Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

In what was an eventful weekend in which the red-hot Frome Technical, St. Elizabeth Technical and Spalding all had their unbeaten streak slashed, as another five teams qualified for the inter-zone round of the 2006 ISSA/Pepsi/JN daCosta Cup competition, swelling the list of those advancing to eight.

For the pundits, Frome Technical's six-game winning streak that ended with a 0-2 defeat against Rusea's in their Zone B game must has been far more stunning than St. Elizabeth Technical's (STETHS) 0-1 loss to Munro. STETHS had seven games unbeaten.

While Frome's defeat probably only hurt their pride since they are already into the competition's inter-zone round, STETHS' defeat has somewhat opened up Zone E as with Black River moving to 19 points through their win over Lacovia, the battle for the group's two inter-zone places is now being fought between STETHS (20), Munro (19) and Black River.

It should be noted that inter-zone qualifier Spalding (18) also lost their 100 per cent win record on the weekend to second-place Holmwood (16) in a 1-2 defeat, which sees the Holmwood team taking the second qualifying place from Zone G in which the other three contenders produced tame performances.

Other teams

Among the other teams joining Holmwood in the inter-zone round on the weekend were Zone A contender William Knibb, Zone D's Ocho Rios, Decarteret from the four-team Zone F and last year's beaten finalist Glenmuir, who have enjoyed a successful run in Zone I.

William Knibb (16) earned their slot with a 2-1 win over St. James High in their Zone A fixture at Jarrett Park. With William Knibb through, it means that one of the two former champions in the group - Cornwall College (7) and Herbert Morrison (11) - will not make it from the group.

Ocho Rios, which hold a 100 per cent win record from four games in Zone D, rolled into the inter-zone round with a minimum of fuss, blanking Marcus Garvey 4-0, while over in Zone F, the plucky Decarteret, with three wins and a draw from four games, are safely through with second-place Manchester (8) looking a safe bet to join them.

While Glenmuir are safely through to the inter-zone round behind their dominant six wins and two draws from eight games in Zone 1, last year's semi-finalist Manning's (7) saw their bid for championship honours coming to an abrupt end when they lost 0-1 to Petersfield (13) in Zone C, which means they cannot qualify for the inter-zone round.

With the two final rounds of preliminary games slated to be completed this week, the battle for the other 16 inter-zone places and the 12 Ben Francis Cup knockout slots, which will go to the group winners, will also be decided by this weekend.