Courtney Andrew Walsh, showing here, is currently the man with the record of having the most "ducks" in Test Cricket - some forty-three, out of a hundred and eighty-five innings. If you are not a cricketer, let me explain this - what happens is that if a batsman gets struck out after coming to the field, but before making any runs at all, he is said to be "out for a duck".
He was born on October the 30th, 1962, in Kingston, Jamaica, and represented his country from 1984, against Australia in Perth, until 2001, against South Africa, at home in Jamaica. In between were some twenty-two test matches as the Captain of the side.
After his retirement he was still involved with cricket, and was a selector for the West Indies team, as well as the bowling coach of the Bangladesh team.
This set, which is, thrillingly, still trade - the packets containing cards and one stick of bubble gum - is only catalogued in volume two of our Australian and New Zealand Index, where the entry reads :
- 1988-3. Cricket Series. 88 x 63. Nd. (144). 141 players and scenes and three advertisement subjects. ... SC2-90
By the way, he actually appears twice in the set, the other card being number 78, which shows his head and shoulders rather than in action, and has a biography on the reverse.
There is a school of thought that suggests the cards ought to be called "Cricket Cards 1988-89 Season" - for this is the title which appears on the packets. There is also no mention in our index of something else that appears there, the fact that there was a competition, which closed on the 25th of November 1988, involving some of the cards, namely 8 (Allan Border) - 14 (David Boon) - 64 (a Bicentennial Test Match, named as Allan Border), 102 (Desmond Haynes), 117 (Javed Miandad) and 124 (Imran Khan).
Now the catalogues state that this is a set of 144 but there are several cards, 31, 42, 51, 57, 99, and 123, which are blue and white cards, all text and no pictures, which give the rules, And cards 130, 143 and 144 are not cricket either - they are adverts for The Hilton International Hotel in Sydney, World series Cricket, and Ansett Airlines. I am not so sure that these are deserving of the numbers, but never mind. They explain that you have to identify the players on those cards and send the list of names back to Scanlens, then on December the 9th, 1988. a draw would be made of all the correct entries and the winner would be awarded a trip to two to the the First World series Cup Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.