Primary school road tennis starts tomorrow

It is time the student population of Barbados begins to take its cultural and sporting heritage more seriously, says Minister of Creative Economy, Culture and Sport John King.

The minister’s comments came during his address at the official unveiling of the Anthony “Gabby” Carter Road Tennis Heritage Centre and launch of the seventh Cave Shepherd, KFC, A1 Supermarkets National Primary Schools Road Tennis Competition this morning at Kentucky Fried Chicken [KFC] carpark at Warrens, St Michael.

“When you think about the creativity in this country and young people in this country, those persons who created rum, those persons who produce pudding and souse, we produce persons like the Mighty Gabby and Rihanna. A lot of this stuff is not taught to our children about that legacy of creativity and I want to challenge you the primary and the secondary schools to begin to take the history of Barbados a bit more seriously,” King said.

St. Stephen’s Primary will defend their title over a three-day period between November 26 and 28 at Rubis on Spring Garden Highway while the secondary school competition will commence early next year.

Chairman of the National Primary Schools Road Tennis Competition, Ricardo Marshall, said he was pleased to see the progress of road tennis and especially how far the schools’ initiative had come.

This is the first time that road tennis has a heritage centre to call its own in Barbados and Marshall said the idea came about through a number of individuals who paved the way for the indigenous sport on the island. He asked that Barbadians cherish what was built through road tennis which were camraderie, competitiveness and discipline.

“Schools road tennis did not become a hit at the snap of a finger, it took a group of committed people and corporate partners to bring it where we are today. Many times, being on our knees painting the courts, or in workshops paying for different racquets, sitting with principals going through different formats, having a dialogue with sponsors, it was not an easy task. But to get this competition going it took the efforts of all to come on board. It was worth every ounce of sacrifice – we could all be proud that we have put together a sporting component that all children want to be part of… I strongly say today that it is high time road tennis gets an opportunity to promote Barbados and again we have a foundation that we can stand on today,” Marshall said.

Carter, the first road tennis champion of Barbados, thanked those who made the heritage centre a reality as he sang his folk song “Well Done’.

“When I started to play road tennis I never envisioned that there would be a wall in my honour someday in the future,” Carter said as he made mention of the days where he played with the likes of National Hero Sir Garfield Sobers.

“I know he [Sir Garfield] would be proud that something like this has happened for me in my lifetime that I could actually see,” Carter said, as he thanked Ricardo Marshall founder of the National Primary and Secondary Schools Road Tennis Competition along with managing director of A1 Supermarkets Andrew Bynoe who he described as a visionary.

President of Public Primary Schools Principals Association, Ivan Clarke, urged the participants of the schools’ road tennis competition to continue playing sports because it trained them for life. Clarke called for road tennis in every primary school and suggested that each student should be able to play the sport at age three.

“If we are to remain number one there are a number of things that we need to put in place. The use of our national players to assist our young players throughout the island, the spread of road tennis throughout all primary schools in Barbados. It is a relatively inexpensive sport and we expect it to be on the list. Every single child in lawn tennis usually start from age three. The Williams sisters started very early with their father being the coach. From age three we need to have road tennis in every single school before we think of exporting. Unlike sugar we exported our sugar and bought it from somewhere else. We cannot export road tennis until we have a perfect product and perfect meaning we see it at its best,” Clarke said.

Michael Browne, speaking on behalf of Andrew Bynoe, said today would not have been possible without Lance Bynoe, the uncle of Andrew Bynoe who in the 1930s was responsible for the birth of road tennis in Barbados. With that in mind, he said that A1 Supermarkets continued to play a part in the landscape of Barbados with the contribution in the area of sporting education. Browne encouraged the players to exhibit fairness and build friendships as they participated in the competition.

KFC representative Shekelia Barrow said it was fulfilling for her company to partner with the national primary and secondary road tennis championship and what is now called the Anthony “Gabby” Carter Heritage Centre at KFC Warrens. Barrow also reminded the students to remember the tournament slogan Our Culture, Our School.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb