Writer Nasser Khan has been reflecting on events and people significant in the shaping of T&T’s history, captured in song through the art form of the calypso, one of the most important sources of our history. In this, the eighth of this series, Khan has chosen during this cricket season here in T&T, the calypso that the late Lord Bryner, Kade Simon (1937-1980), sang on the Charran Singh riot that took place at the Queen’s Park Oval on January 30, 1960.
A popular calypsonian from the late 1950’s to the 1970’s, Bryner emulated the famous bald actor Yul Brynner. In August 1962, he won the special calypso competition that was held to celebrate the independence of Trinidad & Tobago, his winning calypso entitled This Land is Mine.
It was the run-out of local hero, spin bowler Charran Singh, in the Test match against England, deemed not out by many of the spectators in the crowd, that incited a riot, leading to a shower of bottles and debris onto the Queen’s Park Oval cricket ground. Back in those days a Test match was a much anticipated event in the sporting calendar and the Oval was usually filled to capacity, as it was on this day. This was cricket at its best and limited-overs cricket had not come on the scene as yet.
The teams were star-studded, with England having in their team Peter May, Colin Cowdrey, Tom Graveney, and Fred Trueman and the West Indies stars like Garry Sobers, Frank Worrell, Rohan Kanhai, Conrad Hunte, Charlie Griffith, Trinidadian Sonny Ramadhin and fellow local hero and newcomer Charran Singh.
Back in those days, action started at 11am with just about five hours’ play and went for six days, with a rest day after the third.
On the third day, just after the tea break, with the West Indies innings in ruins, out strode Test debutant Charran Singh at number nine. A huge cheer erupted to welcome the hometown player. No sooner had the cheering died down than, in attempting a suicidal run, he was adjudged to be run out by umpire Eric Lee Kow. As Singh dejectedly made his way back to the pavilion, the mayhem started, with hundreds if not thousands of bottles raining first from the Guinness Stand and then, within minutes, from all around the Oval.
The turmoil and fury unleashed were not becoming of a sporting event, or any event for that matter, as the riot squad appeared on the scene in an attempt to quell the riot and stop the flow of bottles being pelted onto the field.
Despite the pleas of the authorities (including Premier Dr Eric Williams and Learie Constantine), the crowd remained agitated, but eventually things calmed down after the police, some on horseback, as well as fire-brigade hoses, went into action.
No play was possible for the rest of the day and the sea of bottles and debris had to be cleared before the next day’s play.
One anecdote given by Dave Francois, a longtime member of the Queen’s Park Cricket Club, is that noted radio sports commentator of the time Raffie Knowles described the rioters as “hooligans.” Transistor radios, being the norm of the day, were glued to the ears of many of the spectators and before you knew it, the media area was bombarded with bottles too!
RIOT IN THE OVAL
By Lord Bryner
Don’t doubt me, don’t doubt me
Because ah saying what ah see
At the Test match in Queen’s Park Oval
Right after the tea interval
From the time Charran Singh get run out
Ah don’t know where all those bottles come.
CHORUS
But it was bottle and stone riot in the Oval
The Test match turn to a carnival,
Ah had to hide me head inside a canal
Lee Kow was like Nasser in the Suez Canal
Right in the middle of the Federal Capital
It was rotten and bad
And a shame to the island of Trinidad
After we had such a good sporting name
One little thing make we lose we fame
It will take us 15 years or more
To get back the good name, I am sure
So MCC take this apology please
On behalf of Trinidad, Brynner, and the West Indies.
I was on my heels.
When the Premier and the Governor came to the field.
They started raising their hands up
Signalling the rioters to stop
Well that didn’t help anything
They started calling louder to bring back Charran Singh
Then ah only hear fling like a bottle fly
And it lick out the Premier glasses clean from he eye
Any how I think am sure
This kind of things would not happen no more
Because we all should understand
West Indian cricket back bone is England
Because the same Charran Singh that didn’t get the run
Might be in Lancashire in a few months to come
And when England send him back to the West Indies.
You must call him Sir Charran Singh if you please.