RHTY&SC cricket teams host annual Basil Butcher Trust Fund programme
The cricket teams of the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) last week started to host activities under the annual Basil Bitcher Memorial Trust Fund programme. The teams under the Trust Fund would host several activities in memory of the late West Indies batting legend who died in 2019 at the age of 86.
The teams – Rose Hall Poonai Pharmacy Under-13, Farfan and Mendes Under-15, Bakewell Under-17 and Second Division, Pepsi Under-19 and Intermediate, Metro Females, and Namilco Under-21 and First Division donated to several organisations during the week.
RHTY&SC Secretary Hilbert Foster hands over the Basil Butcher Honour Roll Board to CCHS Headteacher Nirmala Hussain
The Rose Hall Town Nursery School received trophies, certificate frames and medals for their annual graduation ceremony. The teams also donated six honour boards to schools in the area stretching from Rose Hall Town to Port Mourant . The schools receiving the honour boards were Port Mourant Primary, Rose Hall Town Primary School, Lower Corentyne Secondary, Port Mourant Secondary, JC Chandisingh and Corentyne Comprehensive Secondary.
The Honour Board highlights the top student for each school at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and National Grade Six Assessments (NGSA) examinations. RHTY&SC Secretary/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hilbert Foster stated that it was important for role model students be promoted that others would be inspired to follow in their footsteps. The RHTY&SC, he noted, is determined to promote the importance of education to all youths in the county of Berbice.
The cricket teams also donated five special gifts along with certificate frames and medals to the Mayor and Town Council of Rose Hall Town. The council would use the donated items to host a special award ceremony to honour the outstanding workers in the council under the annual RHTY&SC tribute to Municipality Workers Programme. The Club and the Council have enjoyed a very close and cordial relationship under the mayorship of Dave Budhu. Foster stated that the Club has been sponsoring the programme for four years now and would continue to do so in the future. One worker from each of the Council departments would be honoured – finance, market, security, works and administration. The Club would also shortly undertake repairs to the Area H Ground under the Trust Fund.
Ryan Kissoonlall hands over donated items to Rose Hall Town Clerk Natasha Griffith
With sponsorship from Pathera Solutions, the front internal fence would be repaired to prevent animals accessing to the ground while West Indies white ball all-rounder Kevin Sinclair would assist the Club to repair the main pavilion at the ground. The venue has since 1995 produced a total of 120 players for Berbice, Guyana and the West Indies. The players include Kevin Sinclair, Kevlon Anderson, Assad Fudadin, Clinton Pestano, Junior Sinclair, Shemaine Campbelle, Shakabi Gajnabi and Sheneta Grimmond. Numerous youths over the next few weeks would also receive bicycles and electronic tablets under the Trust Fund. The Club would also honour outstanding performers at the National Grade Six exams.
The RHTY&SC Secretary stated that the teams were happy to honour Basil Butcher, because he was a true friend of Guyana’s leading youth and sports club and also a role model/mentor to all the club members.
Butcher played 44 Test matches for the West Indies, scoring 3109 runs at an impressive average of 43.11 with seven centuries and 16 half-centuries. He served as a selector at the national and regional levels after he retired in 1969 . He was the fourth Berbician to play Test Cricket after John Trim, Rohan Kanhai, and Ivan Madray.
