In March of 1946 British Guiana and Trinidad contested a three-match International football series where four International cricketers, three from the Twin-Island Republic and one from then British Guiana participated.
Prior Jones, Gerry Gomez and Andy Ganteaume of Trinidad and Robert Christiani of British Guiana (all deceased) were distinguished cricketers.
Jones, a fast bowler, played nine Test matches between 1947–48 to 1951–52, Gomez played 29 Test matches between 1939 and 1954, Ganteaume played one Test match for the West Indies in 1948 and Christiani played 22 Tests from 1947–48 to 1953–54.
However, like most sportsmen in those days, the four were also competent footballers capable of representing their respective countries which they did.
The two countries contested a three-match series which was won by British Guiana 2-1.
The Trinidad delegation was led by skipper Jones while Christiani was the British Guiana goalkeeper in the final match replacing the injured skipper Bernie Thomas.
The tourists opened their 1946 campaign with a convincing 3-0 victory over the Georgetown Football Club at the GFC ground with Ganteaume netting a double and Gomez the other goal.
However the opening match was won by British Guiana 1-0 with Lieutenant Leslie Eytle, the goal scorer.
Trinidad evened the score with a 2-1 win in the second match.
Winston Baird and Carlton Downes netted for Trinidad and Shadow Harris for British Guiana.
The third match at the GFC ground saw ground British Guiana winning 3-1 with Cecil (Bruiser) Thomas scoring a double and Eytle the third goal while Gomez scored for Trinidad.
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Guyanese basketball fans are often told that the game of basketball was started here by a group of friends in 1953 namely Ken Corsbie, Lawrence Taitt, Clairmont Taitt, Ron Savory, William Holder, Dereck Corsbie and Harry Dyett after they had watched the movie Harlem Globe Trotters.
However, our records show that the game was already popular by March, 1945 when a game was played at the U.S, AIR Transport Command base at Atkinson Field between the US Air Transport Command ‘’Mustangs’’ and the Army Air Ways Communications Systems Sparks.
The Mustangs defeated the Sparks in two straight games 26 to 18 and 29 to 16 becoming the base champions as a result.
The Mustangs then travelled to San Juan, Puerto Rico on the 29th of March to represent the British Base Command in the Antilles Department Tournament.
