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.
By this time, most of the players that were to become team regulars for the remainder of its history had debuted - in addition to the Shillingford cousins, there was Vance Amory, Jim Allen, Mike Findlay, Norbert Philip, Viv Richards (who went on to play 121 Tests for the West Indies), Andy Roberts, Lockhart Sebastien and the aforementioned Willett, who all played for the Combined Islands until 1978, and four of them until the end in 1981.
That season also included their only List A game, a five-run win over the touring England side representing MCC.
Trinidad's bowlers came back, and after two run outs and three wickets from Imtiaz Ali and Raphick Jumadeen the Combined Islands were 276 for 9.
Captain Findlay and number 11 Hugh Gore added six for the final wicket before time ran out - thus, the scores were tied at the end of the match, the match was drawn since the Islands had not lost the final wicket (in which case it would have been a tie) and the Shell Shield title went to Guyana instead of the islands.
The next season saw them fall back to fourth place, however, with none of the four matches seeing more than 325 overs of play in four days as the Combined Islands drew all four games – with two ending before the first innings were completed.
1976–77 saw improvement in the table again, as they once again fought for the title – they were tied with Barbados on points before the very last game, but after conceding four 50+ scores –including 113 from David Murray - and a total of 511, the team surrendered a first-innings deficit of 276 despite 124 from Richards, and though Allen made 101 in the second innings and Philip took three for 15 to boost his seasonal wicket-tally to 20, Barbados made it to the target of 53 with six wickets to spare.
Despite a 109-run lead after four half-centuries and six for 90 from Parry, Combined Islands were bowled out for 181 in the second innings, and David Murray put on 27 with Inshan Ali to give Trinidad and Tobago the win and the second place in the table.
Finally, after four runner-up spots in the preceding six seasons, it was the Combined Islands' turn to win the Shell Shield trophy in 1980-81.