Boys Town Nurtured Collie Smith one of Cricket’s Greatest - says Minister Grange

Completing the unveiling of the Collie Smith stature are: Denzil Thorpe, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport; (3rd left); Billy Heaven, CEO, Chase Fund and President, Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA); Senator Councillor Delroy Williams, Mayor of Kingston; Honourable Steadman Fuller, Custos Rotulorum of Kingston (left to right) and Lyndel Wright, brother, Collie Smith and Former President of the JCA (right). Completing the unveiling of the Collie Smith stature are: Denzil Thorpe, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport; (3rd left); Billy Heaven, CEO, Chase Fund and President, Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA); Senator Councillor Delroy Williams, Mayor of Kingston; Honourable Steadman Fuller, Custos Rotulorum of Kingston (left to right) and Lyndel Wright, brother, Collie Smith and Former President of the JCA (right).

The Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment has hailed the contribution of Boys Town to the development of O’Neil Gordon “Collie’ Smith, as one of West Indies cricket’s greatest all-rounders.

Minister Grange’s comment came in a speech delivered on her behalf by Permanent Secretary Denzil Thorpe at the Unveiling of the Collie Smith Statue at Boys Town Club at 6 Collie Smith Drive in St. Andrew yesterday, March 21.

Miss Grange said that Collie Smith’s rise was synonymous with Boys Town, a community-based non-profit charity that has served Trench Town and surrounding communities in Southern St Andrew since the 1940s. “Boys Town provided nurture for Collie Smith. What a great tradition is Boys Town. I am so pleased that the tradition continues.”

Of the cricketer she said, “Collie’s greatness intertwined with his humility had endeared him to Jamaica and the West Indies and his memory was immortalized.

“Today we salute O'Neil Gordon Smith, known to all of us as Collie Smith and also as the Mighty Mouse.” 

Collie Smith, who died in a motor vehicle accident while on tour in England in 1959, had months earlier made cricketing history by scoring the first triple century in the English Lancashire League, batting for Burnley.

 

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