John Trim (25 January 1915 – 12 November 1960) was a

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er who played in four

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

s from 1948 to 1952. A barrel-chested right-arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed lower-order batsman from

Berbice Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 to 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Britain ...

, British Guiana,George, p. 20. Trim's brief international career yielded 18 wickets at one of the lowest

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

s of any completed career – 16.16 runs per wicket. In his first class career from 1944 to 1953 he played 34 matches, mostly for British Guiana, taking 96 wickets and making a solitary half-century with the bat. Trim's Test debut came during the 1947–48 tour of the West Indies by

Gubby Allen Sir George Oswald Browning "Gubby" Allen CBE (31 July 190229 November 1989) was a cricketer who captained England in eleven Test matches. In first-class matches, he played for Middlesex and Cambridge University. A fast bowler and hard-hitt ...

's England team. Trim took two wickets for an economical six runs in his first outing, with a further wicket in England's second innings. It was Trim's only match of the series, but he would tour India in January 1949, taking 4/48 and 3/28 in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

and 3/69 in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

. He was then selected for the West Indian tour of Australia 1951–52 and took his career-best figures: a maiden

five wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Takin ...

of 5/35 at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...

. His omission from the 1950 touring party to England created “an almighty row” and almost led to the British Guiana Cricket Association boycotting the tour. Trim was the first Berbician to play Test cricket. He continued to play cricket in the Caribbean until 1953. He died in New Amsterdam, Berbice.

Sources

* George, M. (2012) ''A time in our history: Berbice Cricket from 1939 to 2012'', Lulu.com.

References

External links

* * 1915 births 1960 deaths West Indies Test cricketers Guyanese cricketers Guyana cricketers People from New Amsterdam, Guyana {{Guyana-cricket-bio-stub