Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

The Red Stripe Senior Cup cricket championship moves into its 11th and final round today with St. Ann certain to be crowned the new champions.

St. Ann (35 points) lead closest rival Hanover (29) by six points, and even if they lose to third-place Police in an away match at Elletson Road on the weekend and Hanover gain maximum points from Boys' Town at Collie Smith Drive, thus forcing a tie at the top of the standings, St. Ann would be adjudged winners by virtue of having beaten Hanover on first innings earlier this season.

The matches on today and tomorrow are as follows: Police at home to St.Ann, Boys' Town vs Hanover, St. Thomas vs Clarendon at Goodyear Oval, St. Mary vs Kingston and St. Andrew at St. Mary Sports Club, and St. Catherine Parish vs Portland at Port Esquivel. St. James have drawn a bye.

In the previous round last weekend, St. Ann drew a bye, but second-placed Hanover failed to capitalise on the opportunity to close appreciably on the leaders when they lost first innings points to Portland in an away match at Folly Oval.

Portland raced to 322 with captain Daren Gray getting 106, Carl Brissett 81 and Emelio Reid 69, while Havover replied with 205 (Sean Bennett 65, Bruce Blackwood 50; Brissett 6 for 48) and 145 for six at the close.

Play good cricket

Boys' Town, meanwhile, came back from a first innings deficit to beat St. James by three wickets last Sunday, with the brothers Marlon and Phillip Keating spearheading the home win home and dried, St. Ann's coach Ceon Smith said his team is coming to play good cricket for the next two days.

"We would like to celebrate our new-found status in style and nothing but a win against Police will do, even though we will be playing in Kingston. I would concede that Police are no pushovers, but we have some really good players in former national representatives Orville Pennant and Xavier Marshall and it should be a good game to watch."