In your neighbourhood

James, Ziadie again

It was as you were after Monday night's leg of the Horace Payne Memorial as the Big Pair of Rex James and Judy Ziadie scored yet another win but this time they had to share the spoils as the ultra-consistent pair of Audley Astwood, and Winston Chin-You earned a well deserved tie.

Both pairs scored 61.11 per cent.

Next week is an important one for the Bridge Association as it will host a visit from Barbardian Jackie Thompson, the Central American and Caribbean Bridge Federation's (CACBF) youth co-ordinator, who will be visiting our local secondary schools in an effort to promote a Bridge in Schools programme.

She will begin with Campion College who produced two members of the historic Jamaican team to the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing. She is also expected to play in the special Teams of Four tournament next week for the Ashenheim Trophy.

It begins with a league-style round robin on Monday and Wednesday next week (Police Officers Club) beginning at 7 each evening. The top two teams will meet in the final at a date to be announced.

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Haile Selassie, DeCarteret top schools' badminton

Eastern League winners, Haile Selassie High girls, with three of their national players in Shana-Kay Bailey, Shakira Bailey, and Sheinell Hyatt easily disposed of Bishop Gibson High 5-0, to defend their Lime All-Island Schools Badminton title at the Constant Spring Golf Club's Badminton Hall on Thursday.

In the individual results, Shana-Kay Bailey defeated Chantal McLaren 21-6, 21-6, Shakira Bailey defeated Jade-Ann Campbell 22-20, 21-8, for the Haile Selassie two singles win. Shana-Kay Bailey and Sheinell Hyatt defeated Suzanne Lawrence and D'Anna Marie Edwards 21-4, 21-9, Nicole Smith and Nockeisha White defeated Chantal McLaren and Jade-Ann Campbell 21-13, 24-22; Shakira Bailey and Sheinell Hyatt defeated Janelle Foster and Jozanne Suckie 21-14, 21-7, to record the champions' three doubles win.

Meanwhile, in the boys' final, defending champions DeCarteret College beat St Anne's High 3-2. St Anne's drew first blood as Dennis Coke gave them the early lead with a 21-11, 21-17 win over Jermaine Welsh, before Gerald Isaacs evened the tie for DeCarteret, defeating Jamari Rose 29-27, 21-11.

Coke then partnered Jevor Abrahams to again put St Anne's in front as the pair defeated Ryan Dyer and Isaacs 21-14, 16-21, 21-11. Ramone Robinson and Sean Wilson had to even things up for DeCarteret for a second time as they disposed of Omar Bravo and Abrahams 21-12, 21-14. Welsh and Dyer wrapped it up for the champions, by defeating Rose and Bravo 21-11, 23-21.

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Several suspensions in Portland football

The Portland Football Association (P.F.A) at their disciplinary meeting held last Sunday handed out several fines and suspensions.

The Breastwork Football Club was fined $10,000 and placed on probation for one year.

Player Steven Wright was fined $5,000 and banned from participating in any competition being sanctioned by the P.F.A. for a period of one year. The members of the disciplinary committee strongly recommended that Wright seek counselling during his suspension in order to help control his anger.

Everton Maitland-Long was also fined $2,500 and suspended for four matches while Marlon Cover and Kaidian McKenzie have both been suspended indefinitely from participating in all competitions being sanctioned by the Portland Football Association, pending their appearance before the disciplinary committee.

Racing United, Hamilton Gardens clash

Semi-final bound Racing United (29 points) will face fifth-place Hamilton Gardens in the penultimate round of the E-Services-sponsored Portmore Division Two football league tomorrow at the Hellshire field. Match time, 1 p.m.

While leaders Racing (29 points) can afford to lose, Hamilton Gardens (16) need these three points, to crack the top four.

In the second game at the venue home team Hellshire United (eight) and Daytona (seven) will do battle in a bottom-of-the-tables clash at 3 p.m. In other games, already qualified Christian Pen (25), meet fourth-place Westport (18) in a 1 p.m. kick-off at the Watson Grove football field, while third-place Watson Grove (19) can move closer to a semi-final spot with a win over Braeton United (10).

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Pattex Cup skittles

Starliner pulled off a notable upset in the Henkel-sponsored Pattex Cup skittles competition last Sunday when they defeated home team Eastern All-Stars 7-4 at 107 Windward Road.

Despite the loss, Eastern are still highly placed in the competition after eight rounds of matches. They have amassed 82 points to hold down second, eight adrift of leaders Eagles.

In other matches played last Sunday, Rowe's Strikers defeated Meadowvale 7-4 at Eastern, Mystix clipped Dragon 6-5, Willies also beat home team House of Peace 6-5, Mister C beat Olympic Strikers 7-4 and Portmore's The Dip came from behind to beat Mercury 6-5.

Meanwhile, five-time singles champion Robert McKen was among 10 players advancing in the second round of the Sista singles championship played at Mystix Sports Bar, Hagley Park Road, last Saturday night.

Also advancing were Nehemiah 'Fatta' Henry, Dane Jones, Charles Service, Clarence Williams, Neville Nelson and Simon Edwards. The singles competition continues tonight at Mystix with defending champion Everett Melbourne, former champion Fitzroy Blair, Paul Latchman and Steve Thompson in action.

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Best of the Best pool tournament

The Best of the Best Part III eight-ball pool tournament takes place today and tomorrow at Hot Shots Pool Bar, 103 Constant Spring Road, starting at 4:00 p.m. both days.

The open tournament offers a first prize of $70,000 and trophy; second, $25,000 and trophy; third, $10,000; fourth, $5,000, while players finishing from fifth to eighth place will each receive $2,500.

Best of the Best II was won by Hot Shots' Ewart Hall last year. He became the top-ranked player in 2009, winning a number of ranking tournaments and is among the fancied players for this tournament, along with MoBay's Noel 'Schoolboy' Blagrove, Roy Letts, Calhoun Melville and Mystix's Rohan McDonald who won the Auto-Craze pool tourney and $25,000 last weekend. According to reports, veteran player Albert Chung will come out of retirement to play in this tournament.

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Papine, Munro win hockey titles

Defending champions Papine High and Munro College retained their respective titles in the ISSA/JHF Schools Hockey Competition (U19) with 1-0 victories on Thursday.

Tashauna Edwards' 28th-minute goal secured the victory for Papine against St. Andrew in the female final.

In the boys' final Shea Chambers' 35th-minute goal gave Munro victory against Jamaica College.

Earlier, Wolmer's secured third place, a walkover against Tivoli, who failed to show. The U16 section of the tournament will commence on April 28.

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Dunbeholden, De la Vega clash

The big match of the 15th round of the Captain's Bakery & Grill-sponsored St Catherine Major Football League pits second-place Dunbeholden (28) against third-place De la Vega United (25), at the De la Vega football field, today at 3 p.m.

A win for Dunbeholden will all but put them into the semi-finals, with a game in hand against Flamingo, while De la Vega cannot afford to lose as they are three points adrift and only have a game left.

In other games Black Lions, 25 points and fourth on goal difference, take on out-of-contention DB Basovak (17), at Homestead and semi-final hopefuls Albion United (24), welcome bottom-club Rodwood (10), while already qualified Portsmouth (33) play second-to-last Spanish Town Police (13).

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Cumberland hunt U-13 title

Favourites Cumberland oppose Passagefort United in the final of the Colin Fagan-sponsored Leander Marshall/Portmore Under-13 football league at the Passagefort football field this afternoon at 2:45.

Cumberland's journey to the final, saw them top the preliminary round with 16 points. They also whipped Daytona 4-1 in semi-final action. Passagefort United were second in the preliminaries with 13 points. They had a gallant come-from-behind 2-1 win over Wanderers in the second semi-final match at the Passagefort football field. The teams shared the points, with a 1-1 draw in their only meeting of the season.