Bam Bam Weekes

Wisden obituary

Weekes, Kenneth Hunnell, died on February 9, 1998, aged 86. Bam Bam Weekes played one of the great early Test innings for West Indies when he enthralled the crowd at The Oval just two weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. Weekes put on 163 in 100 minutes with Vic Stollmeyer, 43 coming in four overs against the new ball, with Weekes hitting four consecutive fours off Reg Perks. He finished with 137 in two and a quarter hours. Two months earlier at Lord's, Neville Cardus had declared him hopelessly short of aim and eyesight, and thought he shaped like a left-hander batting the wrong way round. Weekes was dropped, then recalled after scoring 146 against Surrey; Cardus later admitted that he could hit like a mule. These were the only two Tests Weekes played (and he thus had an average of 57.66) though he continued to play for Jamaica until 1947. He was brought up in Jamaica, his mother's home island, and his father was Barbadian, but he was born in Boston, Massachussetts. He went back to the USA after the war, worked as a nurse, and died in New York, the father of six children. He claimed no kinship with Everton Weekes.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack