Sir Everton Weekes: Bacup to honour West Indies cricket legend

Sir Everton Weekes played for Bacup between 1949 and 1958

A "lasting memorial" to a West Indies legend is to be created in the town where he played league cricket.

Test batsman Sir Everton Weekes, who died on 1 July, played for Bacup in Lancashire between 1949 and 1958.

A motion to create a tribute to the cricketer was passed by Rossendale Council on 15 July.

Councillor Peter Steen, who proposed the motion, said he would like to see the town's new market square named after Sir Everton.

The batsman was known as one of the 'Three Ws' alongside fellow West Indies greats Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Frank Worrell.

At international level, Sir Everton scored 4,235 runs in 46 tests, averaging 58.01 and scoring 14 centuries and 19 half centuries.

Sir Everton died in Barbados at the beginning of July aged 95

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said he was devastating in the Lancashire leagues, scoring 25 centuries and passing 1,000 runs in each season.

His total of 1,518 runs in a season, scored in 1951, remains a Bacup Cricket Club (BCC) record.

Mr Steen's motion proposed naming a proposed new market square after the cricketer "in recognition of the services... to BCC and pioneering work in race relations".

However, an amended motion passed with a commitment to simply create "a lasting memorial to Sir Everton in Bacup town centre", in case the square scheme fails to go ahead.

The councillor said he was "a little disappointed the original motion did not go through, but I'm happy that the council is committed to a proper memorial to Sir Everton in Bacup".

"He was a great cricketer, a great man and a great ambassador for race relations and the town," he said.

"He took a bit of Bacup back to the Caribbean and brought a touch of the Caribbean to Bacup."

BCC chairman Neal Wilkinson said his members would be "absolutely delighted if this came to pass".

"Sir Everton's name is very much etched not only into the history of Bacup Cricket Club, but into the town itself," he added.