BOROUGH LEGEND GOES WEST
By Simon Heaney
Bessborough Legend Graeme West has been appointed head coach of the West Indies Cricket Board’s high performance centre in Barbados. West will take charge of a 16-man squad including the capped West Indies players Andre Fletcher, Johnson Charles and Carlos Brathwaite.
West, 39, joined the Borough at the tender age of 10, and was part of a county cup winning colts team in 1987 alongside former Middlesex and Somerset all-rounder Keith Dutch.
Graeme made his senior first team debut for the club at the age of 17, and is the only Bessborough batsman to score 2,000 runs in a single season when he scored 2,012 in 1993, including five centuries. In total, he scored 14 centuries for the club and won the Harrow Observer player of the year for two consecutive seasons.
Club Trustee and legendary bowler Norman Whalley, who captained Graeme for the Sunday 2nd XI when he was a teenager, remembers him as a very technically gifted player who almost always produced a score as well as being a more than useful off-spinner. “He was a good guy to have around, because he could hold the batting together. He wasn’t an aggressive bat, but would gather a score and look after the bottom order. That said he could turn it on at the end of an innings when needed.”
Former Bessborough Chairman, Colin Horsley, another of Graeme’s ex-skippers, remarked that when West opened the batting for his sides that he was particularly good against pace bowling with a habit of pinching the strike.
Graeme later went on to coach and manage Bessborough’s youth teams, including the all-conquering under-13 England Nationals Champions of 2001. Current club captain Danny Hawes was a member of that victorious side under Graeme’s wings.“He was amazing. The best coach I’ve ever had, he knew how to talk to you on your level,” said Hawes.
Sadly, Bessborough haven’t see much of Graeme as a player since he landed the position of Middlesex County’s Academy Director in 2007, but the club have followed his career with great interest.
“It’s great to see one of the Bessborough boys grow up and make a name for himself in the game,” said Horsley. “Everyone at the club wishes the best of luck to Graeme and his family with the move to Barbados. If he ever wants to invite a touring side, he knows how to reach us!”
In addition to Bessborough’s best wishes, Middlesex’s Managing Director of Cricket, Angus Fraser said “We are delighted for Graeme and are proud that someone who worked for Middlesex CCC has been invited to fulfil such a prestigious role. We all wish Graeme well.”