Somerset Cricket Club rolled out the red carpet at a special ceremony last weekend for the bantam team that celebrated the 50th anniversary of their historic appearance at the 1976 Mini World Cup in Canada.

To mark the occasion players honoured the five men who had a profound influence on their football careers and lives and chaperoned them to the tournament, where they became the first Bermuda youth team to compete overseas as reward for winning the domestic Bantam League.

Among the honourees were then club secretary Reginald Pearman, who led the delegation, club treasurer Clive Philpott, club management committee member Lionel Turner, late Bermuda Football Association youth development officer Malcolm Furbert and team coach and mentor Dwaine “Tricks” Richardson.

“I feel honoured that the guys are always thinking about what I did for them,” Richardson told The Royal Gazette.

“It was more like showing them the facts of life, not only where football was involved, but how to carry themselves through and things like that. They appreciated that quite a bit. This was very nice of the club. It was fantastic and I really enjoyed it.”

Former midfielder Radell Tankard, said: “It was a night of nostalgia as those in attendance were reminded of the early days of junior football in Somerset and the sacrifices of these men who helped to develop these youngsters at the time. In short, the night was filled with love and laughter.”

Somerset’s bantam team also contained players such as Dennis Brown, Anthony Bailey. Michael Corday, Kenny Basden and David Burchall, who went on to establish themselves at senior domestic and international level.

Richardson’s charges did themselves, their club and the island proud in Canada as they held their own against physically superior opponents.

“That was the first youth team to leave Bermuda ever and we did pretty good,” Richardson said.

“When we got there guys were twice their size. I was playing in the First Division then and they thought I was one of the players. That’s how huge the other guys were but we held our own.

“We won a couple of games but when they found out we didn’t like contact they started hitting us hard when they couldn’t have their way with us. I had to tell the guys to leave the 50-50 balls alone and that’s how they got over us.

“We were a small outfit then but our guys didn’t grumble, they just went along and did what they had to do and it was great.

“It was quite an experience for them. It was the first time some of them had been on a plane, first time they had ever stayed outside their own home and for some of them the first time being overseas.

“When we came back from Canada we also played picks of Bermuda in front of Burnley, who were touring Bermuda.

“At the time Coolridge ‘Bumla’ Bell, Steve Riley and Lance Brown played for Somerset’s junior team and we drew 1-1when we came back. That’s how advanced these guys were and nobody beat us in four years.”

Somerset’s bantam team evolved from a community youth tournament that exploded in popularity in the early 1970s.

“We had a community tournament at Naval Field and it all just kicked on from there. The mini minors and all that were formed after that,” Richardson said.

“We had guys around the neighbourhood that just wanted to play football and some had never played football because they were as young as 10 years old.”