Jamaica's cricketing relationship with Costa Rica as chronicled by historians

The Gleaner covered the highlights of Costa Rican cricket in the 1930s. The newspaper’s cricket correspondent ‘Longfield’ was fascinated by the story of how Jamaicans had taken cricket to Costa Rica. Since then, cricket has continued in Costa Rica, perhaps most memorably the epic match against Panama in 1986 attended by President Oscar Arias, the hosting of the 3rd Central American Cricket Championships in 2009, and the long-awaited victory over Mexico in 2017.

The spiritual capital of Costa Rican cricket is Limón where Jamaicans building the Atlantic Coast railway started playing the sport from the mid-1870s. The heyday was during the 1920s and 1930s when there were as many as 46 teams competing in three leagues on the Atlantic coast. In the 1930s, there were cricket tours to Jamaica and reciprocal visits to Costa Rica, which included one of the all-time greats of the game, George Headley.

One source of frustration for historians, however, has been the absence of photographic records of cricket being played in Costa Rica before the Second World War. There is a team photo of one of the tours to Jamaica and an image by the German photographer Hans Wimmer which probably shows baseball being played rather than cricket.

Into this void has stepped Ann Purling, who lives in England. Purling has been researching some unmarked photo albums left by her late grandfather, Ernest Rew. Rew had been born in Bristol in 1900 and, at the age of 18, secured a job as a steward with the Elders and Fyffes Line, which was bought by United Fruit Company in 1913. From 1926 to 1934 he served aboard the SS Ariguani which plied regularly between Avonmouth (the port of Bristol) and the Caribbean, transporting bananas to meet the demand of the British population.

We tend to think of banana boats in the same way as banana republics; somewhat underpowered and at the mercy of external forces. But in the case of the Ariguani, nothing could be further from the truth. She was a fine coal-powered vessel and could manage over 20 knots; essential when transporting perishable fruit over long distances even in refrigerated holds. She was also comfortable, with an excellent array of cabins and a glazed promenade deck for passengers.

She would make numerous voyages to the Caribbean each year. Each trip would take between 34 and 36 days with stops at Bridgetown (Barbados), Port of Spain (Trinidad), Port Limón (Costa Rica), Cristobal (Panama), Kingston (Jamaica) and then back to Bristol. Occasionally, she would stop at La Guaira (Venezuela). There was an all-British crew of 106 and between 60 and 94 passengers, all in first class. On the list one sees familiar names from the Anglo-Costa Rican community, such as the Lankesters, the Murrays and the Lindos.

While the bananas were being loaded at Port Limón (now better known as Puerto Limón) there was the chance for many of the crew to spend a day ashore; and what better than a game of cricket.

Ernest left the Ariguani in 1934 and the following year its popular captain, J.H. Scudamore, died on-board and was buried at sea. He had been honoured during the First World War for his heroics against submarines and as late as 1934 had rescued 450 passengers from a Dutch liner. Also in 1935 a banana disease hit the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. Production dropped by 75 per cent and new plantations were established on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. The Ariguani stopped calling at Limón.

The Second World War changed much of this story. Banana imports were prohibited in Britain as part of the war austerity. Cricket in Limón never quite recovered its pre-war popularity although it continues to this day. The Elders and Fyffes line lost 15 of its ships to enemy action. The Ariguani was called up for war service and badly damaged by a German torpedo in 1941. After the war she returned to merchant service but was scrapped in 1956, possibly the last coal-burning ship carrying passengers across the Atlantic. As for Ernest Rew, he drove banana trucks in Bristol until he retired in the mid-1960s.

(Tim Willasey-Wilsey is a visiting professor at King’s College, London, and a former British diplomat who served in Costa Rica. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not represent those of any institution. Tim would like to acknowledge the assistance of Ann Purling and Richard Illingworth.)