Rain halts CCC advance

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Reifer

Western Bureau:

Persistent rain, which lashed Montego Bay throughout yesterday, completely washed out the third day of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Four-Day Championship cricket fixture between Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and Trinidad & Tobago, at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.

With the rain falling and the outfield clearly saturated, umpires Melvin Noble and Patrick Gustard decided to call off play for the day at 12:45 p.m., allowing the two teams to return to their hotels.

"Even if the sun comes out right now, we would still not have any play today as the outfield is saturated," said Noble, shortly after calling off the game. "Tomorrow is another day so we will just have to wait and see what happens."

Unfortunate situation

The CCC team, which was well placed at 105 for four wickets - an overall lead of 232 runs - at the end of Saturday's second day, was obviously quite disappointed with the situation, which skipper Floyd Reifer described as unfortunate.

"It is unfortunate that the rain has washed out today's play because we were looking to press on," said Reifer. "However, we are hoping that the conditions will change tomorrow so that we can have a prompt start at 9:30 a.m."

Batting first, CCC made 234 all out and then dismissed T&T for 107 to establish a 127-run first innings lead. Batting a second time, they extended their overall lead to 232 to put themselves in a good position to force an outright win.

"If we have a full day's play tomorrow (today) with all 105 overs, I am positive that we can still get an outright win," said Reifer. "Once we have play, we will be pressing for an outright win."

Should play be possible today, opener Omar Phillips, who followed up his first innings 88 with an unbeaten 51; and skipper Reifer, who is unbeaten on eight, will resume batting for the CCC team.