ELTHAM HIGH School will get another shot at All-island cricket glory when they meet St. Elizabeth in the Under-16 Colts Championship decider at Manchester High today.
The rural area school will start favourites in the two-day showdown, but Eltham can't be counted out, despite the fact that their senior team lost to Holmwood in their All-island final earlier this month.
STETHS's coach Junior Bennett said rain had hurt his team's preparations.
"Our preparation leading up to this match is not good. Santa Cruz has been getting a lot of rain in the last three weeks," Bennett said. "We haven't got in a single training session.
"However, we are definitely going out there to give it our best shot. It's an All-island final and we always look forward to those," he said.
STETHS HOPEFUL
STETHS will be looking to wicketkeeper/batsman Ishmael Parchment, who scored a century in the semi-final against Glenmuir, and Linton Buchanan to carry the fight.
Also expected to play key roles are Derval Green, a former Jamaica Under-15 captain, and Jason Dawes.
Eltham are led by Shacoya Thomas who boasts schoolboy cricket's highest individual score and has been in good nick. Since his record-breaking 324 not out in the Grace Shield final against St. Catherine recently, he scored a century in the urban Under-16 final against Norman Manley last week.
Apart from Thomas, who also bowls, Eltham will have four other players who played in the Grace Shield: Sandre Watson and Fredrick Hermitt, who both shared 48 wickets, all-rounder Romio Parker and opening batsman Matthew Stewart, who scored over 350 runs.
Eltham's coach, Oral Simpson, said they are looking forward to this encounter.
"We are just going down there to do what we always do .... that is to play good cricket," Simpson said.
"We are relying on a team effort, but I am not going to talk about our game plan," he said.
