the clock with one of his lofty shots.
It was on that ground when the Police and Berbice off-spinner Lloyd Benjamin played forward to pace bowler, his half-brother Vincent Andrews, got an edge and the ball deflected over the slip cordon for six. Providence’s hard-hitting batsman, the late Reggie Bhagwandin slugged his way to a whirlwind 98 (12 sixes and 5 fours), in less than an hour against Police, many years ago. Bhagwandin may well be remembered, for all you know, for another exciting incident in which he was involved. This time he was a mere spectator, standing in a house by a window viewing the 1959-60 MCC tour match against Berbice at Rose Hall “Oval”, Canje.
MCC went on a run spree, scoring over six hundred runs with three of their batsmen-Ken Barrington, Jim Parks and Ray Illingworth getting into three figures. Wicket-keeper/batsman Jim Parks who was doing a stint of coaching in Trinidad had replaced the injured Peter May and savagely hammered the bowling with a number of sixes-eight in all-effortlessly to all parts of the ground. One such shot was struck lustily over the northern sightscreen into the waiting hands of Bhagwandin who gracefully took it-as a young lady would accept a gift from her lover on Valentine’s Day, much to the delight of the large and enthusiastic crowd. The ball however, was never retrieved. Bhagwandin kept it as a souvenir…rightly so! Berbice batted first and made over 400 runs for the loss of Alvin Bacchus’ wicket. He made a dour 46.Two of the three CHS Hall of Fame inductees Basil Butcher scored a classy 133 not out, while skipper Joe Solomon who opened the innings with Bacchus made his highest first-class score of 201 not out.
Back to the Police-City Stars match. Leg-spinner Ivan Madray was about to bowl the first ball of the final over and Police needed a mere two runs for victory with the last pair at the wicket. At Parade Ground, the air seemed charged with electricity. Strange enough, in those days New Amsterdamers knew nothing about blackouts. Moreso, where Rishi and I lived at Nuclear Yard, Rose Hall Estate there was never any such problem. The estate provided uninterrupted electricity and pure water continuously. It seemed that just one spark could set the whole densely packed ground ablaze. Darkness had stepped in, and so too has the sand flies. Remember them, how they made life miserable for us especially when you had to catch the early morning ferry at New Amsterdam stelling to Rosignal. Some say they brought along their ‘lamps’ with them looking to bite our poor souls. Do you remember the mosquitoes? Thank god, for the new state-of-the-art Bridge across the Berbice River which has put an end to the sufferings we had to endure.
Nearly all those creatures inflicted the worst pain possible on the five hundred and over eccentric spectators, but we did not budge. Imagine for one minute the pain-excruciating-I had to bear. I was in trousers to my knees and bare-footed at that.
Madray looked around the field and, I rather suspect the thought which ran through his mind then was that he wished the ground was far much bigger. He started on his run, one step…two, and suddenly out of nowhere, the ball fell out of his hand-it never happened before-probably, it was nervousness on his part or it was done deliberately to unsettle the batsman’s concentration.

Madray, as if to prolong the agony, started all over again, and as he was to bowl, the late Charlie Bissoon-a versatile wicketkeeper and an opening batsman with a lot of flourish-went up. This time the bails had fallen off the stumps. Umpire Bishop standing at square-leg ran in and fixed it. During that time, Madray in consultation with skipper Isaac Gopie removed the man from deep mid-wicket, Basil Mohabir and placed him on the boundary. Madray started all over and, this time he got his act together. Police pinned their fate in left-handed Bacchus who took a mighty heave at the bowler and succeeded in giving Madray a sharp return catch, which he held on for dear life. The crowd’s pent-up feelings burst the dawn of restrain. I figured the ball to go over the clock! Pandemonium broke loose! There were much jubilation in the Police camp as everyone thought, or so it seemed, that Police had won the match. A section of the crowd invaded the field and lifted Bacchus sky high. Elsewhere on the ground, spectators stamped, jumped, embraced one another, pumped hands, danced and even cried believing Bacchus had struck the ball for a six. Others were collecting their winnings from bets. There was excitement on all sides. While all these wild scenes of jubilation were going on Madray, as he was fast approaching the boundary line, threw the ball into the air to show that it was the boys from City Stars and not Police had won the match. By then, the bets were changing hands.
Many years later, Madray returned on holiday and in company with former Headmaster of Sacred Heart Primary School and a former CHS student Muntaz Khan, my son Shan Razack Jr.and yours truly spoke on cricket among other things. Madray spoke at length about the matches he played at home against Australia, Pakistan and his success in the 1956 Quadrangular Cricket Tournament involving Jamaica and Barbados. He also recalled the difficult time he had when he made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1958 at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, where those in authority were determined that he should not succeed. He also recalled the letter which was sent to the principal of CHS, Mr. J.C.Chandisingh which was meant for L. Madray; Labrick Madray, but was given to him instead, and he made full use of the opportunity.
In the midst of our conversation, the spectacular catch he took to win the match for City Stars against Police at Parade ground liven up the discussion. “Was there any nervousness on your part when you set about to bowl the final over with just two runs needed for victory? Not really! “I thought Police had the edge, if they had gone about the right way, but Bacchus did the most unforgiving thing of going after me. He had six balls to score the required two runs for victory, and common sense dictates that he should have gone for the singles, but instead a quick rush of blood made him did other wise. I anticipate that he would come after me, so I bowled a straight ball with a high trajectory, releasing the ball mid-air, so it didn’t come into full contact with the bat, and thus the return catch. Matter of fact, only the skipper Isaac Gopie and the wicketkeeper Charlie Bissoon knew I took the catch and we had won the match. The rest of the players had their heads in the air wondering where the ball might have gone!!