Charles Henry "Jim" Allen (born 15 August 1951) is a former

Montserrat Montserrat ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, wit ...

ian

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er who was a part of the World Series Cricket West Indies XI and is considered the greatest ever

sportsperson.Fergus, H. (1996) ''Gallery Montserrat: Some Prominent People In Our History'', Canoe Press, Montserrat. . Born in Harris Village,

, to Handsome and Alberta Allen, Jim Allen starred in Montserrat cricket from a young age, making his debut for the Montserrat cricket team in the 1969 Leeward Islands Tournament, and scored his first century for Montserrat against

St Kitts cricket team The Saint Kitts cricket team is the representative team of the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. The team is organised by the St Kitts Cricket Association (SKCA) which is a member of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA), in turn an affili ...

at Sturge Park, Montserrat in 1971. Allen made his first-class debut on 15 January 1972 for

Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands () are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In Engl ...

against

Windward Islands The Windward Islands are the southern, generally larger islands of the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean islands or the West Indies. Located approximately between latitudes 10° and 16° N and longitudes 60° and 62° W, they extend from D ...

Roseau Roseau (Dominican Creole French, Dominican Creole: ''Wozo'') is the capital and largest city of Dominica, with a population of 14,725 as of 2011. It is a small and compact urban settlement, in the Saint George Parish, Dominica, Saint George Pa ...

, scoring one and 82. An attacking right-hand batsman with an unorthodox, open–chest, wide-legs batting stance, Allen was soon considered a more exciting batsman than his Leeward Islands teammate

Vivian Richards Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is a retired Antiguan cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Usually batting at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...

.Hector, L. (2001)
Fan the Flame
", 24 August 2001. Accessed 9 November 2007. Outside of cricket Allen worked as a bulldozer driver Allen became the first professional Montserratian sportsperson when he began playing in England during the northern summer, turning out for teams in the

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

cricket leagues.Durand, H. (2001)
50th Birthday Event Celebrates Jim Allen
", ''Montserrat Reporter''. Accessed 9 November 2007. Allen's best season was 1976/77, where he scored 559 first-class runs at 50.81, with a highest score of 150.

World Series Cricket

Allen's good form led to a lucrative offer to join the World Series Cricket (WSC) competition when it commenced in Australia in late 1977. Recommended by West Indies captain

Clive Lloyd Sir Clive Hubert Lloyd (born 31 August 1944) is a Guyanese- British former cricketer and captain of the West Indies cricket team. Lloyd is widely regarded as one of the greatest captains of all time. As a boy he went to Chatham High School in ...

, it took WSC owner

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

's representatives two months to find Allen, searching the West Indies and England before finding him. The only member of the West Indian squad not to play

Test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

, Allen appeared in three SuperTests against the Australians but struggled, scoring a total of 44 runs with a high score of 20.

Back in the West Indies

Following the end of World Series Cricket, Allen returned to the West Indies for the 1978/79 season where he scored his highest first-class score of 161 against

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. In 1978, Allen was awarded with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to cricket. Allen sustained an eye injury during a practice session in May 1981 and underwent surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He was forced to wear contact lenses and returned during the 1981/82 season, although his runscoring ability fell from prior to the accident. He played three more years before retiring. Allen made news in April 1982 when he failed to arrive in time for the final of the Geddes Grant/Harrison Line Trophy between Leeward Islands and Barbados, leaving Leeward Islands officials scrambling for a replacement. Upon his retirement, Allen had scored 3,067 first-class runs at 34.07. He also took three wickets at 30.00 with his right arm medium pace and took 42 catches and a stumping. For Montserrat, Allen scored four centuries.

Post-retirement

Since his retirement, an annual lecture series, held on his birthday, has been established in Montserrat to honour Allen. Additionally, a number of Montserratian artists have written poems about Allen and there are calls to name a local street or erect a statue of Allen in front of the government headquarters in the de facto Montserrat capital

Brades Brades (; also Brades Estate) is a town and the '' de facto'' capital of Montserrat since 1998 with an approximate population of 1,000. History The still ''de jure'' capital of Montserrat at Plymouth in the south of the island was abandoned i ...

. Allen's importance to Montserrat was encapsulated by local writer Professor Howard Fergus, who said "He (Allen) had made all Montserratians see, feel and know that they, in spite of all, could scale any height of achievement accomplished by those overbrimming with opportunity." Allen's brother George Allen and son

Davon Williams Davon Alphonso Williams (born 27 May 1972) is a Montserratian former cricketer who played for the Leeward Islands cricket team, Leeward Islands in West Indian domestic cricket. He played as a right-handed batsman (cricket), batsman. Williams a ...

have both also played first-class cricket for Leeward Islands.Jim Allen
, Cricket Archive. Accessed 10 November 2007.

References

Sources

* Fergus, H. (1996) ''Gallery Montserrat: Some Prominent People In Our History'', Canoe Press, Montserrat. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Jim World Series Cricket players 1951 births Living people Leeward Islands cricketers Montserratian cricketers British people of Montserratian descent West Indian cricketers of 1970–71 to 1999–2000