SEYMOUR NURSE won only 29 caps for the West Indies in a nine-year Test career. However, he gained much respect and kudos from cricket fans in England, Australia and all over the West Indies. Nurse was a most elegant stroke-player and rapid-fire scorer of runs. Wisden -- cricket's authority and bible -- once described Seymour McDonald Nurse "as a stroke-maker fit to line up with credit besides the likes of George Headley, Frank Worrell and Everton Weekes". By 1969 when Nurse called time on his brief but brilliant career, he moved into coaching and had a hand in moulding some of the best Barbados/West Indies talents of the late 1970s and 1980s: Desmond Haynes, Carlisle Best, Thelston Payne and Joel Garner to name a few. As a tall, powerfully built right-handed top-order batsman, Seymour delighted spectators, fans and critics alike with his ultra-aggressive instinct and ability to score runs at a voracious rate. It is said, had Nurse curbed or tempered this overt aggressiveness, he might have even achieved much more than he did during his nine years for West Indies. In an interview some years ago with Cana news agency, he said: "I left Test cricket because I wasn't enjoying it. "I was making runs but the game wasn't really on my mind so I had to make a decision." Nurse, now 73, grew up in the suburban district of Black Rock in Barbados. He scored exceptionally well for the Empire cricket club in Division One cricket. Nurse was also a fine footballer in club football and played as a striker -- once netting seven goals in one game for Empire club. However, he made cricket his priority sport. His regional debut came against Jamaica in 1958. Two years later the stylish cricketer greeted Peter May's England team with a sumptuous 213 for Barbados at Kensington Oval -- sharing a 306-run fourth wicket partnership with the immortal G.S. Sobers. With the West Indies he toured: Australia (1960/61), England (1963 and 1966), Australia and New Zealand (1968/69). And at home played against England (1959/60) and (1968), India (1962) and Australia (1965). In a first-class cricket career: 1958 - 1972, Nurse hammered 9,489 runs (ave. 43.93) hitting 26 hundreds. In his 29-match Test career he churned out 2,523 runs (ave. 47.60) including six hundreds: * 201 v Australia Bridgetown 1965 * 137 v England Leeds 1966 * 136 v England Q.P. Oval 1968 * 137 v Australia Sydney 1968/69 * 168 v New Zealand Auckland 1968/69 * 258 v New Zealand Christchurch 1968/69 Seymour Nurse's final Test innings was a fine exhibition of masterful stroke-play in a chanceless 258. He is the only West Indies batsman to hit a double century as his maiden and final century innings -- 201 + 258. Quite apart from his style and stroke-play -- Nurse possessed excellent footwork, a fine pair of eyes and perfect timing, allied with very powerful wrists. Nurse also had plenty of time to play his wonderful shots -- his catching ability was brilliant and in 29 Tests, he took some great catches. Seymour was reminiscent of the rapacious Everton Weekes in his desperate haste to score runs. With very powerful wrists, he possessed the appetite of Weekes, the grace of Frank Worrell and far more style than Gary Sobers. At first glance, he seemed to have the qualities that could have made him the best post-World War 2 batsman in the West Indies, but, alas, this was never to be -- sad to say!