After his debut, Blades did not feature for Barbados again until the 1968–69 Shell Shield season, when he played in all four of his team's matches.
[5] He eventually joined up with the Barbadian squad that was on its own tour of England, playing two first-class matches (against Nottinghamshire and the Cavaliers) and a one-day fixture (against Essex).
[7] He was one of six members of the squad with first-class experience, the others being Joseph Bailey, Noel Gibbons, Clarence Parfitt, Lionel Thomas, and Winston Trott.
[7] He finished the tournament as the overall leading run-scorer, making 310 runs from eight matches (including innings of 69 not out against Papua New Guinea and 82 not out against West Africa).
[11] Bermuda made the tournament's final for the first and only time, but lost to Zimbabwe, narrowly missing out on qualifying for the 1983 World Cup.