It has often been said that at Cup Match time in Bermuda, many a household is divided in respect to club loyalties. Such was the case with this week’s Cup Match legend, Arnold Manders.

While his brothers, Anthony and Andre chose to side with their father’s team and played for Somerset Cricket Club, Arnold elected to pledge his allegiance with his mother’s side, namely St George’s Cricket Club.

Arnold’s Cup Match journey certainly was a fascinating one. While he missed Cup Match on four occasions (he was dropped three times and was abroad in school during the other Classic), he etched his name significantly into the record books. Arnold was the third player to score two centuries in the Classic (Lloyd James and Rupert Scotland were the first two), he also holds the first-wicket partnership record with Yours Truly (143 in 1987).

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Name: Willard Arnold Manders.

Date of Birth: April 26, 1959

Start in cricket: I played at West Pembroke Primary. We were the best in school cricket at that time. In youth cricket, I played with Western Stars. There was not a league at the time, however we played teams such as Bailey’s Bay, Devonshire Rec Warwick and Somerset.

Length of cricket career: I started playing senior cricket with the first team at Western Stars at age 12. I played in the Central Counties that year. My last league game was ten years ago (Arnold turned out for Western Stars last weekend with mixed reviews). In respect to Cup Match, my career commenced in 1978 and I finished in 1999.

Role on the team: I was an all-rounder; an early-order bat, off spinner and close-to-the-wicket fielder. I never bowled much in Cup Match, however, in 1997 at Wellington Oval, at lunchtime I told my skipper, Clay Smith, to give me the ball and I would get us some wickets. He listened to me and gave me the ball after the interval. That year, I ended up with five for 28 in 15 overs and we went on to win the match.

Childhood memories of the game: We use to play at JB Astwood’s cycle store premises. At night we would adjust the lighting to shine upon our “batting strip” and play until our mothers called us in. In those days, the guys from Mount Hill and Cox’s Hill would come by and we would play cricket all day. We would also play at the PW’s garage site and again, we’d fix the lighting to shine on our strip. We had our own version of “night cricket”. The other place we would also use to play cricket at was at the horse paddock, down behind my grandfather’s house. There was a field there just a little smaller than at “The Rec”. Interestingly enough, it did not matter how old you were, and this helped the younger guys to build confidence playing with much older teenagers.

Teams played for: Western Stars, Somerset Bridge (as a guest player in the Western Counties Cup), SICL selects, St George’s Cup Match team and the Bermuda ICC teams of 1986 (England), 1990 (Netherlands), 1994 (Kenya) and 1997 (Malaysia).

Nicknames: Red, Pig.

Favourite local match you played in: Cup Match 1986 when I scored my first century in the Classic at Somerset — 103 not out (Arnold’s second century was scored two years later, in St George’s — 104 not out). The other match would have to be during the KO Cup match versus St George’s at Lord’s when I scored 158 for Stars.

Best international feat: That would have to be my first ICC tournament, during which I scored 298 runs. I had scores of 75 v Fiji, 56 v United States, 49 v Papua New Guinea, 33 v Zimbabwe in the semi-final and 45 v Denmark in the third-place match. Also, I played for Bermuda at age 16 against Trinidad and opened the batting against Bernard Julien (the former West Indies Test seam bowler).

Favourite venue in Bermuda: Lord’s in St David’s.

Favourite venue overseas: Stratford upon Avon (Warwickshire, England).

Favourite international player: Sachin Tendulkar. He scored runs in all forms of the game and on every continent. As a batsman he didn’t have a weakness.

Number one supporter: My mother.

Pre-match routine(s): I prepared my gear the night before a game, got lots of rest, usually, and got to games two hours ahead of time. I liked to get a decent warm-up before a match and think about my opponents, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses.

Favourite dish while playing: Nothing, really. I usually wouldn’t eat while I was playing. If I did have something, it would be some fruit. I usually saved a plate for later.

Biggest regret in your career: Not going to the World Cup and coming so close, so often. I really thought we were in during the tour to Kenya in 1994. Bermuda came fourth and three teams advanced to the World Cup.

Any superstitions: I’m not superstitious.

Funniest thing you have seen in cricket: During my first Cup Match, I was about to go out to bat and our medic, “Doc” Richardson, asked me, “Are you going out to bat like that?” I told him “Yes.” He said, “Well, I think you better come back in the changing room and put your shirt on properly.” I guess it was nerves, as I didn’t realise that I had put my shirt on backwards.

Hobbies: Golf, boating, harness racing and watching Manchester United play.

A key to your success: I had a good support system. I played all day when I was young and played on all kinds of surfaces: grass, tarmac and concrete. This helped you adapt to different bounces. Also, playing lots of “Tip and Go One” was beneficial, as it helped me learn how to manipulate runs by pushing the ball into the gaps. We’d be out if we hit sixes. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, playing against much older guys in the neighbourhood meant that it prepared me for when I started playing senior cricket at such a young age.

Advice to today’s cricketer: Hard work is essential for success.

Motto you believe in: No guts, No glory. When the chips are down, you dig your feet in.

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Arnold was no doubt one of the shrewdest cricketers of his generation. A cricketer who was tactically astute, he was arguably the best on-side cricketer in the game.

Many of his former Western Stars team-mates went on to grace the Cup Match classic. These included such colleagues as Allan and Gary Brangman, his two brothers, Andre and Anthony Manders, Gregory Francis, Dexter Smith, Albert Steede, Cleon Scotland, Roger Leverock, Treadwell Gibbons and Jeff Richardson.

Surely those early years of neighbourhood night cricket paid dividends.