Eltham's captain, Keshan Shattock, holds aloft the Grace Shield trophy his team won after beating Jamaica College on first innings at Melbourne Oval, yesterday. - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ELTHAM HIGH retained their Grace Shield Premier League cricket title with first innings honours against Jamaica College (JC) at Mel-bourne Oval yesterday.
Resuming on 75 for one and chasing 403 for first innings points and their first hold on the Shield, JC fell for 215, 187 runs short of the target.
Gregory Reid was the only batsman to offer any great resistance. He made 61 as overnight batsmen Marc Robinson added two runs before departing for 27 while Oliver Walker went for 34. This was after they put together 48 for the second wicket, the best partnership of the innings.
Frederick Hermitt (4-77), Herod March (3-35) and Sandray Watson (2-37) took the most wickets for defending champions Eltham.
COACH ELATED
Opting against the follow-on, Eltham were 97 for two when rain came shortly before 4:00 p.m. Shacoya Thomas, who made 95 in Eltham's first innings, was not out on 62.
Eltham's coach, Oral Simpson, was elated with his team's triumph.
"It's a great feelings for us as a team and as a new school to win the Shield two years in a row," Simpson said.
"I believe we played extremely well. Our game plan was to play a disciplined game of cricket because JC is just as disciplined as Eltham," he said.
Ironically JC's coach, David Robertson, said that trait let down his team.
"We didn't show enough discipline which is normally our strong point. Eltham actually beat us at all aspects of the game," he said.
