The R.?O. Smith Over-40 All Star Game will celebrate a milestone at Somerset Cricket Club today.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the event between perennial rivals Somerset and St George’s.

“It seems like it was just yesterday when we started,” Larry Hunt, the event’s co-founder, said. “You blink your eye and 20 years has gone already.”

Hunt said that the match started out as an annual kickabout but went into hiatus for a number of years before it was reintroduced in 1994.

The combined efforts of Hunt, the late Arthur Tucker, Myron Brangman, Stephen Paynter brought about a slight modification of the event, with the addition of a ceremony honouring past Somerset and St George’s players.

“We were the first four guys that put our heads together and came up with this idea,” Hunt said. “It makes us feel good to honour people who were pioneers for our clubs and it is a great feeling on the day to see people so happy; tears are shed.

“People really appreciate that they have not been forgotten for some of the things they have been recognised for. And we are very proud of what we have been able to accomplish.”

Hunt added that the organisers have been helped in their endeavours by the continued support of Burrows Lightbourne and C.?W. Pearman Funeral Home as sponsors.

More than 100 former players have been honoured by the All Star Game, including Hunt himself, a star defender in his time with Somerset Trojans.

This year’s recipients are Hilton Wingood, Calvin Rayner, Frederick Bean, Milton Jones, Gladwin Daniels, David Wall, McNeil Morrissey and George Cannonier. Clyde Best, the most famous former player of them all, will be the guest speaker and presenter.