The Combined Islands cricket team was a cricket team that represented the cricket-playing islands of the Lesser Antilles, excluding Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago who fielded their own teams. They played in 13 Shell Shield tournaments from 1965–66 to 1980–81, when they won their first title and were subsequently disbanded into Leeward Islands and Windward Islands. Those two teams had first-class status before 1980–81, but competed together in the Shell Shield. History The Combined Islands played 54 first-class games, winning 11, drawing 19 and losing 24. 52 of those games were in the Shell Shield tournament, with the other two games both coming in the 1961–62 season – a Pentangular Tournament preliminary round loss to British Guiana, was followed by a home defeat to the touring Indian side that same season. From then on, the team only existed as an entity for the Shell Shield, with the British Leeward Islands and British Windward Islands fielding independent teams against touring squads, and also playing first-class matches between each other. Inaugural Shell Shield In 1965–66, the team was among the five that played for the inaugural Shell Shield. After two draws against Jamaica and Barbados, the team went down to British Guiana, before winning the last game against Trinidad and Tobago to finish third in the table and record their first victory. It took a further four seasons before the Combined Islands returned to the Shell Shield – the Leeward and Windward teams played games, but the matches they played did not count for points. The Combined team was back for the 1969–70 tournament, though, and duly lost all four games, with no player averaging more than 26 with the bat. This was the first season that the Shillingford cousins – Irvine and Grayson, who both represented West Indies at Test level – played for the Combined Islands and the two went on to play most Shell Shield matches for the Combined Islands together until 1976–77, Irving scoring more than 2,500 runs while Grayson took nearly 100 wickets for the team. Building a team In 1970–71, the Combined Islands registered their first win in five years, but still finished last behind Guyana – despite beating Guyana by 50 runs, the team lost their other three matches, and Guyana finished two points ahead. The 1971–72 season went by without a single win, although they gained a lead on first innings, but in 1972–73,