Bahamas' expatriate Jamaicans snared the Caricom Festival staged in the last two weekends of October.

Bahamas Cricket Association Joint Publicity Officer, Tony Wharton, reports:

"The final of the Caricom Cricket Championship played at the Haynes Oval at Arawak Cay on Sunday 29th October between a Jamaica XI and a Bahamas XI was won convincingly by the Jamaica team.

"The Bahamian Jamaicans won the toss and elected to bat first and they amassed a total of 237 runs for 7 wickets in the allotted 40 overs. The run scorers were Howard Roye with 58 runs, Cecil Burrell with 40 runs, Dwight Wheatley with 33 runs and Donovan Morrison retired hurt with 43 runs.

"Best bowlers for the Bahamas were Gary Armstrong with 2-30 off 5 overs, Cliff Atkinson with 2-53 runs in 8 overs and Edmund Lewis with 2-34 runs in 8 overs.

"In reply, the Bahamas XI batted and made only 124 runs all out. Top scorers were Gary Armstrong with 56 runs, Llewelyn Armstrong with 19 runs and the veteran Irving Taylor with 18 runs. Cliff Atkinson was unable to repeat his heroics of the week before and was caught for a duck.

"The pick of the Jamaican attack was Gasher Blair with 3-21 runs in 8 overs, Mike Graham who took 2-10 runs in 2 overs, Venris Bennett (1-11 runs in 6 overs) and Dwight Wheatley (2-8 in 2 overs).

"The Bahamian Jamaicans have therefore reclaimed the Honour of Caricom Champions.

"However it was a highlight of the day's play and should be noted that 61 year old Ivan "Abaco" James returned to playing cricket after an absence of 10 years and showed the watching fans his agility in the field unfortunately his batting needs some more practice."

"The previous weekend, a Jamaican XI defeated an England XI and a Bahamas XI defeated a Cari-Rest XI.

"On the Sunday, Cliff Atkinson dominated the match between the Bahamian XI and a Cari-Rest XI by blazing 148 runs in 13 overs including 30 runs off one over.

"When he went into bat the Bahamian XI were 84 runs for 2 wickets and when he departed clean bowled by George Bruney the score was 257 runs for 7 wickets.

"Other scorers were Gary Armstrong with 59 runs and Edmund Lewis with 20 runs. In the allotted 40 overs the Bahamian XI amassed 288 runs for 9 wickets.

"Bowling for the Cari-Rest XI George Bruney took 3 wickets for 37 runs in 8 overs and Trevor Andrews took 2 wickets for 31 runs in 8 overs.

"In reply, the Carirest XI did a good job in trying to get the runs by scoring 249 runs all out in 39.2 overs. Naranja Ekanayake scored 98 runs and Jai Mangra scored 58 runs and Lee Melville scored 19 runs.

The best Bahamian bowlers were Edmund Lewis who took 3 wickets for 41 runs in 8 overs, Cliff Atkinson who took 2 wickets for 53 runs in 8 overs and Gary Armstrong who took 2 wickets for 47 runs in 7 overs.

"On the Saturday, after a delayed start the Jamaican XI batted first and scored 227-6 30 overs. The captain, Venris Bennett, was top scorer with 79 runs not out who batted sensibly for the 30 overs.

"Other contributors were Dwight Wheatley with 55 runs, Clive Bennett with 35 runs and Gasher Blair with 27 runs who incidentally play for the Police team and were dismissed by BCA board member Tony Wharton who also plays for the Police team the first two bowled and Gasher caught in the deep.

"Bowling for England Mike Wing took 3 wickets for 37 runs in 6 overs and Tony Wharton took 2 wickets for 30 runs in 6 overs. However the other 18 overs went for a massive 160 runs.

"In reply the England XI batsmen started cautiously but were always behind the run rate of almost 8 runs an over and when the rain came in the 20th over England were 82 runs for 5 wickets with the Jamaica XI winning on a faster run rate. The main run scorers for the England XI were Mike Wing with 20 runs, Rick Caley with 19 runs and Tony Wharton with 18 runs. Ralston Myles took 3 wickets for 22 runs in 6 overs and there were 2 run outs."

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