by Louis Linton at Kensington Oval
Pickwick 229 and 95. Spartan 190 and 135/4
An unbroken 89-run fifth-wicket partnership enabled Premier Zone champions Big B Spartan to pull off a six wicket victory over E.S.A. Field Pickwick.
Set a victory target of 134 in a minimum of 47 overs, the Parkites found themselves struggling on 46 for 4 but Peter Payne and captain Jeffrey Mascoll came together and with some sensible batting saw Spartan home.
The heavy set Payne struck the ball all over the Oval in a hard hitting knock of 61 to follow his first innings 69. Mascoll, captaining Spartan for the first time, compiled 35 good looking runs.
Earlier, E.S.A Fields Pickwick last six batsmen added just 23 runs to be bowled out for 95. Veteran off spinner Tony Howard picked up four for 22 to finish with match figures of nine for 95.
Maynard In Vain Effort For St. Catherine
By Philip Hackett at the Brewery
Banks 193 and 132. St. Catherine 196/7 dec. and 118 /6.
AN impaired pitch and a five wicket haul from pacer Dayne Maynard (five for 65) set up a gripping afternoon session, but failed to secure full points for BNB St. Catherine against Banks.
Maynard made the Banks batsmen struggle on a difficult batting pitch after they had resumed on 46 without loss, 43 ahead of St. Catherine.
Banks lost wickets steadily and quickly slumped to 67 for four. Enterprising and innovative batting by Louis Spooner (21) and wicket-keeper/batsman Mark Estwick (22 not out) lifted them to 132.
Roger Blades took three for 21 and Julian Beckles two for 35.
Set 130 for victory with a minimum 20 overs to be bowled before the final 15 in the last hour, St. Catherine lost both openers by the time the score reached 32.
Darwin Brathwaite was leg-before-wicket to Winston Reid (three for 44) while Gregory Jones was caught by Richard Carter at mid wicket off medium pacer Sean Armstrong (two for 29).
St. Catherine found scoring difficult against Reid and Armstrong even though the pitch had eased considerably. Banks dropped several catches, letting off topscorer Sean Sargeant (45) at least twice.
At 68 for five St. Catherine seemed completely out of contention, but a 48 run sixth wicket partnership between Sargeant and reliable veteran Thelston Payne (28 not out) brought them closer than had seemed likely.
Schools South Fall To Lawmen's Force
by Ryan Holford at College ``A''
CHIC Schools South 186 & 99. Police 205 & 81/3
CHIC Schools South could not escape the long arm of the law and duly fell to the lawmen by seven wickets just 15 minutes before the close of the final day's play.
Resuming for an overnight position of 36 for one, the schoolboys would have entertained thoughts of batting all day. Their reality, however, was far different as they were undone by the pace of Emmerson Sealy and a rain-affected wicket.
The first casualty of the innings was opening batsman Quame Miller who was bowled by Sealy off the day's second ball. The following over his Foundation schoolmate Kirk Wilkinson fell by a similar route, but on this occasion to veteran Sylvester Louis. And with Franklyn Stephenson being outfoxed by Louis for 3 and Vonrick Nurse failing to get off the mark the South side were disastrously positioned at 49 for four.
The students showed some fight and although wickets fell steadily throughout the day, under the circumstances their final score of 99 could be described as well-earned.
Dion Lovell played intelligently for 38 before being run out and Ryan Nurse's attractive 26 not out were the bright spots in an otherwise dull performance. Needing only 81 for victory the anxious policemen had a rocky start, losing openers Feliston Gilkes and Stephen Herbert for ducks to the bowling of Stephenson.
Stanton Proverbs and Derwin Thompson came together in a third-wicket stand of 44 that steadied the cops and virtually took them home. Thompson was undefeated on 35 . Sealy's Man-Of-The-Match performance was clearly the deciding factor. He took five for 22 in the second innings giving him match figures of ten for 66.
Empire Wrap Up Maple's Tail
By Chris Gollop at Trents
Maple 102 and 94; Empire 213/3 declared
JUDGING BY last week's batting collapse, Maple's Romain Benn should have known better than not to turn up on time for the start of yesterday's third and final day's play at Trents – even if he was just half-hour late.
For that was all the time that Empire needed to wrap up the Maple tail, and ensure the Bank Hall men full points in their opening game of the season.
Benn never made it to the crease as former Barbados fast bowler Victor Walcott quickly added another two wickets to the three he took last week to finish the innings with impressive figures of five for 30 off 9.5 overs.
Yesterday, he only needed 1.5 overs to have Gregory Simmons caught at forward short leg for a duck, and to knock back Matthew Moore's off stump.
The match had effectively been won on the second day when the Bank Hall men gained a handy 111 run first innings lead, and then put Trents on the run at 77 for seven in a dramatic second innings collapse on a good batting wicket.
After the match the visibly disappointed Maple captain Andrew Payne was quick to admonish his batsmen in a behind-door team meeting.
``I told them we could not afford to be bowled out for 102 on the first day on a good batting pitch like this one against a side like Empire.''
He accepted that the side fielded for this opening game was a relatively inexperienced one that missed much of the experience that carried the St. James-based team to its only Division 1 title in 1992.
But even the old guard of Derrick Skeete and Pedro Agard failed to produce, scoring less than 25 between them in two innings.
``We will have to look at the middle order. The younger players have ability, but I think some of them went out there too over-confident, and did not stick to the game plan. I expect things to get better as the season goes on, but right now we have to go back to the basics,'' Payne said.
Lavine Sparks For Spartan
by Philip Spooner at Queen's Park
Spartan 317/8 dec. YMPC 152 and 162
Big B SPARTAN kept their nerve when it mattered most and inflicted an-innings-and-three-run defeat on Sports & Games YMPC. Led by the allround talents of Mark Lavine, Spartan captured 14 YMPC wickets to snatch an unexpected victory with 7.4 overs left.
It was not easy – actually as YMPC fought hard and Spartan made a few puzzling tactical decisions.
Captain Ronnie Griffith, in his first game at the helm summed it up this way: ``It was rough, rough, man,'' he said with a relieved look. ``But we stuck together and that's what mattered.''
He praised the efforts of pacer Lavine who captured seven wickets for 35 runs as well as taking two fine catches at crucial stages yesterday.
Overall Lavine took 10 for 87 in the match, including six for 61 in the first innings and four for 26 in the second. The drama unfolded after tea with YMPC, after falling 165 short on first innings, wobbling in the second innings at 25 for five.
Hopes gone
By then the main batting hopes were gone with Sherwin Campbell, Leon Layne and Adrian Jones falling to Lavine and Roger Coward and William Lashley perishing at the hands of veteran seamer Dexter Toppin.
However YMPC showed some backbone, with Terry Rollock (33) and Anthony Hurley (36) adding 51 for the sixth wicket in 36 minutes.
However both departed in quick succession to catches by Lavine – Rollock brilliantly taken at point as he tried to cut and Hurley's slog pocketed at mid-wicket. At 91 for seven Spartan seemingly had it covered.
Kenrick Marshall then jumped in and caused a change in plans. He launched a brutal attack on spinners, Dave Marshall and Aaron Barker, striking seven fours and three straight sixes in a whirlwind 63.
Dave, the national leg-spinner, lost hit wits and was clouted for 46 in six overs, while off-spinner Barker kept probing but he could not keep thing quiet.
Kenrick's blows took the visitors to within three runs of making Spartan bat again, but in trying to thump another boundary he fell victim to Barker.
Rodney Broomes then succumbed to Lavine at 5:12 p.m. and all Spartan rejoiced.
Carlton Cash In On North Boys
by Petra Ann Peters at St. James Secondary
Schools North 265 and 86, Carlton 252 and 101/3.
United Carlton crushed CHIC Combined Schools North by seven wickets to start their season on a winning note.
Set 100 runs in 18 overs, Carlton got home with three balls to spare.
The Black Rock team lost hard-hitting Jason Clarke with only 11 runs on the board but they found the right tonic from the bat of veteran Wilbur Bruce. His unbeaten 55 contained two sixes and four fours.
Earlier Schools North needed just 16 balls to take Carlton's last two wickets and gain a first innings lead of 13. Lanky left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn took them both to claim career-best figures to seven for 86.
The schools' second innings showed nothing of the discipline displayed in their first as they succumbed to poor shot selection and immense pressure from Carlton.
The only batsmen to show any form of fight were opener Jason Parris, who survived the swing bowling of experienced seamer Hendy Broomes to score 28, and Rohan Nurse who scored an unbeaten 24. Broomes bagged four for 17, captain Shirley Clarke had two for 13 and Allan Rogers nabbed two for 28 with his left-arm spin.
Hutson Shuts Out Pickwick
by Bernard Babb at Wildey
BET 283-4 dec. and 112-4 dec., ESA Field Pickwick 235 and 101-5.
A four-wicket haul from veteran seamer Lonnelle Hutson secured first innings points for BET over Pickwick as their match ended in a predictable draw.
Bowling accurately on a somewhat rain-affected pitch, Hutson swiftly reduced Pickwick from their relatively strong overweek position of 204 for four as they added just another 31 runs.
After left-armer Ian Bradshaw dashed Rondell Yearwood's hopes of a century, having him caught by Floyd Reifer at first slip for a responsible 85, medium pacer Hutson wrapped up the Pickwick innings as he grabbed his four wickets for 12 runs off six overs.
Ian Watts, Wayne Yarde and Adrian Jones did not trouble the scorers and it was all over for Pickwick in less than an hour.
BET, with 48 runs lead on first innings, then quickly knocked up 112 for four declared in their second innings, setting Pickwick a target of 161 for victory.
Reifer, who missed his team's first innings on the opening day as he was attending a West Indies camp in Antigua, gave the BET innings momentum yesterday with an aggressive 45, which included four sixes.
He shared a productive second-wicket stand of 52 with opener Ron Bates (25) which laid the foundation for BET to post 100 runs off just ten overs.
Pickwick were not expected to challenge the total and predictably held out for a draw, although they lost five wickets by the close.
Captain Adrian Griffith top scored with 35, which included five boundaries, while Graham Bethell, who was last out for 54 in Pickwick's first innings, contributed 26 when they batted a second time.
Collins Cuts Down BCL
by Ancille Inniss at Blenheim A
Wanderers 121 and 118, BCL 124 and 92
fast bowler Pedro Collins bagged five for 25 as Cockspur Wanderers defeated BCL by 24 runs.
Set 116 in almost an entire day, BCL were undone by the left-arm swing of Collins and did not help their cause by some injudicious batting on a slow pitch. The match was over at tea.
The West Indies ``A'' fast bowler send down 18 overs pausing only once for a two-over rest.
He set the tone for Wanderers' victory when he bowled opener Sherwyn Codrington in only his sixth delivery without a run on the board.
Richard Foster, batting at No.3, received one ball when he was leg-before. The hat-trick was averted by Dave Clarke but he did not survive for long as a wild swing ended with a catch off fast bowler Irwin Armstrong.a
Collins kept up the pressure on the hapless BCL and was rewarded further with the wickets of Testa Baker – trapped leg-before, Carl Chapman caught by wicket-keeper Corey Glasgow and Winston Herbert caught at second slip.
Some resistance came through Kamal Turney who showed much promise as a top order batsman and Stephen Brathwaite. Turney topscored with a valuable 31, while Brathwaite contributed a useful 20.
BCL finally surrendered in the first of the mandatory 15 overs.