The 6ft 2in frame was unmistakable in 1960 Accrington, where black faces were seldom seen
How they could have used a force of nature like this here in the early years of the current century, when the British National Party targeted local council seats and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair implored residents to ‘think carefully’ about the votes they would cast, in the pages of the local Burnley Express.
The 6ft 2in frame was unmistakable in 1960, as he walked from his digs to the ground, his kit in a carrier bag slung over his shoulder. His arrival had been delayed until then because he’d committed to a further year’s work as a telegrapher for Cable & Wireless in Bridgetown.
His sense of obligation stemmed from the company agreeing to keep paying him while he was away on tour, though only because he’d pestered them - reminding the firm that they’d featured him on the cover of their ‘Zodiac’ corporate magazine. ‘You had to drive every bargain,’ grins Sir Wes.
He lodged with the Stark family, on the top floor of the care home they had on Worsley Street. ‘I called it "the penthouse," he says. ‘I’d be relaxing in the lounge and I’d be introduced to all-comers.
Time has marched on at some of the places Sir Wes’ trip extends to. They include Lancashire County Cricket Club and Old Trafford, where he calls first and is settled into an executive box to survey the ground where he humbled England on the third morning of a 1963 Test Match, which West Indies won.
Sir Wes had lobbied management for weeks to give a 15-year-old David Lloyd his debut