Former sports reporter Everard Gordon remembered

Former TT Guardian sports reporter Everard Gordon, right, in conversation with former TT president Sir Ellis Clarke, left, and Professor Courtney Bartholomew in good times.
Former TT Guardian sports reporter Everard Gordon, right, in conversation with former TT president Sir Ellis Clarke, left, and Professor Courtney Bartholomew in good times.

JELANI BECKLES

FORMER sports reporter and avid sportsman Everard Gordon was remembered at St Finbar’s RC Church in Diego Martin, yesterday.

Gordon died at the Port of Spain General Hospital on March 1, at 85 after ailing with dementia.

Gordon was a long-serving staff member of the TT Guardian newspaper, where he covered a range of sports. His passion for sport started when he was a young man as he competed in a range of sports such as cricket, boxing and squash.

Members of the media, who worked with Gordon at the Guardian, attended the funeral, including former sports editor Valentino Singh and former editors in chief Jones P Madeira and Judy Raymond, now editor in chief of Newsday. Other media veterans who attended were Tony Fraser and Anthony Harford.

Gordon’s daughter Michele delivered the eulogy.

Gordon was passionate when it came to talking about cricket. He often fondly remembered the occasion when, as a young player, he dismissed former West Indies cricketer Jeffrey Stollmeyer. Gordon said he celebrated as if he had got the final wicket in a Cricket World Cup final.

Relating the story to his colleagues, he would say, he jumped for joy when took Stollmeyer’s wicket and as Stollmeyer walked past him ,on his way to the pavilion, he told Gordon, “Good ball, son, but you don’t have to get on like that.”

Gordon was a member of Harvard Sports Club and numerous members came out to remember him.

His former colleagues at Harvard Zafar Khan and Waaz Hosein, speaking with Newsday after the funeral, reflected on his life. Khan remembered discussing all sports with Gordon, saying, “(He was) a gentleman. Any subject you want to talk about he was very knowledgeable about it.”

Hosein recalled the time Gordon tried to explain to him the sport of squash.

“Before I ever imagined that there had a sport called squash, Everard was explaining to me what squash is. When it had one or two courts in Trinidad, Everard was in squash. Any sport you could think about...Everard was knowledgeable, and he was very generous with his knowledge. He will willingly share and sit down and discuss.”

Khan and Hosein also remembered the days Gordon played cards with them as youngsters.

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