Seymour MacDonald Nurse was a Barbadian cricketer.
38 Facts About Seymour Nurse
1.
2.
Seymour Nurse was a member of the famous Empire Cricket Club, and his cricketing mentor was club-mate Everton Weekes.
3.
Seymour Nurse made his first-class cricket debut for Barbados in 1958.
4.
Seymour Nurse retired from Test cricket at the peak of his powers, having just dominated the New Zealand bowlers in a three Test series.
5.
Seymour Nurse continued to play at club level and for Barbados for some years.
6.
Seymour Nurse was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1967.
7.
Seymour Nurse was born on 10 November 1933 in Saint Michael, Barbados.
8.
From a humble background, Seymour Nurse was the son of a carpenter and the youngest of a family of two boys and two girls.
9.
The younger Seymour Nurse went to school at St Stephen's Boys School where he excelled in both football and cricket.
10.
Seymour Nurse played for the Bay Street Boys' Club; the same club where Garfield Sobers and Conrad Hunte played as young men.
11.
Seymour Nurse's talent was noted and he progressed to the elite Barbados Cricket Association competition, joining the famous Empire Cricket Club.
12.
Seymour Nurse did not play for Barbados until he was 25, making his first-class cricket debut against Jamaica at Melbourne Oval in Kingston, Jamaica in July 1958.
13.
Seymour Nurse's strokeplay was attractive, if sometimes unorthodox, and he was a "superb driver off the back foot".
14.
Seymour Nurse bowled occasional off-spin and was a specialist close-to-the-wicket fielder.
15.
Seymour Nurse was called up into the team as a result of an ankle injury to Frank Worrell just before the match.
16.
Seymour Nurse had only one bat and that was held together with tape so before the match the England cricketer Trevor Bailey gave Seymour Nurse one of his bats.
17.
Seymour Nurse came out to bat in the first innings when Easton McMorris was forced to retire hurt after being hit by repeated bouncers bowled by Fred Trueman and Brian Statham.
18.
In what was described as a "sparkling" innings Nurse made 70 runs before lofting the England off spinner Ray Illingworth to mid on where he was caught by M JK Smith.
19.
Seymour Nurse was competing for a place in the team against more accomplished cricketers such as Gary Sobers and Rohan Kanhai.
20.
Seymour Nurse ended the tour on crutches having injured his ankle in play.
21.
Seymour Nurse scored 369 runs in six matches on tour including 126 not out in the final match against Pakistan at Bangabandhu National Stadium.
22.
Seymour Nurse played in a leading role in the 1966 West Indian tour of England.
23.
Seymour Nurse scored 501 runs in the Test series at an average of 62.62, on both counts only surpassed by his captain, Sobers.
24.
Seymour Nurse's performances that season were highly praised with Wisden listing him as one of its Cricketers of the Year, declaring the "reliable consistency of Seymour Nurse was a great asset" to the West Indies team and "[m]oreover he always made his runs attractively".
25.
Seymour Nurse took some time to find his best form in Australia; like many of his teammates he struggled with John Gleeson's unorthodox bowling and Garth McKenzie's ability to move the ball early in the innings.
26.
Sobers claimed that Seymour Nurse had told him earlier that "the West Indies will never throw him away, he will get rid of them first".
27.
Sobers, his captain, told Seymour Nurse he was a required player for the coming tour of England but Seymour Nurse felt he could not change his mind.
28.
Seymour Nurse continued on to New Zealand where he was the "outstanding performer" for the West Indies, scoring 826 runs on the tour at an average of 91.8.
29.
Wisden stated that "although making many magnificent shots" Seymour Nurse had some luck as there were "many mis-hits which fell just clear of fieldsmen and three times all but played on".
30.
Seymour Nurse went public with his desire to leave international cricket at the end of the tour before the third and final Test at Lancaster Park.
31.
Batting in very poor light Seymour Nurse "punished the New Zealand pace bowlers with superb drives off the back foot" in an innings described by Wisden as a "magnificent display of aggressive but responsible batting" featuring 35 fours and one six.
32.
Seymour Nurse's innings was the highest score by a cricketer in his final Test innings and his 558 runs at an average of 111.60 for the Test series is still a record for the highest average for a player's final Test series.
33.
Seymour Nurse managed and coached the Barbados team in the 1990s and was a respected member of the Barbados Cricket Association board.
34.
Seymour Nurse served as head coach of the Barbados National Sports Council.
35.
Seymour Nurse acquired the nickname "Casso" from his West Indian teammates as a result of the interminable tall tales he told about his "hero", Casso the marathon runner.
36.
Seymour Nurse helped found his own football club and in England in 1966 saw as many matches of the 1966 FIFA World Cup as he could.
37.
Seymour Nurse was the father of twin daughters, born in 1966.
38.
Seymour Nurse died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Bridgetown in May 2019 after an illness.