History of Bel-Air

Long before the late Pierre Trudeau made multiculturalism the official policy of Canada, the Bel Air Cricket Club had already embodied it. It was a West Indian club, yes but isn’t that what the West Indies, with all its mixtures and fusion is all about? There was even an Italian, Sam Trucino and a New Zealander, Robert Thurling, among its members in its earliest years. True, Sam was really a friend of the team but he actually played one match! Since then, the organisation of cricket lovers which began life as the Coral Reef Cricket Club has included Australians, Sri Lankans, while remaining a West Indian Club at core.

The moving spirit behind the formation of the club was Ivo DeSouza, the Counsellor at the Jamaica High Commission (JHC). George Girard (St. Lucia), Larry Davis, and Bert Tertullian (Bahamas) were the first leaders. They used to meet at the Coral Reef Club on Friday and Saturday nights. When the Jamaica High Commission was established in August 1962 in Ottawa, propelled by Ivo DeSouza, the idea came up to form a cricket club and DeSouza sent his accountant, Donald White, to the planning meeting in October 1962. Present were Larry Davis, George Tertullian, Clarence King, a man named Hutchinson, and Don White who became Treasurer and served in that position for most of the life of the club.

The first captain was Rufus McCommon of Guyana. He was related to Angela who George used to date. His deputy was Allan Marson Mayers (Barbados) the Vice-Captain at the time. McCommon left shortly afterwards and Mayers acted as captain. One day, a friendly game was scheduled at Rideau Hall II, but Mayers’ team-mates saw him playing in a match at Rideau Hall I, so they selected a new captain in the person of Ivor Mitchell (Jamaica) who was on staff at the JHC. Mayers then turned his back on the club and told new West Indian immigrants not to join Coral Reef. The next year, Mitchell gave way to Jeff Stevens, a Trinidadian, who took over the captaincy.

Early members included Ian Douglas, Thelston Nelson (Trinidad), Ivor Mitchell, Hugh Bonnick (wk), Don White, Eric Samuels (Jamaica), George Girard, Allan Mayers, Ellsworth Samuels (Antigua), Larry Davis, Clarence King, Chuck Edwards, and Laynes Alphonse (St. Lucia).

In 1964 there were Ramsaji, Jeff Stephens, Bobby Scotland Michael Bankay, and Eddie Cadogan.

The year 1965 brought about Willesley (Wes) Smith, Eddie Decoteau, Carlyle Mitchell, Ewart Walters, Claude Robinson, Willie Morrison, George Assing, Henry Cadogan, Ivan McFarlane, L. Campbell, Vincent Edwards, Neville Grant, Lester Belgrave, Martin Howard, Carl Evelyn, Dr. Lawson Douglas, Dr. Vincent Crawford, Eddie Walter, Guy Dixon, Ralston Briscoe, Bernie Hibbert, Cyril Joseph, Guy Dixon, Ron Brown, Wally Bayne, and Tony Jarrett into the club. Later members included Dennis Awang, Fred Blades, Edmund Napoleon, Oakley Brereton, Wally Bayne, Patrick Waterman, Keith Woleston, Lesroy George, Waldo Burrowes, “Doc” Bayne, Arthur Moore, Dennis Rajkumar, Noel Foster, and Tyrone Collins.

Outstanding captains of the club include Neville Grant (Barbados), Noel Foster (Jamaica), Fred Blades (Barbados), Dennis Waithe (Guyana), Tony Russell (Jamaica).

West Indians playing on other teams at the time included the superb and stylish Guyanese opening batsman Rudy Collins who played for Canadian Forces, Jamaican leg-spinner Egbert Mair, and pace bowlers Lloyd Stanford and Rudy Gordon who played for Ottawa; Birch Mayers of Barbados who played for New Edinburgh; and Herbie Waugh of Jamaica who played for New Edinburgh, Jimmy Siew of Trinidad, and Clinton Calixte of St. Lucia who played for the Canadian Forces.

An opening bat for most of my life, Ewart Walters also played competitively as a middle-order bat for the Canadian Forces. Nevertheless, I always played for Coral Reef as an opening batsman and part time leg-spinner. Along with Eric Samuels, I spear-headed the drive in 1967, first to secure a place in the league and when that was done, to get our own grounds.

Eric Samuels

Eric was a trailblazer and a sportsman. His presidency of the Bel Air Cricket Club from the early 1960s to the early 1980s saw him shepherd a special period in the life and times of Ottawa. It was a time of high emigration from the Caribbean region and the cricket Club became an instrument with which he could help to usher scores of new Canadians easily into the Ottawa society without many of the usually attendant difficulties.

In most places in the world, cricket is played on a clay pitch. Here in Ottawa, we played on a coconut matting roughly 22 yards long by three yards wide and one inch thick. When the club was admitted to the league, it had to purchase its own matting. After the game we would roll the matting up but there was nowhere to leave it. Eric soon solved that problem. He took it home.

In his car trunk with more than half of it sticking out.

We would then help him push it through the window of his basement at Bellamy Street. To this day we are not quite sure what his wife, Nye, thought of this, but we were always welcome at their home after a game.

Modern day cricket playing immigrants, mostly from the south Asian sub-continent and who have joined teams that play at the Governor-General’s grounds at Rideau Hall, do not have a clue as to why they play there. They take for granted a hard-won legacy they don’t know was left for them by Eric Samuels.

At the time, individual black players were able to play on existing teams but Coral Reef, the “black team” was barred from playing in the league as a team because, as the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council of the day said, “We don’t want any team in the league from any one racial group.” Of course, they were ignoring that they themselves were from one identifiable racial group.

It is a juicy story, but suffice it to say that while some of us raged at the prejudice and stubborn resistance of the leadership of the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council to admitting a black team into what was a white league. Eric Samuels remained calm and applied the strategic negotiating strategies that led the Governor-General of the day, to throw down the gauntlet to the league with the famous statement: “No Blacks, no cricket.”

Needless to say, that Vice-Regal statement opened the doors. But it was Eric Samuels who turned the key. Samuels and Ewart Walters negotiated with the city and the Nepean City Council to find a suitable ground because, although the league was forced to admit the club, they said there was not enough space for it to be one of the Rideau Hall clubs. Coral Reef’s demand for entry to the league could not have come at a more opportune time.

Appointed to replace Georges Vanier who died in March 1967, the new Governor-General was the Rt. Hon. Daniel Roland Michener. An avid sportsman and athlete who followed a daily exercise regime, he could be seen jogging every morning. His encouragement to engage in daily exercise has been credited with having a lasting effect on the physical well-being of many Canadians. Many people still remember his support of the ‘Participaction Program’ – a campaign aimed at increasing the fitness of all Canadians. He further encouraged sport by establishing the Roland Michener Trophy for the Juvenile “AAA” championship in Ontario as well as a championship trophy for sport fishing, called the Michener Tuna Trophy.

Mr. Michener was a great motivator of Canadian youth and he encouraged them to be part of Canada’s great future by achieving their full potential. He believed that his role as Governor General put him in a unique position to inspire Canadians by applauding their best efforts. His encouragement of excellence also extended to journalism with the creation of the Michener Awards for Journalism in 1970.

During their stay at Rideau Hall, Roland Michener and his wife Norah relaxed protocol in a number of ways – the most well-known example was the dropping of the curtsey. The Micheners frequently visited abroad and they also instituted periodic meetings with provincial Lieutenant-Governors, which started in 1973.

It was this man to whom Jamaican High Commissioner Vincent McFarlane turned for help with the Coral Reef Cricket team. His answer was brief and to the point and it cut the ground out from under the racism that had discriminated against Coral Reef. “No Blacks, no cricket!” he informed the Rideau Hall cricket clubs.

In the face of this terse statement, the objectors had no option. Wearily they formed themselves into the Rideau Hall Cricket Association and summoned us to a meeting at the pavilion. Representing Coral Reef were Eric Samuels, Hugh Bonnick and I.

To my absolute shock the first thing they said was, “OK gentlemen, what do you have to say?” They had quite blithely dismissed our request up to the last time we met, and here they were now – having been rapped sharply on the knuckles and in danger of losing their playing facilities – here they were asking us what we had to say. Fuming, I quickly pointed out to them the absurdity of the situation and told them the ball was in their court; they had to tell us something, I declared angrily, with both Bonnick and Eric touching me under the table and saying “Take it easy Ewart.”

So, the OVCC was forced to admit a (mostly) Black team into the league but they then dropped bombshell. We had to find our own playing field since the facilities at Rideau Hall were taken up by the four clubs already there and there was no space at Rideau Hall for an additional club. All right, we said and left the meeting determined to find a suitable facility.

Really, it was a daunting task. Bonnick, the diplomat, preferred to stay out of any negotiations we arranged. I was a student and would only be in Ottawa a short time. The only person with two feet on the ground so to speak was Eric, an agricultural scientist who worked full-time with the Federal Government. We arranged meetings with the National Capital Commission (NCC) and the City of Ottawa in an attempt to find playing facilities. Eric began these meetings but then had to travel to Rome and it was left to me, a student, to continue the negotiations.

Eventually, a suitable area at Woodroffe and Baseline Avenues was found. The ground bordered a street named Bel Air and at that point we agreed to change the name of the club from Coral Reef to Bel Air. That is where we prepared our first wicket and played our first season of league cricket in 1968. However, at the end of the season the city said it would find another field for the permanent use of the cricketers. From 1968 until 1976, Carlington Park was devoted to cricket for the use of the Bel Air cricketers. At the time, this ground was ideal for cricket in terms of location, storage, water supply, shelter and so on. But in 1977, when the cricketers began preparations for their season, they found the ground sub-divided into playing areas for baseball. It was now completely unsuitable for cricket.

Hastily, the City arranged for the use of a field at the corner of Pinecrest and Dumaurier. It was a small ground without any facilities at all. The cricketers endured, but the city readily agreed that the facilities here were far from adequate. When this ground also fell to the apparent burgeoning need for baseball facilities, we were offered Balena Park and did play a few games there but it was an even smaller ground. And so, in 1985, arrangements were made to prepare a second field at Lynda Lane for the use of Bel Air CC (another club was already using the portion of that ground nearest to Lynda Lane).

A few residents put up strenuous objection. It was so bad that the contractor who was levelling the field had his bulldozer vandalized. There was a great deal of publicity and controversy in the press and radio. City Council was determined to provide some facilities for the Club and in 1986, the Bel Air CC joined Canterbury Cricket Club in using the land at Lynda Lane, an area the city said was to be devoted entirely to cricket.

Facilities here were again below the requirements. And again the city recognized this and eventually, a makeshift clubhouse on Billings Avenue was made available on a shared basis with two other organizations and this reduced the difficulties but did not solve the entire problem. In 1992, following an argument between a visiting cricketer and a resident of the houses on the southern side of Lynda Lane, two things happened. One was that police arbitrarily began harassing club members about parking their cars on the field. Secondly, city authorities suddenly placed boulders and other barriers between the fields and Lynda Lane to prevent motorized access.

The Bel Air Cricket Club objected to this on the following grounds:

1. CUSTOM

While the club is aware that, strictly speaking, there is a by-law prohibiting parking on the grounds, it is also aware that it has never been subjected to any harassment from police for parking on this ground until after the argument in May when the resident threatened to call the police. In other words, the city has been fully aware of the limitations of the facilities at the site and has been quite willing to turn a blind eye to the few cars that park there. (The cars are almost out of sight, parked close to the hedge at the far end of the field between the cricket and baseball facilities). The Club has been allowed to park there since it began using the field and should not arbitrarily lose this facility.

2. RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

The entire history of the club has been one where it has had to identify and fight discrimination based on race or colour. In this case, while police harassed Bel Air Club members about parking on the grounds, (white) people parking on the other side of the hedge at the baseball diamonds were not similarly harassed. Indeed the city itself was content to place boulders outside the cricket field only until it heard that the cricketers were complaining about the discriminatory treatment with regard to the fact that the people on the other side of the hedge were not being treated in the same way. It was only then that boulders were placed to prevent access to the baseball field.

The game of cricket takes six hours or more. The rules provide for water breaks during which players refresh themselves with water. The 30-plus degree temperatures of the last few summers have made the ready availability of water much more necessary. Because there is no water facility at the ground, the club has usually brought water coolers in players’ car trunks. The rules also include specific guidelines about what is to be done by players and officials in the event of rain during a match. The city regrets it is unable to provide “permanent” pavilion facilities on the land “because it is owned by the NCC”. The facility at Billings Avenue does not readily meet the requirement of shelter from rain during a match. This is another reason why players park their cars on the side of the field near the hedge. It is disruptive and undesirable for cricketers, officials and spectators to dash off from the field to the Billings Avenue clubhouse a quarter of a mile away every time it rains. Or for the officials to walk up and back for the required inspection of the playing conditions during breaks in rainfall. Nor is this the culture of cricket. Only cultural insensitivity would dictate such action as a satisfactory modus operandum.

TAXPAYERS

The cricketers are taxpayers like anyone else. The city recognizes this and wants to provide facilities for the playing of cricket like any other sport. Sadly it has been unable to do this, but, for the most part, the cricketers have been willing to accept the makeshift arrangements that have greeted them everywhere else except at Carlington.

INTEGRATION

Cricket has been an inexpensive and easy way to integrate new Canadians into the Ottawa area. Cricket is a gentleman’s game with rules and culture that imbue the game’s participants with high principles of sportsmanship, deportment and character. In the national capital region which is characterized by a mosaic of cultures, races and colours, cricket has done well in its mission of breaking down resistance to easy race relations. Cricket has been supported by the City of Ottawa and the city would do well not only to continue that support but to extend it wherever possible.

Eric went further, building inter-racial bridges with visits by the club to communities in Kingston, Brockville, Montreal, Cornell and Hartford. These visits and the entire deportment of the club were conducted at the highest levels of camaraderie and sportsmanship, and gave to club members, and their wives and friends, a sense of worth and belonging in their new country. In the process, he enjoyed the game himself, served for many years on the executive of the league, and for some time held the post of Vice-President. But he declined several times to accept nomination as president.

As time went by the club grew into two teams. This meant that while some members simply wanted to be associated with the club, just about everybody who wanted to play could play. But the strength of the club declined when it started using “A” team players on the “B” team since this meant fewer members having a chance to play. This greatly affected the integrity of the club.

Written by:

Ewart Walters, CD, MJ, Order of Ottawa