THE mere sight of fast bowler Lee Raynor pushing off the sight-screens alone was more then enough to unsettle the most experienced batsman.

Born with a natural ability to make batsmen 'smell the leather', arguably, Raynor was perhaps the quickest pace bowler Bermuda ever produced. For the carnage he left behind on the pitch speaks volumes.

But not only was this lightning left-arm pacer able to terrorise batsmen with sheer speed, but remarkably, he could also withstand the heat of others batting at the top of the order.

"I was always around great cricketers as a youngster like my father (Reginald Raynor) who was once an opening batsman for St.George's Cup Match team," said Raynor, the younger sibling of another living legend, Sheridan.

"I was fortunate to come up around good cricketers and Cup Match was something very special."

Following in his father's footsteps, a then 18-year-old Raynor broke into St.George's Cup Match team in 1962 and marked his arrival onto the big stage at Wellington Oval in style. Raynor scored 21 not out and bagged five wickets. Former Somerset Cup Match all-rounder Winton (Timmy) Edwards would be his first Cup Match victim while 15 years later, Colin Blades would become his 35th and final victim - just four runs short of a deserved century in 1977 at Wellington Oval.

"It was a whole different quality of cricket then," he added. "It was something about the cricketers; the way they carried themselves and how they played. And I always wanted to play like that."

He added: "Cup Match was special. The way the players played was exceptional. I can remember the first time I saw Eugene Woods bowling. . . it was like magic. I was sitting there with my mother watching it. When he let the ball go I couldn't see it anymore until the Somerset wicketkeeper caught it. And that's when I decided that was what I wanted to do. . . bowl fast."

Raynor spent many hours daily practising bowling with a tennis ball with elder brother Sheridan and cousins Eldon, Willard, Cyril and Lloyd Raynor.

"Some say that I'm the quickest thing that Bermuda ever produced, but sometimes I used to bowl like I was bowling for my life," he said. "If ever I had a choice between not eating for seven days or playing cricket, I would take cricket. That's how much I was into the game.

"I always took things seriously even before I started playing cricket. I was fortunate enough to have a lot of great players around me like Charlie Daulphin, Eugene Woods and Mackie Simmons. It was like a lesson just to watch them. And that's where I got my inspiration from, Sheridan in particular."

Unlike traditional fast bowlers, Raynor possessed something extra.

"I had an advantage. Sheridan taught me how to bowl express pace," he said. "You have fast bowlers and then you have express pace. . . that's the deadly fast bowler who you have to look out for all of the time.

"It's a killer instinct, you can't train someone to bowl like that. It has to be instilled in a person. It was a natural talent and the advantage that I had was that I was a batsman, and very few fast bowlers can bat.

"I could bat anywhere from opener to number three so you can say that I bowled fire and batted against fire."

He added: "When I was bowling I always tried to get into the batsmen's mind. My technique was that I could get into your mind. So if you were an opening batsman, then I was an opening batsman too. I knew exactly what the batsman wanted and didn't want to face - that was my advantage.

"I knew that because I also was a batsman. When I was at the wicket I liked to see bowlers trying to find their line and length. When they were trying to pick their length then I knew that they weren't bowling to their true potential. That gave me time to get the pitch of the wicket down, movement and everything else. By the time they would find their length I was ready for it."

Raynor recalled the days when fans flocked into the grounds early on the first morning of Cup Match just to witness his fireworks display with the new ball.

"When I used to open the bowling for St. George's in Cup Match, people used to come out and the place would be packed because they knew it was going to be fire right from the start," he said.

"When I left home Cup Match morning I knew it was going to be fire. I knew opening batsman didn't want to face anything like that. So I tried to put the batsmen in a twilight zone. I already knew how they were thinking, and I knew how to work the crowd to my advantage. I used to do a shuffle with my feet before I took off and the crowd loved it - especially when I bowled to a colt. I used to unnerve them even before I came in."

Indeed, Raynor took his game very seriously. "I always wanted to be a great player and be recognised," he noted. "I had to go the extra mile. I used to run from Southampton up to Somerset just to test my fitness out. And when I got back and felt tired and not running anymore, then I used to turn around and run back up again. That's what made me mentally prepared for war. That's what playing cricket was to me. . . a war. "

He added: "My captain depended on me to bowl fire so that's how I got my reputation. I was able to make an old ball look new and when I was called on I knew exactly what my job was. I trained a very lot and whenever I became tired I would think of the last man in, and if I didn't make it back then we would lose the game."

A TIP from elder brother Sheridan fuelled Lee's raging fire. "One day Sheridan was taking a shower and he said, 'Lee, you can bowl about three times quicker. Before you let the ball go let your left shoulder point toward fine leg first'. From that moment on I had batsmen running and ducking and it preserved my energy."

During his career, Raynor played against some of the world's best, including West Indian legends Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Gary Sobers, Michael Holding and Clive Lloyd - just to name a few.

He once teamed up with Lloyd to win the former Bacardi International Double Wicket competition on local soil.

Raynor also reached milestones with the bat.

The former Southampton Rangers all-rounder still holds the record for the most runs scored in the Western Counties cup competition, 1,598 to be exact. He also holds the record for the most catches (23) during his county career and grabbed 75 wickets.

Oddly, Raynor batted right-handed and a century at Somerset Cricket Club proved to be one of his most cherished achievements in Cup Match in 1974. He also tossed down 79 maidens, second only to Clarence Parfitt (193) in the annual classic. Raynor retired with an average of 15.46 runs per wicket in Cup Match.

He also set two partnership records in the annual classic. In 1962, he along with Lloyd James established a new record for the eighth-wicket, 96 runs. While in 1974, Raynor and Rupert Scotland set a record of 229 runs for the sixth-wicket, two feats which have yet to be bettered. Raynor played under three different captains, Cal (Bummy) Symonds, Neville Darrell and Dennis Wainwright before taking over the captaincy himself in his final Cup Match Match in 1977. He also represented Bermuda on several occasions.

"In order to make big scores. . . you must watch the ball from the bowler's hands and after awhile it becomes just you and the ball," he explained. "There's no more players and that's the secret to batting. Top players like Lara (Brian) know how to read the ball and after awhile it becomes just you and the ball - no spectators or players. And I used to get into that groove."

Bowling Willow Cuts all out for 16 runs along with Timmy Edwards playing for Southampton during the 1960s stands out as one of Raynor's most memorable matches. Edwards grabbed six wickets for four runs while Raynor seized four wickets for six runs. There were six byes.

Another milestone that stands out was scoring a century in a Western Counties match before lunch, another feat yet to be duplicated.

Now at the age of 60, and given a new outlook on life following a bout with drug addiction, Raynor is armed with a moving testimony.

"After all that praise I received and all of that glory, I never praised God like I should've. That's why I started taking licks later on in my life," he conceded. " I was taking all the praise for myself which should have gone to God.

"But now I can give him the praise. If you magnify him then he will magnify us. I had a drug problem after all of my serious cricket. I got used to all of the cheers and all the praise and when it all ended it left a huge void in my life.

"But God loves me so much that he pulled me out of all that, so I just want to give him the praise. I just want to let the youngsters know that they won't achieve anything in life by using drugs."