Stewart marks the day

Yesterday belonged to the Gaffer. Alec Stewart, in his 100th Test match, glorified the occasion with a century of bristling brilliance that wrenched back the initiative seized by West Indies as Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose sought to rectify the damage done to their chances in the third Test by the ineptness of their batsmen.

It was 6.15, and gloomy, when Stewart poked the single on the offside that took him to his 14th Test century and his first against West Indies in this country.

As he completed the run he gave a joyous leap, punched the air, and then saluted all corners of the ground. The crowd responded by giving him the sort of lengthy standing ovation usually accorded leaders at party conferences, only this was given with genuine spontaneity.

In a bygone era, hats would have been thrown in the air and never retrieved. Of the 21 previous players who have reached 100 Tests, only three Colin Cowdrey, Javed Miandad and Gordon Greenidge - marked the occasion with a century. He joins an exclusive section of an already exclusive club.

This was a remarkable effort, as fine an innings as Stewart can ever have played and on the back of a rich international sequence of 101, 100 not out and 97 in the recent one-day series. It has helped place England, 39 runs ahead with seven first-innings wickets in hand, in a strong position in this vital Test.

In on a hat-trick, he was eight not out at tea. But by the close he had reached 105, adding 97 in a long session of 36 overs, during which time he and young Marcus Trescothick, playing his debut Test innings, added 149.

Thus far the pair have added 179 for the fourth wicket, the highest partnership for any wicket against West Indies on this ground with Trescothick fulfilling all the expectations placed upon him by making 65.

He is not the sort of lad to look too far ahead but already he will have his eyes on a debut century. The last person to achieve that for England incidentally was Graham Thorpe, who on his own return to the fold was out first ball.

Thorpe was made to look foolish with a wonderful slower ball that hit him on the boot as he turned his head to duck what he thought was a beamer.