Bermuda's former West Ham United star Clyde Best was the subject of a feature in UK national newspaper The Daily Telegraph last week. Written by one of Britain's top football writers, Patrick Barclay, the article reflects on the time when Best became one of the first black players to make his name in England's top division and his work now at the Westgate Correctional Facility. We have reproduced the piece in full, plus some of the comments sent in by readers to the Daily Telegraph website.

By Patrick Barclay

Clyde Best visited London during the World Cup summer of 2006. He had been made an MBE and wanted to receive the honour in person. He was also determined to be formally dressed for the occasion and, lacking only a top hat, sought out a specialist shop.

Finding a hat that fitted perfectly, he asked the price and was told £500. Suppressing a gasp, he paid. His wife tut-tutted. But she had to admit he looked impressive as they emerged from a taxi at the gates of Buckingham Palace — where an official promptly confiscated the topper.

''I'm sorry, sir," he said. ''Security."

Much has changed about England since Best first arrived from Bermuda nearly 40 years ago — and not all for the worse. Best is entitled to take a bit of pride in that because, although he came not as a campaigner but an outstanding 17-year-old footballer with a dream of making it in what is now called the Barclays Premier League, his success helped to pave the way for generations of black players. It seems strange now, but as late as 1968 the game was almost entirely white and myths dogged the exceptions: apparently they could not stand the winter cold and mud, or being kicked all afternoon.

For seven seasons, Best ploughed an elegant furrow through the West Ham quagmire, shrugging off the attentions of the roughest defenders of those harsh days, and it was only a couple of years after he had left England that Viv Anderson became the first of many black men to play for the country.

Best played and coached in the United States before returning to Bermuda in 1998. ''It was time to come home," he said recently at his bungalow near the prison where he works. ''I wanted to put something back into the island." He had been offered the national-team managership and felt an obligation. But the desire that had driven Best — and later Shaun Goater, who flew to Manchester to join United and ended up a cult hero at City, and Kyle Lightbourne, late of Walsall, who also reached Premier level, however briefly, with Coventry — was no longer evident. The players tended to treat training sessions as optional.

''It was a bit disheartening," he recalled. ''I gather the coach today [Keith Tucker] has the same problem with people not turning up to practice. I suppose it's a consequence of prosperity. When you've got everything you want, the opportunity to travel down to Jamaica to play a football game is no big deal." He chuckled. ''Most of the kids in Bermuda have been travelling since they came out of their mother's womb."

In Best's youth, he was an exception. So strong and gifted was he that he first played for the national team at 14. There were flights to play other Caribbean islands, countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador and — even more exciting — the United States. The manager was an Englishman, Graham Adams, who arranged for Best to have a trial at West Ham. He was 17 when he crossed the Atlantic.

''As I got off the plane," he said, ''I wondered what the hell I'd got myself into. I thought I'd landed in India or something because there were so many people of Indian descent. There were people of all nationalities, people everywhere." But none to meet him.

''I was a bit worried. I took a bus from Heathrow to Victoria Station and asked questions and got directed to West Ham underground station. From there I walked to the stadium, but it was closed — it was a Sunday. I was walking around the streets and luckily met a neighbour of John and Clive Charles [brothers who played for West Ham and lived near Upton Park]. He led me to the house and Mrs Charles put me up for a few nights. Soon the club found me another family to stay with in Plaistow, but me and Clive became such friends that I went back to the Charles house and stayed for years."

Only a couple of months after his 18th birthday, Best was given his debut by Ron Greenwood. Adjusting to the physical demands of the English game was no problem because he had always been a boy among men, enjoying vigorous exchanges with, among others, the Royal Navy teams based in Bermuda. Later Greenwood would toughen up his young reserves with matches against the likes of the Metropolitan Police. Nor did boggy pitches bother Best.

''Good players make adjustments," he said. ''You look at England when they went to Russia — they were beaten before they arrived because they were worried about the artificial turf. You have to adjust and dictate to the ball, not let it dictate to you."

As Best did. He played with Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, making 186 appearances in the League alone and scoring 47 goals. Shortly after being left out of the 1975 FA Cup final team by Greenwood's successor, John Lyall, he decided to go to America, but he has nothing but fond memories of the club.

''I was treated," he said, ''like a son." He encountered racism, of course. ''Some grounds were worse than others, but you had to put it out of your mind. You also had to be careful not to react to provocation from opponents. You had to think of the people watching, the children. You had to think of your team-mates too. You couldn't be selfish and retaliate because the people provoking you were only trying to get you sent off. I was never sent off. Although I didn't set out to blaze a trail for other black players to follow, it was always at the back of my mind that I was representing the guy driving the train, the guy cleaning the toilets. Even at 18 I felt a responsibility to act in a certain way. When you're playing next to people of the stature of Bobby Moore, you have no difficulty with respect. I was privileged to play with and against some of the greatest names ever to grace the game. If John Terry's worth £130,000 a week, what would Bobby be worth? And George Best — you couldn't even put a figure on it!"

Having gone back to Bermuda with hopes of passing on his experience, just as he had been inspired by the example of players such as Eversley Lewis, a Bermudian who went to Aberdeen in the early 1960s, Best was disillusioned by the sporting decline of the Island's youth. ''They are great with their Nintendos," he reflected, ''but, when you get them on the pitch, they don't even know how to move. It's not just Bermuda. It's a world-wide thing."

Still, though, Best wanted to make a difference and so, eight years ago, he went into the prison service. ''We take the guys who are ready to be released and work with counsellors, job development officers and so on to try to get them placed back in society. We help them to get jobs, budget their money, learn to cook, stay off narcotics or alcohol, all sorts of stuff. It's an open facility — you're free to visit families at the weekends or go to a movie at night, just as long as you come back. If you don't, you go back to the main prison. But we've had a lot of success. I was out shopping with my wife and this boy came over to the truck. He's out there, doing tremendous, been out of trouble for nearly four years. If we can keep more and more of those people out of prison, it's going to save the country a lot of money."

READER'S COMMENTS

"Clyde Best, legend. I even painted one of my West Ham subbuteo players black to make it all more real." - Posted by Tim.

"A true gentleman of the game. If only the spoilt brats that we pay a fortune to watch now were more like him. The game would be a better place for it. As he says, what wages would Bobby and George be on now?" - Posted by Geoff.

"Fine footballer, and more to the point, a fine man. Good to hear about what he is up to these days." - Posted by Jeremy Poynton.

"Patrick Barclay's piece on Clyde Best brought back memories of a long-ago Saturday afternoon at Chadwell Heath when West Ham A were at home to Stevenage Athletic (forerunner of Stevenage Borough). Stevenage manager Jim Briscoe, amazed to find Ron Greenwood present at a Metropolitan League game, learned he had come to watch this kid from the Bahamas. Jim, who followed Derek Dooley as Sheffield Wednesday centre forward and was known to call a spade a bloody spade, saw Best in the Hammers' dressing room before the game. 'You should see t'size of t'bloody black lud in there,' he said, eyes like saucers. Could play, too. Nice piece, Mr Barclay." - Posted by Kit Galer.

"I remember watching Clyde playing for West Ham against Man. Utd. in 1974. That was my first game ever. He was a very decent man and it seemed he could not be fluttered at all by provocations or bad tackles. He was a great ambassador for the rest of the black players who followed." - Posted by Immy.