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ADVO Magazine presents its Independence edition —a vibrant tribute to the heart and soul of Barbados. We’re honoring the resilience, creativity, and unbreakable spirit that defines our beloved “Bim.””God bless bim” isn’t just a saying—it’s a testament to our pride, our culture, and our hope.

Article by David Harris

Dr Derek Thorpe a cricket enthusiast, medical practitioner, and inventor has created a series of pre-painted strips that he believes will prevent batsmen from scuffing the pitch when they are taking guard at the crease. 

 The first act a batsman takes when they come to the crease in a cricket match is to take guard. The literal meaning of taking guard is a batsman marking the crease with his boots where he is going to stand during his innings. 

A middle stump guard is the most common used, but batters also take their guard on the leg and off stumps to counter the line of bowlers. 

“All over the world the first thing a new batsman does is ask the umpire for assistance locating his guard position. When the position asked for is confirmed from the umpire 22 yards away, he lifts his bat and proceeds to make inaccurate gouges on the crease with is boots. My system is a series of pre-painted stripes on the popping crease already lined up the stumps at both ends- I am calling it the Kensington Guard Stripes. This innovation is already registered and copyrighted”, Thorpe told Advo Magazine. 

Thorpe said he designed the guard stripes because as a cricket enthusiast and a thinker, the distortion of the pitch with gouge marks always bothered him. 

“Groundmen will tell you that the gouge marks are frustrating to fix. Plus, if it is accuracy that the batsman is asking for the traditional system is far less accurate than mine. Plus, the batsman can change his guard anytime depending on the change of the bowler”,   Thorpe said. 

According to Thorpe, the stripes can assist the umpires in making lbw decisions in the absence of a television replay in cases where an umpire has to determine whether the ball has pitched outside the leg or off-stumps.   

Thorpe explained that his intention for creating the stripes is to enhance Barbados reputation as a cricketing nation, therefore; the stripes will be the colors of the flag of Barbados.    

  “The pitch will be painted in the colors of Barbados ’flag yellow, black and blue with little dots in between the blue, I am working on an instrument to make the perpendicularity of the stripes very concise it is all about branding Kensington Oval- and branding Barbados” Thrope explained.   

Thorpe said the ideal to create the stripes was formed during one of his early mornings    workouts on Miami Beach this past Easter before the Cricket World Cup.  His strategy for promoting his novel invention to garner maximum exposure through traditional and non-traditional media platforms.  

“I am willing to put myself out there in a posture to defend my innovation while espousing its benefits”, Thorpe said. 

Thorpe, a former student of Harrison College represented his school in basketball, rugby, table tennis and judo. He is a graduate in Nuclear Medicine from Cornell School of Medicine in the United States. 

 Nuclear Medicine is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. 

Thorpe has not restricted his skills to being a medical doctor, he is an inventor, an author, and a multiple award-winning short story writer. He has a designed a patent that changes the way how wrist watches are worn, this invention at the prototype stage of development and he is seeking investors for it. 

 He has published a novel about a murder mystery based in Barbados, and won multiple awards for his short stories in the Frank Collymore Literary Competition.