Former national netballer Angela Pinky Drayton-Thomas died on Monday morning at the age of 70.
Drayton-Thomas had a stroke recently and was warded in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital ailing for some time before her passing at her sister's home in Point Fortin.
The centre-court player, who dazzled opposing players and fans with her ball-handling skills and her ability to pass and run off the ball, was a permanent fixture on the national team featuring at three consecutive World Netball Championships (1967, 1971 and 1975) before the tournament was renamed the Netball World Cup.
During that period (1973-74), she picked up a couple of awards, the "Sportswoman of the Year", the "Golden Girl of the Year" award and won the Raffie Knowles memorial award for the Most Disciplined Player of the Port-of-Spain Netball League (POSNL), which is currently known as the Lystra Lewis POSNL, in 1974. That year, she was also appointed vice-captain of the national team for the Caribbean Championship.
For her contributions to netball, Drayton-Thomas was inducted into the First Citizens Sports' Hall of Fame in 1987.
Drayton-Thomas, who was born on January 8, 1950, began playing the sport at the tender age of nine at the Rose Hill Primary School in Laventille, Port-of-Spain. She progressed quickly and became the team's captain in 1962. That same year, the former national player was introduced to club competition, featuring for Carib Senators in the Intermediate Division of the PoSNL.
It didn't take long for Drayton Thomas' abilities to be recognised in the division as she was selected to represent the league's junior team playing for the Inter League B and North B teams. She also represented Port-of-Spain's junior team versus a Tobago-select team.
At age of 14, Drayton-Thomas, who also played in the centre, wing-attack, goal-attack positions, was promoted to Senators' A Division team in the PoSNL and excelled from there onwards to earn selection on several national teams. In recognition for the contribution to the league, the top Division, A1, in the Lystra Lewis Port-of-Spain Netball League was named after her before it was renamed the First Division.
Drayton-Thomas, who completed an Education course in Canada, retired from competitive netball to focus on her teaching career at Servol Special School in the Dry River community. This won her an award in 1986 for her "Most Outstanding Contribution to the Community of Laventille".
She leaves to mourn two sisters. Her husband Christopher Thomas, who is deceased.
On Monday, the T&T Netball Association headed by Dr Patricia Butcher, the PoSNL extended condolences to her family.