Jamaica: Carib Cement finals at Melbourne (1 Jul 1998)

1 July 1998

Carib Cement finals at Melbourne

By Versel Thompson

The 1998 national finals of the Carib Cement All-Age and Primary schools cricket competition bowl-off today at Melbourne Oval. In the Primary schools final scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m., mid-island champions Friendship Primary of St. Catherine will oppose Corporate Area champions Tarrant Primary, while in the All-Age match-up it will be Corporate Area champions Padmore All-Age of St. Andrew versus West Zone champions New Hope All-Age of Westmoreland. Padmore coached by Newton Brown, will be on the hunt for their third title, having been National champions in 1993 and 1996 and are the only school to have won the title twice.

They have been unbeaten this season, having defeated Clifton All-Age by 55 runs in the Parish final, defeated Windward Road All-Age of Kingston by 109 runs in the Corporate Area Zone final, while they defeated Moore Town of Portland by four wickets in the national semi-final.

Padmore's batting will be led by national Under-15 all-rounder Durale Forrest, Howard Hamilton, Kemar Brown, Romeo Henry and Delano Cunningham, while the bowling is expected to be spearheaded by Forrest, Hamilton, Henry, Kishoy Flemmings and Rodrick Swaby. New Hope coached by Grantley Reid, will be on the hunt for their second title having won the title in 1995 and were the runners-up to Mount Pleasant of Portland in 1997.

Like Padmore, they are unbeaten this season, having beaten Sheffield by eight wickets in the Parish final, Mt. Hannah of Hanover by 154 runs in the Zone semi-final, defeated Warsop of Trelawny by eight wickets in the Zone final and in the National semi-final, they beat Red Bank of St. Elizabeth by 22 runs.

New Hope will look to national Under-15 representative Arden Frew, Guyam Fowler, Marlon and Howard Jameison, while the bowling will be centred around Frew, Dyna Gordon, Marlon Jameison, Hugh Blackwood and Deno Burnett.

Friendship Primary coached by John Hurge, are Parish champions of St. Catherine for the second consecutive year and are unbeaten this year. They have beaten St. Johns by six wickets in the Parish final, beat Mitchell Town of Clarendon by one wicket in a thriller in the Zone semi-final, defeated Ballards Valley of St. Elizabeth by eight wickets in the mid-island Zone final and have also beaten former national champions Clarks Town of Trelawny by 35 runs.

Their batting will be led by Kirk Johnson, Andre Wright and Rohan Franklyn, while Franklyn, Andrew Williams, Peter Stewart, Alfred Rattray and Ojun Hilton are expected to be among the wickets. Tarrant coached by Delroy Johnson are also Parish champions of St. Andrew for two years in a row and are also unbeaten, having defeated Duhany Park by 34 runs in the Parish final, beaten Rollington Town of Kingston by six wickets in the Corporate Area Zone final, while defeating Runaway Bay of St. Ann by 24 runs.

Michael Jackson, Omar Reynolds, Jermaine Mullings, Leon Clachan and Kevin Thompson are expected to lead their batting, while their bowling will be led by Reynolds, Steve Logan and Ricardo Blake.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)