The title of O’Neil Gordon ‘Collie’ Smith is one which has fascinated me all my life, though I can not recall now simply how that began. It will need to have been due to tales my father informed me, and though precisely what he stated now escapes me it will have been one thing alongside the traces of ‘What would possibly he have achieved however for his premature demise?’.
The shortage of any actual data past the premise of his Take a look at profession and his sadly early demise have been a supply of frustration for someday, however one thing that I discovered straightforward sufficient to stay with till I acquired spherical to studying Garry Sobers’ 2002 printed My Autobiography, the opening chapter of which is a heartfelt homily to the buddy he misplaced in that tragic highway accident in 1959.
It was inevitable due to this fact that when, a number of years later, I discovered an outlet for my musings with regards to cricket and cricketers that one of many first topics I needed to jot down about was Collie Smith.
There are books aplenty which were written about Sobers, and I discovered materials in these in addition to books by or about Everton Weekes, Frank Worrell and Clyde Walcott in addition to numerous histories of West Indies cricket and accounts of the few collection through which Collie appeared. However what I couldn’t observe down was a biography of Collie himself, and I knew there was one because it had a passing point out on, of all locations, his Wikipedia web page.
The place I couldn’t discover any reference to the ebook, titled The Joyful Warrior and written by Kenneth Chaplin, was in Padwick’s Bibliography of Cricket. The primary version of Padwick appeared in 1977, and an up to date and expanded second version seven years later. I did for some time assume that maybe it was a type of books that was written however by no means truly printed, however then I did see a duplicate. It was in a supplier’s store, however was not in nice situation, was not substantial and, even when I may have overcome these considerations, was priced approach in extra of what in these days I used to be ready to pay for a cricket ebook.
By 2012 I had seen no different copy of The Joyful Warrior so, on the premise I had researched in every single place else that I may discover point out of Collie, I wrote the function, that appeared as this, again in March 2012. I used to be completely satisfied sufficient with the consequence and, at all times the fantastic thing about something that seems on line, figured I may tinker with it when and if a duplicate of the ebook ever appeared.
For the following dozen years I stored on in search of the ebook. I often requested sellers, in hope somewhat than expectation, whether or not they had copies and the reply was at all times no. I by no means noticed a duplicate on a supplier’s web site, in a list or up for public sale. I additionally trawled eBay every day, and often used a wide range of search websites within the hope somebody someplace on the planet would checklist a duplicate.
So obsessed was I with this search that I took to asking everybody within the Caribbean that I got here throughout to maintain an eye fixed open for a duplicate for me. Through the years I’ve additionally had dealings with a number of purchasers whose roots have been in Jamaica, and have supplied all of them big reductions on charges if they may supply a duplicate for me. It acquired to the stage the place I’ve made related provides to anybody I do know with essentially the most tenuous reference to the Caribbean, and naturally nothing ever got here of any of those requests for help.
At one stage I even managed to safe an electronic mail tackle for creator Kenneth Chaplin, sadly now not with us. To be honest to him Chaplin did reply to my electronic mail, albeit merely to say somewhat unhelpfully that the ebook ‘has lengthy been out of print’ and ‘I can not enable you to with discovering a duplicate’. I did ask him a number of observe up questions on who printed the ebook, the dimensions of its print run and the like however, maybe understandably, I didn’t hear from him once more.
I typically contemplated why the ebook ought to be so vanishingly uncommon. It wasn’t a restricted version as such, though I settle for that may be a misnomer within the sense that any ebook is proscribed by the variety of copies printed, however then curiosity in Collie was big. Tens of hundreds of Jamaicans turned out for his funeral, so there was certainly a requirement. I may settle for that a lot of those that did purchase copies weren’t cricketing bibliophiles, nor certainly ‘ebook folks’ in any respect, however certainly some copies will need to have been stored?
I may recognize that in 1960 the world was a a lot bigger place, and information of the ebook’s publication could not have reached far, however certainly among the many mates who Collie made in his two seasons within the Lancashire League with Burnley would have heard of the ebook’s existence and made certain a number of copies arrived right here?
Nicely it in the end looks as if at the very least one did as, a number of weeks in the past, I acquired dwelling from work and, for need of one thing to occupy my thoughts earlier than the 7pm information started, had a glance on eBay and, lo and behold, there was a duplicate of The Joyful Warrior, and I didn’t even have the stress of an public sale to endure because it had a ‘purchase it now’ worth, which I duly paid.
And so, a few days later, a duplicate of Collie Smith’s biography duly turned up at my home. Essentially the most exceptional factor concerning the sale was that to the very best of my recollection the unique itemizing will need to have gone up at the very least eight hours earlier than I noticed it – am I actually the one cricket collector with an obsession with The Joyful Warrior?
One of many traits that collectors have, and one of many issues that I imagine places us effectively and actually ‘on the spectrum’, is that the joys of the acquisition conquers all. Thus I had owned The Joyful Warrior for a full six weeks earlier than the considered truly studying the factor occurred to me, and it was solely as a result of I used to be caught with little or no to do final Saturday morning that I truly did so. Wouldn’t it have made a lot distinction to the function I wrote all these years in the past? I reasoned that I owed it to myself to seek out out.
The 62 pages took lower than an hour to learn. Its creator, I had came upon, handed away in 2019 on the age of 90. He was a profession journalist, not primarily in sport reporting, however you merely should google his title to see that he was a extremely revered man who served as press secretary to 4 Jamaican Prime Ministers. So far as sport is worried his foremost contribution appears to have been as a soccer referee, and a FIFA recognised one for 18 years. So far as I can see The Joyful Warrior is his solely ebook.
I had puzzled if maybe the ebook was merely not superb, and that the shortage of high quality contributed to why it was so elusive. That thought was definitely mistaken, because the ebook is a well-written one and sheds a substantial amount of gentle on Collie’s upbringing, his non secular values and his life at dwelling. Letters that he wrote from England to his mom and his fiancee seem within the textual content to additional illustrate his character.
However when it comes to my function there’s, I used to be happy to notice, nothing to alter. I had managed to select up all of Collie’s cricketing achievements from elsewhere, though have been I writing the function immediately I may need talked about having lastly realized the place the title ‘Collie’ got here from, the reason being it was a pet title, after her maid Conchita, that Collie’s grandmother gave to him and which caught to him for the remainder of his days.
The one slight shock in The Joyful Warrior is that there isn’t a point out of the ‘particular relationship’ with Sobers, however then Chaplin had not so far as I can see, aside from Gerry Alexander who gives a foreword, spoken to any of Collie’s West Indies teammates. The ebook may be very a lot a case of 1 Jamaican paying tribute to a different, so maybe that’s the clarification for that.
It goes with out saying that I used to be delighted to lastly observe down a duplicate of a ebook I’ve been actively in search of for the very best a part of twenty years. Equally with success in lastly doing so one thing has gone out of my life, so I must discover one thing else to use the identical vitality to discovering – i ponder what it is going to be?
