Kenroy Peters brightens in twilight years

Like good old wine, Vincentian Kenroy Peters is mellowing with age, as he excelled in 2014, his best year in the regional four-day cricket tournament.{{more}}

The 32-year-old left arm medium pacer reeled off several personal achievements in this year’s tournament.

He was the tournament’s top wicket taker with 40 scalps, to go along with his best bowling effort of 7 for 36 versus Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-final, which was critical in the Windwards’ 234 – run triumph, thus earning them a place in the final.

His match figures of 9 for 125 were also his best ever.

Peters, in his seven matches this year, delivered 217.2 overs, 71 of which were maidens. A total of 510 runs were scored against his bowling, resulting in an average of 12.75 per wicket.

Added, he had the best average for the Windwards and was fifth in the standings among all bowlers from the seven competing teams.

A smiling Peters, in reflecting on his 2014 first calls season, noted: “It is a great feeling for me personally… At the start of the tournament, I had set myself 25 wickets, but I ended up with 40.”

Having started for the Windwards at the senior level in 2003, Peters said that it was one of the few occasions he had to be the bowler in the team.

“We knew we were going to have to do without Shane (Shillingford) from the start and in a team meeting I was asked to take up that mantle and I put my hands up and it paid off,” Peters said.

Peters said that his physical preparations, as well as his knowledge gained over the years, were what he brought to bear in 2014.

Peters singled out his efforts against Trinidad and Tobago as being significant in his team reaching the final.

“When I heard we were meeting Trinidad in the semi-finals, I was happy, because they are a cocky bunch and having played sometime time there for Clarke Road, I knew many of their flaws and actually used that knowledge to good effect against them,” Peters told SEARCHLIGHT, as he intermittently checked his messages on his telephone.

Hat-trick achievement

Recounting his hat-trick feat in the final against Jamaica, Peters said it was a bonus effort, as he was not up to bowling.

“To be honest, I was not up to bowling; I felt sore in some areas and for the first ball I just ran up and put the ball there,” Peters recalled.

In the final over before tea on the penultimate day of the match, Peters had left-hander John Campbell trapped LBW, Andre McCarthy caught at second slip for a first-ball duck playing defensively forward, the same stroke that brought the downfall of Dave Bernard Jr, caught behind next ball for a duck.

He finished with 6 for 66.

“When I saw him (Campbell) left the first one, I said he is playing for trouble; then I brought one back into him and that was him,” Peters said with satisfaction.

“The second wicket, Mc Carthy got out to a real brilliant catch by Johnson Charles; I still did not have a hat-trick on my mind,” he added.

In completing the hat-trick though, Peters remembered advising Mervin Matthew how to demise Bernard, in the first innings.

“I said to myself, if it worked for Mervin, it can work for me as well and it did,” Peters reminisced.

Peters joined other Vincentians, all fast bowlers, Ian Allen, current coach of the Windwards and Deighton Butler, now a regional first-class umpire, in achieving the hat-trick feat in the annual competition that dates back to 1966.

Allen’s hat trick came in 1991, versus Trinidad and Tobago at the Guaracara Park in South Trinidad, when he dismissed David Mohammed, Gus Logie and Narine Bedishi in consecutive deliveries.

Butler completed his hat-trick at the Queen’s Park in Grenada for the Windwards against the Leewards in 2005.

His scalps were Sylvester Joseph, Wilden Cornwall and Ridley Jacobs.

Retirement

With some persons advising that he should retire while on a high, Peters said that he would do so when his body begins to respond.

A person who is big on fitness, Peters said “I am listening to my body. I think, though, I will be paying more attention to the longer version of the game.”

Peters, who began his first class career in 2001 with the West Indies. B team, has appeared in 58 first-class matches, taking 177 wickets at a cost of 20.27 runs apiece.(RT)