ACTION in the Rothmans National Cricket Championship continues today with the feature matches bringing together Jamaica Defence Force and leaders Lucas in the Surrey Senior Cup, St. Ann and leaders St. Catherine parish in the Middlesex Senior Cup.
Of equal interest, however, will be the contests between defending champions Melbourne and Tivoli in the Surrey Cup, Manchester versus St. Mary in the Middlesex Cup, and Westmoreland against St. James, Trelawny versus Hanover in the Cornwall Cup.
Matches scheduled: Surrey Cup - St. Thomas versus Boys' Town at Goodyear Oval, JDF against Lucas at Camp, Kensington versus Portland at Kensington Park, St. Catherine CC against Police at Chedwin Park, and Tivoli versus Melbourne at Tivoli with second-placed Kingston CC drawing the bye.
Middlesex Cup - St. Ann versus St. Catherine parish at Kaiser, and St. Mary against Manchester at Grays Inn with bottom-placed Clarendon resting.
Cornwall Cup - St. James versus Westmoreland at Jarrett Park, and Trelawny against Hanover at Ernest Wakeland with leaders St. Elizabeth drawing the bye.
For Lucas, this is testing time.
After four victories in five matches - all four against some of the traditionally weaker teams, the 1999 champions face the second of the traditionally strong teams, and after dropping first innings points to Melbourne, with Kensington, St. Catherine CC and Kingston CC to come, all eyes will be focused on their performance.
It is, however, also testing time for Melbourne.
Nine points behind the leaders, time is running out on Melbourne, they probably need to win all their remaining matches if they hope to retain the title, unlike Lucas they have already played most of the strong teams, and Tivoli are one of the three traditionally weaker teams they are still to play.
Although they defeated Boys' Town, the test is whether their bowling is good enough to defeat Tivoli, St. Thomas and Portland, and what happens this weekend will be a good indicator.
In the Middlesex Cup, St. Catherine parish will be hoping to stretch their lead. St. Ann, however, are only seven points behind with three matches in hand, and they will be hoping to check the leaders.
Manchester, on 13 points from four matches, are five behind St. Catherine with two matches in hand, and if St. Ann hold St. Catherine and they lead or defeat St. Mary, the race for the title will become quite interesting.
The contest for the title is also at an interesting stage in Cornwall where, with leaders St. Elizabeth resting, joint second-placed Trelawny and Westmoreland are bidding to take over the lead.
With St. Elizabeth on 14 points from five matches, Trelawny on 13 from five, and Westmorleand on 13 from six, this round is crucial for Westmoreland who have only one more match to go.
