One of that year's Carnival hits was Calypso Rose's Fire In Your Wire and the crowd chanted it all
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One of that year's Carnival hits was Calypso Rose's "Fire In Your Wire", and the crowd chanted it all through the last session as the two West Indians fought it out.After drawing the next two Tests, England returned for the Fourth Test late in March. The situation was defused by Fred Trueman, fielding near the boundary. He picked up an empty rum bottle, put it to his lips and staggered about as if comprehensively drunk.England played two heart-stopping matches there in 1967-68. In 1959-60 the spectators could not bear the thought of Peter May's side winning and when Charan Singh was run out reducing the West Indies to 98 for 8 in their first innings, the bottles flew. It was the first of the West Indian venues to hold more than 20,000 spectators and, until Antigua was deemed to be fit for Test cricket, usually staged two Tests in a five- match series. In the past the pitch demanded that a touring side brought a couple of adequate spinners and even in the years when West Indian fast bowling was at its best, this was the one ground on which they paid more than lip service to spin.Like most of the Caribbean Test venues, it has witnessed its share of drama. Is Surrey loam the universal answer in England? Or is it right for some and wrong for others? The same applies to Bulli Creek soil in Australia.Another point worth considering is whether those in authority who inspect their own pitches and keep an eye on their ground staff really understand as much as their predecessors.At the WACA in Perth, the day before the Second Test between Australia and the West Indies in 1975-76, I asked Roy Abbott, the head curator, as they are called in Australia, who had produced fine pitches there for many years, how he thought his pitch would play the following day. Looking out from the pavilion, it has the most lovely backdrop of the glorious but unromantically named North-Eastern mountains, although sadly cricket is at the wrong time of year to catch the vivid scarlet flowers of the "flamboyant" trees in full bloom.
He replied: "You come back and ask me tomorrow when the first ball has been bowled.". ALTHOUGH it is a daunting prospect for England to play two Tests in two weeks on the ground where they were skittled for 46 by Curtly Ambrose four years ago, they can at least enjoy the scenery, for Queen's Park Oval is the loveliest of the main grounds in the Caribbean. Does the mechanised roller go too fast - does it do the job as well?Then one comes to the matter of top dressing. My generation was brought up on true stories of the heavy roller at Lord's being pushed endlessly up and down the square by Denis Compton and Bill Edrich when they first joined the MCC staff.
But, as we saw at Sabina Park, the art of relaying a pitch is more complicated than some groundsmen appear to think.With all the modern mechanical inventions there is a great temptation to take short cuts, which may be counterproductive. He was written off in many quarters last year but nobody should ever be consigned to the scrapheap. The entry of Brian Lara into the proceedings changed things a bit. I was pleased that he settled better than he had on his first run, when he was beaten at Kempton."Apart from Evans, one man who was delighted with the results was Nigel Twiston-Davies, whose likeable young chaser Jack Doyle continued his upward progress, following up his Cheltenham win a week previously with the Grade One Scilly Isles Novices' Chase. You've got to have good body tension and good air sense." Harbut came to aerialling through gymnastics. His mother was a gymnastics coach, his sister was a gymnast and Harbut himself came to the gym before he discovered skiing on a trip from school "Skiing is still a major part of the sport," he says. "You need balance and control skiing off the ramp." Stamina too.Given that he had just travelled for 36 hours from San Francisco to Nagano, a journey which would have taken a lot longer had not the British Olympic Association wisely transferred their athletes from the coach to the bullet train, Harbut seemed remarkably chipper at the team reception organised by the BOA.
Though qualifying for the aerial discipline does not begin for another week, the thrill of fulfilment had been awakened by a simple sign in Tokyo airport pointing the way through a special customs post for Olympic competitors Everyone is equal at the airport. But Harbut has done well to reach the sign, after a bad knee injury put him out of the sport for a whole season. At the time, he was just beginning to make a mark on the World Cup tour, jumping to sixth place in a night-time event at Altenmarkt in Austria and recording eight top 20 World Cup placings.Like gymnastics or diving, aeriallists nominate a degree of difficulty for their jumps. Four twists and three somersaults marks out the champions and Harbut was just graduating to those heights when his knee went He still wears a brace His mind needed one too for a time. "I had another problem a few weeks ago and I really thought I'd be back down the dairy, so I'm happy to be here." In Nagano, he will attempt a double and a triple in the hope that the favourites mess up their more complicated routines. To qualify for the final he has to finish in the top 12."On paper it doesn't look good because I only started jumping again in November," he says "But I've got nothing to lose, so I can just go for it. When I got out of my hospital bed, I spent eight months in the gym and then there were the first jumps which were painful.
This is the highlight, this is why I spent so much of my time getting fit again."Harbut's success is important in persuading the treasurers of English sport that not all our top-class skiers are born with a silver spoon. "I come from a normal background, live in a normal house with a normal family," he laughs. Normality will be suspended, presumably, when the Milky Bar Kid takes to the air over Nagano next week.. Monday 0900 (0000 GMT): Women's curling, prelim Men's 30km cross-country classical0930 (0030): Women's giant slalom 1st leg1015 (0115): Men's combined downhill1200 (0300): Women's ice hockey1300 (0400): Women's giant slalom 2nd legWomen's 15km biathlon1400 (0500): Men's ice hockey, prelim rdMen's single lugeMen's curling prelim rd1600 (0700): Women's ice hockey1630 (0730): Men's 500m speed skating 1st rd1800 (0800): Men's ice hockey, prelim rd1900 (0900): Women's curling, prelim rd2000 (1000): Women's ice hockeyTV: BBC1 23.50 Sunday-0300; BBC2 0745-0845 Eurosport 24-hour coverage.. IN the wake of the Jamaican bobsleigh team a British- educated luger from Bermuda has taken on the mantle of unlikely centre of attention here. But this time, we are not talking about a no-hoper in the Eddie Edwards mould. Patrick Singleton has already been nominated by IBM, one of the main sponsors, as one of the "most remarkable stories" of the Games, and already has a luge medal to his name.
