Over the last week, I attended the funerals of two fine gentlemen who built a career in the media industry and gave so much of their time and effort to their colleagues, young journalists, their place of employment and to the public. Two gentlemen that I respect and hold in high esteem. They were both in their early eighties and still had so much to offer.
I refer firstly to Hamilton Clement who passed away two Sundays ago at the age of 84. 'Clem', as he was fondly called, was programme director of 610 radio when I first met him. It was rather strange as I had finished playing all types of cricket and was concentrating on my job when one day, I got a call from Ruskin Mark who asked if I was interested in doing comments on a cricket game at Guaracara Park.
Back then, WITCO sponsored an afternoon 30-over competition for local cricket clubs. The games were played on a Monday and Tuesday afternoon - one team would bat on the first day and the other would chase down the runs the following day. It was the closest thing we had to T20 cricket.
Ruskin called me to do the final which was played under lights starting at 6pm and half way through the first innings, he said, “Colin, try ball by ball,”; and so, my budding career as a commentator started. What was most interesting was a couple days after, I received a call from Clem, whom I did not know at the time. He was keen to find out from me how the commentary went, telling me that I came across well for a newcomer and he was elated to have me on board. I thought, why would this man do that? But I soon realised he wanted to make sure that whatever voice he placed on the station, it was of value not only to the station, but to the listener. He was interested in ensuring that the station's listeners got good value and I soon realised he was not going to put anything on that was substandard.
Radio 610 was known in those days to broadcast both cricket and football. They started broadcasting Colleges League football when I played schools football - don't even ask the year - and Clem was responsible for initiating the broadcast. Local cricket on a weekend all the way to test matches, were covered by radio 610 and Clem played a big part to ensure all was well with the broadcasts. He would always call me to bounce ideas he had to make local cricket on the airwaves more exciting to its listeners.
Although he was programme director, he would suddenly turn up to the commentators booth at a football or cricket match just to have first hand knowledge of the conditions we were working under; to get a feel for himself as to what could be improved while making sure everything from a station's perspective was good. It was something I particularly admired about him as it is easy for a programme director to sit in an office and await feedback. Not Clem. He was hands on.
When Clem retired but was back on contract, he frequently contacted me to talk cricket, football and commentary although his station was no longer bidding for the rights to host cricket and football games. He started live parang broadcasts on 610. He had good ideas and he would always follow through on them. Clem was a true soldier and I am certain he will be missed by those who still work at the station and sought his advice from time to time.
The other gentleman is David Lamy fondly called Dave who passed away at the age of 83 on November 1st. Unlike Clem, Dave was more known to the public at large. He filled some huge shoes when Raffie Knowles passed away but Dave knew he had to work hard to fill them. By jingo did he work hard! I first came into contact with Dave when he covered a youth cricket tournament in 1973 in St Lucia. What I admired about him most was his honesty in covering the tournament. To be frank, we had some awful umpiring decisions in our final match against the home team, the Combined Island, who we ended up losing to. Dave, in his summary of the tournament, certainly let the West Indies Cricket Board know how unacceptable it was to youngsters and he expected a higher standard of officiating without actually saying the obvious.
We became friends after the tournament and I was fortunate to do some commentary with him. He always had advice for anyone willing to listen. He would talk cricket and football whenever he saw me. Naturally, I tried to stick in some horse racing but he would always refer me back to my brother whom he said knew everything about the sport of kings - I knew he was being sarcastic.
I served with Dave as Master of Ceremonies for the QPCC national sporting heroes brunch and he would call me at least 2 weeks before to make sure we had all our facts right. He was always prepared.
The Past Cricketers Society of Trinidad & Tobago had already made contact with Dave to honour him at their function on November 30th. It makes me sad that he won't be there to receive the award but at least he knew how he was held in high esteem by the former cricketers. So much more could be said about Clem and Dave - two media icons that gave so much to the industry. Gone but not forgotten. May they rest in peace.
Editor's note: The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and do not reflect the views of any organisation of which he is a stakeholder.