Spanish Town to the fore
published: Wednesday | April 21, 2004

By Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

YET AGAIN, the dominance of Corporate Area schools has been undermined.

In 2001, Bridgeport and Spanish Town created history by becoming the first two St. Catherine schools to play in a Manning Cup football final. Yesterday, Spanish Town and Jonathan Grant emulated that feat in Grace Shield Premier League schoolboy cricket.

In the all-Spanish Town final, set for April 27-29, both Spanish Town and Jonathan Grant secured their places with first innings honours over dethroned champions Norman Manley and A League champions Jamaica College (JC) on yesterday's final day of their two-day semi-finals.

LAID THE FOUNDATION

At the Spanish Town Community Centre, Wayne Morgan, 131, and Junior McKenzie, 91, laid the foundation for Spanish Town, who piled up a massive 412 runs on the opening day.

Final scores: Spanish Town 412; Norman Manley 163 and 178 for eight.

Resuming on their overnight 28 for one, Norman Manley were never allowed to settle as Marvin Reid (4-7) and left-arm spinner Iva Johnson (3-37) ripped through their batting line-up.

Rayon Francis, 34, Marvin Lobban, 32, Domain Wilson, 22, were the only batsmen to make any worthwhile contributions for the Maxfield-based school.

Forced to follow-on, Ricardo Ennis (2-31), Johnson (2-28) and Markan Guy (2-31) shared six wickets for Spanish Town who plugged hard for an outright victory. However, Lobban, 32, and Nicholas Ferron, three, held things up at the end for Norman Manley.

Yanick Elliott top scored for Norman Manley with 71, a innings which included nine fours and two sixes.

At Old Hope Road, Elvis Watson took a hat-trick for Jamaica College but it was not enough to prevent Spanish Town from reaching their second straight final.

Final scores: Jamaica College (JC) 275 for five declared and 52 without loss; Jonathan Grant 305.

Chasing 276 for first innings honours, Jonathan Grant, led by Calvin Davis, 63, Cion Barrett, 39, Andrew Duffus, 35, and Mikhail Miller, 30, secured a spot in the final to be played at Chedwin Park.

Watson picked up the last three wickets to end with 3-83 and, along with Fabian Thompson (2-26) and Andre Corrie (2-101), took the most wickets for JC.

In JC's second knock, Omar Williams, 23, and Oliver Walker, 26, were curtailed by rain.