FOUNDED BY the Windrush generation in 1948, Leeds Caribbean CC was the first West Indian cricket club in the country. It’s now celebrating the opening of a new clubhouse, costing more than £500,000 and financed by Sport England, the ECB and the club.
Shortly after the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in June 1948, Jamaican Alford Gardner, now 98 but then in his early 20s and recently demobbed from the RAF, travelled to Leeds to find a job and somewhere to live. Initially, discrimination made both tasks difficult, but as a trained engineer, Alford eventually found work and rented accommodation.
Given his Caribbean heritage, cricket was a passion and, along with a group of fellow West Indians, he decided to form a cricket club. 76 years later, Alford is the only survivor. Fit, alert and well, he was the star attraction last Saturday when the new facilities at Leeds Caribbean, two miles from the city centre, were officially opened in a ceremony attended by the ECB, Sport England, president of Yorkshire CCC Jane Powell, broadcaster Ebony Rainford-Brent, former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm, and Collis King, who played such a sensational innings to win the 1979 World Cup final for the West Indies.
The growth of Leeds Caribbean from nothing in 1948 to a prosperous club today – three teams and a junior section – is a remarkable story, and even though it’s dependent on players with an Asian background, the Caribbean influence on and off the field remains strong, and the club knows it has an important mission to encourage black youngsters to take up cricket.
With a steel band playing and Caribbean food being served, Alford Gardner explained the arly struggles.
“It was difficult to start a club in Leeds. We had no help at all. We hadn’t a penny and decided each of us would put in 10 shillings a week to buy gear.
“Eventually, we got enough to buy a bat and ball. We had nowhere to play and had only three stumps. In fact, in the first match, which took place in a park, we only had eight players and during one game the police turned up after only two balls had been bowled.
“So it took time to get going, and when things settled down, I got to know a few people and they got to know us. We joined the Yorkshire Central League in 1949 so we had Saturday fixtures and also played Sundays. We went all over Yorkshire by coach with our families.
“Looking at the new clubhouse, it’s beyond my wildest dreams. I never thought I’d come here and see something like this.”
Like Alford, Devon Malcolm, 61, emigrated from Jamaica. Now working as the ECB’s Black Communities Cricket Liaison Officer, previously, his raw pace for England, for whom he took 128 wickets in 40 Test, as well as Derbyshire, Northants and Leicestershire, enabled him to finish with 1,054 wickets in his first-class career.
