Everton Weekes

Short, stocky but endearing, Everton Weekes, one of the three Ws, was quick-footed and possessed an admirable variety of strokes, almost all of them attacking. His debut against England in 1947-48 was unremarkable, and he was dropped to make way for George Headley, although he was restored when Headley had to drop out. The Kingston crowd wanted John Holt instead of Weekes, and he was booed throughout the England innings. He responded with 141, and on the tour of India which followed he scored 779 runs at 111.28 and set a world record of five successive hundreds, the highest being 194 at Bombay. It would have been six were it not for a controversial run-out decision at Madras. In England in 1950 his rich form continued with 2310 runs at 79.65 on the trip, including a triple hundred against Cambridge, although in the Tests he made only 338 at 56.33. His form returned from superlative to good on the tour to Australia which followed, but against India at Port-of-Spain in 1952-53 he made 207 in the first Test and another big hundred on the same ground in the third Test. He scored heavily against England in 1953-54, and in New Zealand in 1955-56 he hammered 940 runs at 104.44 in eight first-class matches. His tour of England in 1957 was blighted by poor health, and aside from a gutsy 90 on a lively Lord's wicket, when he was struck a painful blow on the hand, he disappointed. Against Pakistan in 1957-58 he returned to form but he was increasingly troubled by a thigh injury, and after an unsuccessful operation he decided to retire even though he was still in his early 30s. Weekes also played in English League cricket, toured with various Commonwealth sides, coached in Barbados, was awarded the MBE and the CBE, and also served time as an ICC referee. In 1995 he was the last of the three Ws to be knighted.
Martin Williamson