The New Edinburgh Cricket Club’s (“The Burghs”) 10th Annual Memorial Game is scheduled for Friday July 25, 2014 at the Rideau Hall grounds in Ottawa. A game is scheduled to begin at 3.30pm and is to be followed by a dinner, for which there is a cost of $15. Activities will include a ceremony dedicated to former Burghs player Jimmy Siew, who died earlier this year aged 86. The event is a fundraiser for the charity “Wells for Well-Being” (www.wellsforwellbeing.com). This charity seeks to provide clean drinking water in Africa.
Jimmy Siew came to Canada from Trinidad, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and played his cricket in various locations across the country including Vancouver, Southern Ontario, Ottawa and Montreal.
Jimmy Siew took 93 wickets from 357 overs at a cost of 834 runs for the Royal Canadian Airforce in the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council (OVCC) in 1965. He had a hattrick during the season but the 1996 Canadian Cricket Association Annual does not mention the opposition. He had one season in the OVCC where he captured over 100 wickets.
In the 1976 tour match between the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council and the visiting D.H. Robins XI at Rideau Hall he took the wickets of Ian Gould and Paul Downton. Jimmy Siew took two for 19 from ten overs in this game where Robins XI scored 173 all out from 52 overs. Ashok Patel (Middlesex) top-scored with 44 not out for the tourists, Mike Gatting scored 42 and became more well known in cricket than Ashok Patel. Cecil Marshall scored 40 for Ottawa Valley, whose innings ended on 89 all out when Vic Marks bowled Jimmy Siew for a duck.
Jimmy Siew participated in the British Columbia Cricket Club’s tour of England in 1972 under the captaincy of Cliff Cox. The team won two games, drew 8 and lost nine against a range of English club teams and some representative sides in the south-west, the south-east and the north-west. Jimmy Siew took 6 wickets for 32 against Southport and was the tourists top wicket-taker, ending with 32 wickets.
Jimmy Siew served as President of the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council, became President of the Ontario Cricket Association and in 1993 was elected President of the Canadian Cricket Association. He held the position at the helm of the CCA for three years. Jimmy Siew was a key player in bringing the Sahara Cup Series between India and Pakistan to the Toronto Cricket Club in 1996.
Hopefully Friday’s memorial event organized by New Edinburgh Cricket Club will be a success on and off the field. Contact information about the event, dinner tickets and making donations to “Wells for Well-Being” can be found on the Ottawa Valley Cricket Council’s website and on the New Edinburgh Cricket Club’s website.
Eddie Norfolk
[Historic information from various issues of the “Canadian Cricket Association Annual” in the 1960’s and issues of the “The Canadian Cricketer” from the 1970’s.]