Former journalist, founder of The Cricket Annual, and Bermuda's foremost cricket historian, Tommy Aitchison was a friend and fan of Alma (Champ) Hunt for some 70 years. Following Hunt's recent death at the age of 88, he now looks back on the Cup Match star's colourful and hugely successful career.

For 74 of my nearly 84 years, the name of Alma (Champ) Hunt has held a permanent place in my life, and will remain there as long as I have a memory.

I was 10 years-old when I first got interested in the Cup Match, and already Alma Hunt was being tipped as a future Cup Match star.

My childhood allegiance lay with St. George's. I don't know why. Maybe it had something to do with the legend of St. George and the dragon. Maybe I thought that would get me on the winning side, too.

Years later when, sheepishly, I mentioned my "defection'' to Champ, he didn't mind. I think his rebuttal with a wry smile was that everyone is entitled to a mistake! In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Somerset Cricket Club just about regarded the Cup as personal property. Somerset was to Bermuda cricket what the New York Yankees of that era in baseball were to the American League.

Coincidentally, Somerset and New York each produced a superstar whose brilliance will never fade as long as cricket is played in Bermuda and baseball is played in New York. They are Champ Hunt and Babe Ruth.

The best cricketers in Bermuda are usually allrounders and in those days Somerset included eleven of them. Each could bat and bowl including the wicketkeeper the year Arthur Simons kept wicket as a colt. However, Arthur never kept wicket again, going on to become one of the greatest Bermudian bowlers of all time.

By the time Alma Hunt played his first Cup Match in 1927 he was an accomplished batsman. For those of us interested in records (and, as a child, I was) the crystal ball predicted many records for the talented 16 year-old.

This side of his cricket has been extensively covered elsewhere in articles and tributes. I shall only comment on Champ's records to the extent that I agree with former Somerset captain Anthony (Sonny) Roberts. Sonny points out that, had it not been for Alma's absence from Cup Match for so many years while playing professionally in Scotland, he would have set many more records.

Even now some of them would virtually be beyond the reach of any player in the foreseeable future.

Having written that, however, it is only fair to say it in no way detracts from the top current record-holders. Records naturally are based on actual performances and cannot be downgraded by consideration of what might have been.

A prime example of this sort of thing was what happened to Roger Maris of the New York Yankees the year he broke Babe Ruth's home-run record for a single season by hitting 61. Regrettably, he was vilified by some for daring to displace the mighty Ruth. Because Maris had a chance to play in eight more games than the 154 played by Ruth, an asterisk denoting that fact ever after appeared against the name of Roger Maris -- a manifestly unfair decision.

Just as Champ remains Somerset's greatest allround player, so Babe Ruth will remain the Yankees' best. Ruth, too, was an "allrounder'' because he could pitch as mightily as he could bat.

About Champ's bowling. Because he was a superb batsman, I feel his bowling never quite received the full credit he deserved. Recently, I read an opinion where someone said Alma was a "useful medium pace''.

He was obviously much much more than that.

One night in bright moonlight after he and I had attended a meeting at Somerset Cricket Club, we walked out to the pitch where he proceeded to give me a born coach's lesson in the art of fast bowling. What impressed me enormously was the thought and study he had given to a large variety of different deliveries and possible strategy. Clearly, to him, a successful fast bowler had to use his brains as well as concentrating on velocity.

I shall always regard it as a privilege to have seen his early Cup Matches. A small boy's love of Cup match could never have visualised that I would report Champ's final Cup Match for the newspaper in 1948. As an aside, following that game, there was a movement to try to encourage Champ to retire as some felt his inclusion in the Somerset team gave them an unfair advantage! Bermuda's cricket superstar From Page 23 In those days, for those living near Hamilton who could not go to Cup Match, the chief source of news about the progress of the match was provided by the Phoenix Drug Store. They placed a big blackboard on their balcony and updated the score by telephone. Hundreds gathered to share the suspense and excitement.

By the time I was sent to Scotland to school as a teenager, I was becoming less biased and able to applaud good performances by either side. Before then, however, a glance at the Phoenix blackboard showing that Champ was still batting gave me much to worry about! 1933 was the year Champ went to Trinidad to take part in the trials for places on the West Indies team scheduled to tour England that summer. Dr. E.F.Gordon, a native of Trinidad but also a Bermuda citizen for most of his life, had observed and appreciated Champ's immense potential, and thought him as good as many in the running for team places.

Dr. Gordon himself undertook to make all the arrangements. Stepping ashore after the two-week sea journey, Champ far more than justified his mentor's faith, and was the outstanding allrounder of both trials.

Alma's selection to the team seemed a foregone conclusion until, sadly, petty regional politics found a loophole in the "fine print'', and he was rejected by the West Indies Board.

Just how valuable Champ would have been to the West Indies in England, where success was decidedly limited, was brought home to me emphatically in my oft told story about meeting Leary Constantine who, along with George Headley, was a world class star on that 1933 team.

At a gathering in London in 1942 of mostly Caribbean military service men and women, Bermudians on leave in London also were invited. I was lucky enough to be one of them.

Realising my interest in cricket, someone pointed Leary out to me across the room. I hardly had time to introduce myself when Leary spotted my Bermuda "flash''. Immediately and enthusiastically, he said: "Alma Hunt. We should have had him in the 1933 team. He would have been a great asset.'' Champ was too big a man to waste time dwelling on such a major disappointment.

He remained more than ready when his next opportunity should come along, and he didn't have long to wait.

Aberdeenshire Cricket Club in Scotland needed a professional for the 1934 season. An Aberdeen member, a doctor whom Dr. Gordon knew from their days at Edinburgh University, advised the club to secure Champ's services immediately on the basis of his stellar accomplishments in Trinidad.

The situation was remarkable. When Champ arrived in Aberdeen in his pioneer role, he and the club were virtually unknown quantities to each other. As we were all soon to know, their mutual confidence was richly justified.

An occasion I remember with pride and affection happened several summers ago when the late Rev. James Aitchison (no relation, I regret to say) and his wife, Catherine, visited Bermuda as guests of my wife and myself. Their visit included Cup Match, an occasion that thrilled Jim.

Jim was and still is Scotland's greatest international cricketer (his career included a century against the bowling of Lindwall and Miller of Australia).

Some years earlier, Champ, too, had played for Scotland against the Australians with distinction, securing top order wickets.

What a wonderful experience the meeting between Alma and Jim was for me. They had played a few matches with and against each other. Champ's career in Scotland was coming to its end just as Jim Aitchison's was getting into its stride.

No Scottish sportsman of any game loved Scotland more than Alma Hunt. From the first ball he received at Aberdeen (as likely to have been a boundary four as a block), it was a love affair between Champ and his adopted country (yes, `adopted' is the right word). How very appropriate that Piper Bill Ferguson should be invited to play his bagpipes at the graveside as Champ completed his final journey to Somerset.

Our generation, his and mine, grew up in stern times, the difficult years of the Great Depression. The present generation, luckily for them, must find it hard to contemplate those incredibly tough years. Most of us had to leave school at 14 (the legal age) for economic reasons.

Raised in a strictly segregated background, and going to a club which never before had had a foreign professional of whatever colour, and making the grade, was a Herculean achievement. In contrast to much of the mollycoddling of young Bermudian sportsmen today, who frequently receive financial help from Government and/or sponsors, Champ had to make it all happen by himself or it wouldn't have happened at all.

Armed with thorough cricket training and knowledge, in addition to a magnetic charismatic personality and supreme optimism and faith in his own ability, I can't imagine a thought of failure ever entered his head.

Alma Hunt never tolerated sloppy or faint-hearted players, especially batsmen who tended to throw their wickets away like Santa Claus handing out presents at a Christmas party.

I recall sitting beside him watching a match in which batsmen were doing just that. When four or five of them were out for a handful of runs, he exclaimed with frustration: "Doesn't anybody intend to bat?'' One or two of those still to bat got the message and did better! At one time, Alma and I were sports journalists with the daily Mid-Ocean News.

I covered cricket and wrote a weekly column. Champ's column dealt with all sports. He wrote with an easy, eloquent, immensely readable style. And he wasn't afraid to "have a go'' against anything of which he disapproved.

Appropriately, he called his column "Slugging It Out''.

Alma Hunt's story is a scintillating saga of achievement and success. In addition to his prowess as a professional cricketer and journalist, he embarked on a brand new career in sports medicine and physical education. He studied both subjects with distinction at Columbia University and taught them in our schools for many years.

Elmira, his lovely wife of more than 50 years, was his "power behind the throne''. She and their strong religious faith were his sheet anchor. They adored each other and it was always a joy and inspiration to see them together.

Seventy-four years is a long time to have known someone or to have known about someone. Yet, how quickly those many years now seem to have passed.

As a batsman, Alma Victor Hunt, OBE, never seemed like getting out. His ability, example, warmth and friendship live on. Whenever I glance towards the middle of a cricket field in my mind's eye I shall always see him there. In his final scoresheet, the only appropriate entry opposite his name will always be "Not Out''.

Photo courtesy of Tommy Aitchison Alma Hunt (third from left, front row) was the last surviving member of Bermuda's first fully integrated international cricket team which played against Sir Julian Cahn's touring side from England at Prospect in 1933.

Warren Simmons, sitting at Champ's right, was captain.

Happy days: Elmira and Alma Hunt pictured on their honeymoon in April, 1947.

OBITUARY OBT