In a series of articles, we look at some of the legends who have donned the famous Chester Boughton Hall CC cap over the years. We kick off with one famous West Indian paceman...

Winston Keithroy Matthew Benjamin

The year was 1984 and Chester Boughton Hall had completed a year of the Viv Richards scholarship scheme.

A young bowler called Alan Rogers had left to go back to his home having not broken any records, but was an inaugural member of the 1st XI. His off field antics became legendary.

In April 1985, the first net practice was held by the 1st XI. Nets in those days were situated between the two football pitches by the canal. They were grass wickets, very unpredictable in bounce and a bit like the wickets the team played on, uncovered and unpredictable.

Geoff Moss, the Elegant Resorts chairman, turned up with our scholar for the new season, Winston Benjamin. The opening batsman at the time was non other than the present club captain Chris Fleet. His technique was to shuffle forward and use any part of his anatomy to strike the ball and accumulate singles. Imagine his surprise when he looked up to see a 6' 1" West Indian thundering down the hill at him. The ball and Chris ended up in the nettles behind the nets, and from that day onwards nobody ever netted with Winston.

He took the league by storm. Easily the fastest bowler anybody had ever witnessed at amateur level. That season Chester Boughton Hall won the league by a considerable margin with Winston claiming 106 wickets at an average of 7.57 per wicket. His best performance was 8-20 and he got 5 or more wickets on no fewer than 11 occasions.

Winston was no slouch with the bat either, scoring over 400 fast runs in the middle order. If that wasn't enough, the scenes in the men's showers became legendary, with his ten team mates showering under one shower head, and Winston (and his anatomy) taking up the other nine!.

Just a year later in 1986, he made his West Indian debut and during his career played 21 test matches and 85 ODIs claiming 61 test wickets and 100 one day wickets.

He certainly was a real Chester Boughton Hall legend.

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