“Andy Moore – The Ultimate Life Mentor”

Jan 06, 2026 Sports

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BY:  Colin E. H. Croft – Former Guyana, Lancashire CCC & West Indies Cricketer         

Kaieteur Sports – Happy New Year 2026!  I hope that you achieve whatever you expect for the new year.  Unfortunately for me, one of my very closest friends, ‘my brother from another mother’ – Andy Adolphus Mc Donald Moore – born on 13 September 1949, died last 27 December, just before 2025 ended.  So, with great sadness, I welcomed this New Year 2026!

A VERY SPECIAL PERSON

Much has already been written about Andy.  He was not any ‘ordinary’ Guyanese.  Indeed, Kaieteur News Newspaper, in its “SPECIAL PERSON” feature, which highlights Guyanese who had achieved much and had contributed whole-heartedly to the betterment of Guyana, had featured Andy Moore in its publications; 06 August 2017; written by Sharmain Grainger:

https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2017/08/06/master-of-tech-voc-andy-moore-is-a-special-person/  

What a loss Andy is to us who knew him.  Guyana has lost one of its most fervent, dedicated, resolute, patriots.  Not the “blow-hard” type, but a man who used his entire life for the betterment of all who encountered him, in Sports (Judo / Self Defense), Business, Communications, Education / Teaching, and especially in Industrial Arts and Engineering.

ENGINEERING AND INFLUENCES

Andy had a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Industrial Arts and Construction Engineering from the University of Alabama and a Black Belt in judo and self defence.  He built his own dredge in Guyana’s interior.  He was an expert at technical drawing and drafting, and making anything, from wooded earrings, bangles, coasters and Afro combs, and using “turning lathes”, to having his own judo Do-Jo Camp and industrial arts metal-work workshop.

He used his qualifications and experiences to pass them on to the next several generations by continuously teaching and employing scores of younger people, mentoring them well.  It was because of Andy that I did Mechanical Engineering Technical Diploma (METD) in Guyana and majored in Mechanical Engineering in university in USA.  Those educational experiences and practical skills afforded me so many opportunities and exploits.  Thank you Andy Moore.

He was the hardest task master that I have ever met.  100% was never good enough for him.  One had to know him to appreciate his intensity.  Tough as green-heart, purple-heart and wallaba woods combined, Andy never did anything in half measures.  In whatever he had set his mind to achieve; there were so numerous aspects of his life that would surprise many; he triumphed.  Andy Moore was a genius.

TWO COUNTRY BOYS

Born at Betsy Ground, Canje, Berbice, near where many regional cricket games used to be played, at Rose Hall cricket ground, on one of Guyana’s better sugar estates in 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Andy learned and excelled at everything that he encountered.

I first met Andy Moore in 1967/68, when I was aged 14/15, and in 2nd / 3rd form at Central High School in Georgetown, this “Country Boy Come to Town” from Unity-Lancaster, Mahaica District.  By then, Andy was already, at 20, completing his special industrial arts 3-year training stint at (now) Cyril Potter Guyana Teachers Training College, then housed in Kingston.

Andy was also the then beau of my sister, Gloria.  They had met at Teachers Training College, as she too had been completing her Teacher’s Training; 1966 to 1968; after attending CHS.

Since then, Andy has always been my ‘go-to guy’ for anything that I needed to know, while their off-spring, Karl, my nephew, is one of those “youths” that I still trust for my modernity.

From 1967/68, until I last saw Andy, in 2024 in Guyana, during ICC World T-20 World Cup 2024, he had taught me so much as to how to survive positively in life, from good or bad – determination, courage, focus, caution, suspicion, honesty, self-assessment, preparation – so many aspects of life.  It was Andy who first demonstrated to me how to use a condom!

FUNNY REALITY

Andy had been involved in many situations in my life that might have been extremely funny, had they not been so serious, even, in one event, life threatening.  You might even laugh:

(i)   One night in 1968, around 08:00pm, on one of Andy’s visits to my sister, at our grand-parents’ home in South Road, just east of Light Street, in Georgetown, ‘Old Gussy’ – Gustavus Croft – my tall, very thin grand-father, supposedly half Wapishana Indian, came to the top of the steps.  With open hostility, he asked Andy: “Hey boy.  Did you bring your pajamas?”

(ii)   In 1971, Andy had gone to Strand cinema, in Charlotte Street, to the mid-night show.  He came out of the cinema early, only to meet a man trying to break his bicycle’s lock.  Said Andy to the man: “Bhoy.  Ah see yuh getting one deh bhoy!”   They guy replied: “Yeah man, ah tiefin um!”  Andy then picked up a big handy piece of wood and nearly killed the thief with blows.

(iii)  By 1972, I had already played my first senior game for Guyana, after playing Under-19 cricket for Guyana and West indies in 1971 and 1972.  I really thought that I was fit and firing. Then, one Sunday, Andy challenged me to a “cross-country run’ around Georgetown.

Our running route started at the intersection of Sussex Street and Cemetery Road, then west along Sussex Street, to the intersection of Sussex Street and Russell Street (Camp Street Extension), then north along Russell Street / Camp Street to Georgetown sea-wall, then east along the sea-wall to Vlissingen Road, then south back to Vlissingen Road / Cemetery Road, near to his home at that time.  It was probably a distance of about 15 or so kilometers.

Andy easily ran that route, at a steady pace, without stopping.  I stopped many times and nearly died at the end.  So worn out I had become that I could not attend my then Teaching employment, at Comenius Moravian School in Anira Street, for two days – Monday and Tuesday.  My legs had simply shut down.  I was also acutely embarrassed.  That episode made me realize what preparation for professional sport was all about.

(iv)   When I had visited Guyana in 2018, for my sister’s 70th birthday, I stayed at the Georgetown Marriott in Kingston.  After a visit to Andy’s mechanical work-shop in Festival City, North Riumveldt, he promised to bring me a “useful” gift.  What I did not know was how he would bring that gift; a beautiful, hand-made standing wooden lamp.

Andy, then aged 69, rode his bicycle from Festival City to the Georgetown Marriott, Kingston, a distance of about 15 kilometers (one way), delivered the lamp to me, then promptly rode back home; ‘for exercise’.  He was a phenomenal athlete.  Nothing deterred him!

MY FRIEND – MY BROTHER

I could write many reams and essays about Andy Moore, but as mega actor Morgan Freeman, as Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, suggested in one of my favorite movies ‘Shawshank Redemption’, after his jail-house acquired best friend, actor Tim Robbins, as Andy Dufresne, had broken out of Shawshank Prison; “I just miss my friend!”  I will always miss Andy Moore.

I knew that he had not been very well these last few years.  Like me in 2020 and 2025, Andy had had bouts of Covid-19 and had even been hospitalized.  Yet I was shocked at his death.

From 1967/68 to however long I live, I will cherish my associations with, and love for, Andy Adolphus Mc Donald Moore.  Rest well my friend; my brother.  You deserve it, as you have done your very best for all.  Because of your positivity and guidance, I am what I am in life.  Thank you.  You have also made Guyana, and wider world, much better places too.  RIP.

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• Andy Moore, Colin Croft, Life Mentor, West Indies

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