Martin Chandler |
The title of O’Neil Gordon ‘Collie’ Smith is one which has fascinated me all my life, though I can’t recall now simply how that began. It will need to have been due to tales my father instructed me, and though precisely what he mentioned now escapes me it might have been one thing alongside the strains of ‘What may he have achieved however for his premature dying?’.
The dearth of any actual information past the premise of his Take a look at profession and his sadly early dying have been a supply of frustration for someday, however one thing that I discovered straightforward sufficient to stay with till I obtained 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 street accident in 1959.
It was inevitable subsequently 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 wished 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 sequence 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 e book, titled The Completely satisfied 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 kind of books that was written however by no means really printed, however then I did see a replica. It was in a vendor’s store, however was not in nice situation, was not substantial and, even when I may have overcome these considerations, was priced method in extra of what in these days I used to be ready to pay for a cricket e book.
By 2012 I had seen no different copy of The Completely satisfied Warrior so, on the premise I had researched all over the place else that I may discover point out of Collie, I wrote the characteristic, that appeared as this, again in March 2012. I used to be blissful sufficient with the end result and, all the time the fantastic thing about something that seems on line, figured I may tinker with it when and if a replica of the e book ever appeared.
For the following dozen years I stored on searching for the e book. I commonly requested sellers, in hope quite than expectation, whether or not they had copies and the reply was all the time no. I by no means noticed a replica on a vendor’s web site, in a listing or up for public sale. I additionally trawled eBay each day, and commonly used quite a lot of search websites within the hope somebody someplace on this planet would checklist a replica.
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 replica for me. Over time I’ve additionally had dealings with a number of shoppers whose roots have been in Jamaica, and have provided all of them enormous reductions on charges if they may supply a replica for me. It obtained to the stage the place I’ve made related affords to anybody I do know with probably 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 deal with for writer Kenneth Chaplin, sadly now not with us. To be truthful to him Chaplin did reply to my electronic mail, albeit merely to say quite unhelpfully that the e book ‘has lengthy been out of print’ and ‘I can’t enable you with discovering a replica’. I did ask him a number of observe up questions on who printed the e book, the scale of its print run and the like however, maybe understandably, I didn’t hear from him once more.
I usually contemplated why the e book must be so vanishingly uncommon. It wasn’t a restricted version as such, though I settle for that could be a misnomer within the sense that any e book is restricted by the variety of copies printed, however then curiosity in Collie was enormous. Tens of 1000’s of Jamaicans turned out for his funeral, so there was certainly a requirement. I also can settle for that a lot of those that did purchase copies weren’t cricketing bibliophiles, nor certainly ‘e book individuals’ in any respect, however certainly some copies will need to have been stored?
I also can admire that in 1960 the world was a a lot bigger place, and information of the e book’s publication might not have reached far, however certainly a number of the many buddies who Collie made in his two seasons within the Lancashire League with Burnley would have heard of the e book’s existence and made certain a number of copies arrived right here?
Properly it in the end looks like at the very least one did as, a number of weeks in the past, I obtained residence 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 replica of The Completely satisfied 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 replica of Collie Smith’s biography duly turned up at my home. Essentially the most outstanding factor in regards to the sale was that to the perfect 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 Completely satisfied Warrior?
One of many traits that collectors have, and one of many issues that I consider places us properly and really ‘on the spectrum’, is that the fun of the acquisition conquers all. Thus I had owned The Completely satisfied Warrior for a full six weeks earlier than the considered really 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 really did so. Would it not have made a lot distinction to the characteristic 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 writer, 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 must 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 anxious his fundamental contribution appears to have been as a soccer referee, and a FIFA recognised one for 18 years. So far as I can see The Completely satisfied Warrior is his solely e book.
I had questioned if maybe the e book was merely not excellent, and that the dearth of high quality contributed to why it was so elusive. That thought was definitely mistaken, because the e book is a well-written one and sheds a substantial amount of mild on Collie’s upbringing, his non secular values and his life at residence. Letters that he wrote from England to his mom and his fiancee seem within the textual content to additional illustrate his character.
However by way of my characteristic there may be, I used to be happy to notice, nothing to vary. I had managed to select up all of Collie’s cricketing achievements from elsewhere, though have been I writing the characteristic at present I may need talked about having lastly discovered 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 Completely satisfied 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, except Gerry Alexander who gives a foreword, spoken to any of Collie’s West Indies teammates. The e book may be very a lot a case of 1 Jamaican paying tribute to a different, so maybe that’s the rationalization for that.
It goes with out saying that I used to be delighted to lastly observe down a replica of a e book I’ve been actively searching for for the perfect a part of 20 years. Equally with success in lastly doing so one thing has gone out of my life, so I should discover one thing else to use the identical vitality to discovering – i’m wondering what it will likely be?
