...former Ballymena Cricket Club captain, Ballymena wicket-keeper, NCU PRO, ICU PRO, honorary NCU life member, past president of the Irish Football Association, IFA honorary life president, member of various UEFA and FIFA committees past and present, former chairman of Cliftonville Football Club, and a smashing guy.
Or perhaps the cliché should be “you never miss the water ‘till the well runs dry?”
Jimmy is back in the media spotlight after three years of ‘exile’ following his unsavoury rejection by the IFA Council delegates who couldn’t see the bigger picture. They can certainly see it now, because three years down the line the IFA is a shambles, and the clamour for Jimmy’s return is just as loud as the clamour for his successor Raymond Kennedy to go. Jimmy took his demise with all the dignity and respect that have been the hallmarks of his character in both cricket and football for over 40 years. He was obviously gutted to lose the job that had made him a household name throughout British football, and a respected acquaintance with football administrators all over the world. But it says much for his character that he has never lost his passion for the sport, and that he appears willing to step back into the frame and play his part in rescuing the damaged face of local football.
Jimmy Boyce has always been a media dream. Articulate and talkative, he was loved by the media, and little wonder the doyen of sports writers, former Belfast Telegraph Sports Editor Malcolm Brodie and BBC television sports presenter Jackie Fullerton have always held him in such high esteem. He was affectionately dubbed “Boyce the Voice” more as a compliment to a sports administrator, who was always at home in front of a camera or providing the much-needed communication for willing sports reporters. He had vision and he had class, he was years before his time, and when he moved to the top of the football hierarchy, it was cricket’s loss.
Cricket stories about Jimmy are just as legendary as his high profile negotiations with prospective Northern Ireland football managers, top players, government ministers, or leading international football administrators. His campaign to get Ballymena opening bowler Dessie Kane picked for Ireland in the eighties was epic, even although Dessie was good enough to be picked on his own merit. Jimmy’s media campaign made it virtually impossible for the Ireland selectors not to pick him!
And who could forget him keeping Indian wicket-keeper Kieran More fielding fine leg all season as he kept wicket? Jimmy was his own man at Ballymena, and revered by all who played under him. He was a very special type of captain on the field, and with Dessie and Adrian Goodrich in full flow off it; he often adopted the role of “Mother Hen” to his often errant protégées.
He was a prolific fund-raiser for Ireland matches, and a generous sponsor of the Ballymena Sixes for many years through his company Sun Life. He could certainly talk at ICU executive meetings, and on several occasions a hidden count was conducted to see if he could speak more times than his Dublin counterpart Des Cashel. Jimmy notched up the half-century before lunch more than once in this great match between the biggest talkers in Irish cricket. It was fun stuff, and when he was later told, he always broke into a big smile. Jimmy has always had a great sense of humour, and if he has been over-passionate in his approach to promoting and developing sport, it says much for the measure of the man that he has shown such commitment.
The IFA delegates had short memories when they failed to return their president three years ago; because Jimmy had lifted the profile of local football to a level it had never reached before. Maybe some people couldn’t live with his high profile, but his work in driving sectarianism out of Northern Ireland matches at Windsor Park was tremendous, and his ability to put our small country at the forefront of international sport says much for his talent and the res
pect in which he was held home and abroad.
It remains to be seen if another chapter is about to unfold in the life of this affable and likeable character, as Jimmy Boyce remains a man apart in local sport.
Clarence Hiles
Editor
