One of Bermuda?s most versatile athletes is recovering at his Smith?s Parish home following open heart surgery in the US.

Braxton Stowe, a veteran multiple sportsman, underwent quadruple by-pass heart surgery earlier this month in Boston.

?I?ve always been fit and I don?t drink or smoke. I eat a proper diet and don?t even drink sodas. So my condition was hereditary,? explained 54-year-old Stowe, who first suspected something was wrong while playing recreational sports and doing chores around the house.

?Whenever I was playing cricket or mowing my grass I always had this shortness of breath,? he explained. ?I had a stress test which proved negative and also a echo stress test which also proved negative.

?So I decided to return to playing cricket but I soon began experiencing the same symptoms, which was not right. And even though all of my tests proved negative and it appeared as though nothing was wrong ? something was wrong. So I went to Boston to have an angiogram ? and they found four blockages.?

Having successfully come through the medical procedure, Stowe is now on the road to recovery.

?The doctor told me if I wasn?t as fit as I am and didn?t eat properly or have a clean lifestyle things could?ve been worse,? he added.

Stowe is currently a goalkeeping and youth coach at Somerset CC and in the past has represented Bermuda at the national level in football, cricket, softball and hockey.

He was a member of Bermuda?s national football team that won a bronze medal at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in 1978 and also assistant coach of Bermuda?s CAC Games gold medal winning national softball team, known as ?The Big Blue Machine?.

He has coached netball at the domestic and national levels and also men?s and women?s hockey, and is also a past football referee and cricket umpire.

Stowe, who still represents Forties in the Commercial Cricket League, formerly played for Flatts, Warwick, Police and Southampton Rangers as a wicketkeeper/opening batsman.

He was one of the first local cricketers to play in all three ? Eastern, Central and Western ? Counties Cup competitions.

?I feel good, although my wife (Laverne) has me tied down under house arrest because I have to get my strength back,? Stowe added.

?I can?t do anything really physical until after November because my chest plate still has to heal. I?m getting some rest but I still go and train my under-nine boys team on Fridays and Tuesdays and watch them play from my chair on Saturdays.?

Madge O?Ferral Smith, the mother of national cricket team skipper Clay Smith and Bermuda Cricket Board director Wendell Smith, passed away last week.

Recently axed Bermuda national team fast bowler George O?Brien jr broke a foot last week while training with Premier Division St.David?s at Lords.