Charlie Taylor      

Charlie Taylor played both cricket and hockey for Barbados in a sporting career that lasted more than 30 years. He was a quick-scoring batsman, wicket-keeper and fleet-footed fielder and the most solid defender in Barbados hockey at the time, representing the island in the Caribbean championships in Trinidad in 1960 as a still fit and fast 42-year-old.

He made his first-class debut just short of his 20th birthday against Trinidad at the Queen's Park Oval in 1942. He batted down the order, was out cheaply and wasn't chosen again until five years later. In his second match on return, against British Guiana at Bourda, he scored the first of his four hundreds, 101 not out in a total of 601 for 9 declared, going in at No. 9 and adding 125 with Foffie Williams for the ninth wicket. It gained him a promotion as an opener for the rest of his career, sharing partnerships with Teddy Hoad jnr., George Carew, Roy Marshall and Conrad Hunte until he bowed out against Jamaica at Kensington, aged 33.

His two major innings were both at Kensington - 168 against Trinidad and Tobago in 1949, when he and Marshall put on 278 for the first wicket in an eventual total of 698, and 161 against the touring MCC team in 1948 that was followed by Clyde Walcott's 120 and Everton Weekes' unbeaten 118 in a total of 514 for 4 declared. His son, Alfred, also played four matches for Barbados as a batsman/wicket-keeper in the 1960s.

Charlie was one of the pioneers in the Barbados hotel industry as proprietor of the Royal Hotel in Hastings, Christ Church, now the Regency Cove.
The Nation