There was a large crowd on hand for the 12th annual Emancipation Cup Match Awards luncheon last week.

Eight former cricketers were celebrated during the gala at Port Royal Golf Course’s Bella Vista Bar & Grill restaurant for the instrumental role they played in developing social awareness about sports.

The event was hosted by Heritage Productions; those honoured were presented with certificates by Michael Dunkley, the Premier.

At the top of the list was none other than Robert Hinds, who made his debut in the summer classic in 1977 representing Somerset Cricket Club.

He played for an entire decade and was a member of the 1979 team that won the coveted trophy after a 20-year respite.

Mr Hinds currently resides in Florida, where he is employed as a physical education instructor in the Miami Dade County public school system.

He shall indeed be remembered, and highly revered, for his bowling capabilities. He was a member of the 1983 team that won in St George’s under the leadership of Joe Bailey; he succeeded in claiming 38 wickets on an average of 4.5 wickets per match at an average 20.65 runs per wicket. His best performance in Cup Match was in 1981, when he scored 29 runs and claimed four wickets for 37 runs.

In addition to representing Somerset in Cup Match and league cricket, Mr Hinds represented Bermuda internationally. One of his outstanding performances occurred when he played in a four-day game against Jamaica at Sabina Park. At the close of the match he received the Most Valuable Player award after scoring the first “half-century” for Bermuda. Another outstanding cricketer honoured was Ricky Hill, who in his formative years developed a love for the game while playing for Hamilton Parish Workman’s Club. In later years he transferred to Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club; he represented the club for more than 20 years.

While playing for Bay, Mr Hill won every major title in local cricket. He also had exceptional performances for the club while competing in the Eastern Counties. Mr Hill made his debut for the Somerset Cup Match team in 1980 under the leadership of Randy Horton. He went on to play for another eleven years and scored 400 runs in the Cup Match classic, with a batting average of 20.83.

Mr Hill also represented Bermuda as a member of the ICC team that competed against England, Holland and Canada, and amassed a batting average of 30. He confirmed that his most exciting batting performance was against Australia in Somerset. In this particular match, he scored 65 runs against quality players such as Merv Hughs, Terry McDermott and Alan Border. His highest personal score was 100, which he scored against Gibraltar. Other outstanding performances by Mr Hill while representing Bermuda internationally included half-centuries against Denmark, the West Indies “A Team”, Hong Kong, USA and Bangladesh. Of course our story would be incomplete if we did not mention Graham Fox. The former captain of the St George’s cricket team made his debut in the Cup Match classic in 1986, as an early order batsman and subsequently went on to play for another ten Cup Matches up to 2000. Most of Mr Fox’s cricket was played representing St George’s Cricket Club, although in his later years he represented St David’s. Mr Fox also had the pleasure of representing Bermuda on a few occasions, one was against a visiting Australian team that played on the island, and the other was against a United States team in Florida. In terms of credits and acknowledgments, Mr Fox indicated that he owes great admiration and respect to an older generation of Cup Match greats including Dennis Wainwright, Eldon Raynor and Clarence Parfitt, stating that “these gentlemen were my heroes and help me understand what playing for St George’s in Cup Match really meant”.

Other recipients that were honoured this year were Tyrone Smith, Barry DeCouto, Robert Simons, Maxwell Curtis and David Adams.