By Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer
Captain Wayne Morgan (second left) and other members of Spanish Town High's victorious Grace Shield Premier League cricket team celebrate their victory at Chedwin Park yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn / Staff Photographer
SPANISH TOWN High emphatically completed the formalities yesterday and were crowned the 2004 Grace Shield Premier League high school cricket champions.
In the all-St. Catherine final which ended at Chedwin Park yesterday, Spanish Town came away victors by an innings and 126 runs over Jonathan Grant.
Finals scores in the three-day championship match: Jonathan Grant 127 and 200; Spanish Town 453 for nine declared.
Resuming on their overnight 52 for two and needing another 274 runs to make Spanish Town bat again was to much of an uphill task for Jonathan Grant, who are winless in the three Sunlight Cup and one Grace Shield finals they have contested.
BAD DAY FOR JONATHAN GRANT
The day started badly for Jonathan Grant when Calvin Davis, zero, ran himself out without any addition to his team's overnight score and when Nkrumah Banner, 15, and Kevon White, 16, fell within two runs of each other to make the score 76 for five, Jonathan Grant's hopes of their first major schoolboy cricket title were shattered.
In a lower-order fight back, Andrew Duffus, 26, shared in two important partnerships, 45 for the sixth wicket with Mikhail Miller, 23, and 44 for the seventh wicket with Ricardo Montgomery who contributed an attacking 51.
However, despite those desperate attempts by the tail, Iva Johnson (3-39) and Ricardo Ennis (3-50) kept things comfortably in check.
The long-awaited celebrations came at about 2:15 p.m. when Montgomery ran himself out going for a suicidal second run which signalled the end of the match and Spanish Town's second title of the year.
TEAM WELL PREPARED
A happy Spanish Town coach, Karl Robinson, who watched his team lose the two previous Grace Shield finals said he knew from the start he had this one covered. "The team is packed with all-rounders and when you have that you will always do well," he said.
He went on to say: "I knew we had Jonathan Grant's ticket" while adding he will be ready for Holmwood in next Wednesday's Spaulding Cup final, to be played at the same venue.
"That is a game we are looking forward to. We know they are the powerhouse but we are not afraid of them," Robinson said of the WILCO Sports Headley Cup champions.
While accepting defeat, Jonathan Grant's captain, Kirk Brooks, said poor batting let his team down.
"We won the toss and batted because we thought the pitch was good for batting, but the batters did not apply themselves," said Brooks, who contributed 39 and 36.
Brooks explained why his opponents were the better team: "Spanish Town have 11 players from last year's squad while we only retained three."
However he is convinced that come next year they should do better.
"We should have a good team, we reached the quarter-final round of the Under-16 competition this year," Brooks said.
