West Indies Local: Tough cops

Standsfeld Scott Police celebrated their 10th Division 1 cricket championship yesterday, with captain Leslie Reifer lauding his entire group of officers.

I put it down to team-work. All the fellas played well together, Reifer said after Police retained the Courts/Suzuki title with a match to spare.

The lawmen, whose prize is a vehicle from Simpson Motors, were assured of their sixth championship since 1983 after heavy morning rain caused a total washout on the third and final day of the 12th series matches.

It carried Police to an unsurpassable 58 points, ten more than Spartan, who would have been under pressure to avoid defeat against the cops yesterday.

The match was called off at 12:45 p.m. - 15 minutes after the scheduled start - but Polices celebrations were delayed until after 3 p.m. when the match between pre-series title-challengers BNB St. Catherine and CHIC Schools North at Ashton Hall was finally abandoned.

Once the news reached Weymouth, Reifer and his team-mates joined a few supporters and officials of their sponsors in popping champagne and posing for team pictures.

This year was harder, Reifer admitted. Our batting was not up to standard, but if you look at it, when we got a target to win, our targets were very small.

The bowlers also did a good job, he added while making mention of Sylvester Louis, Alvin Campbell, Stanton Proverbs, Desmond Linton and Kenrick Marshall, who rejoined the team in mid-season after spending a couple years with YMPC.

When we heard that he was going to play, we were very glad. He came in and showed that he is one of the top all-rounders in Barbados.

Reifer was disappointed that yesterdays rain prevented his team from completing their sixth win this season.

Spartan, needing a win to keep in contention, were to resume their second innings on 45 for five with a small overall lead of 29.

We were looking to finish off Spartan. There was a lot of pre-match talk about how Police like to play on wet wickets, the Police captain said.

The wicket was a good one this (yesterday) morning and Im sure we would have finished them off.

Before the match, experienced Spartan player Livy Puckerin attributed Polices success this season to the luck of winning the toss in conditions that favoured bowlers.

I dont think it was a fair comment, was Reifers response.

When you spin the toss, nobody knows who is going to win the toss. This season, we got sent in by a lot of teams, but we turned around and got the better of the game.

Reifer has been at the helm of Polices last six champion teams, but he confirmed that this season would definitely be his final one.

He only played this year because of the unavailability of appointed captain Derwin Thompson and Emmerson Sealy.

It would have to take a lot of convincing but at this stage I dont think Ill be back out on a field playing Division 1 cricket, Reifer said.