ARNETT GARDENS has been going through a semblance of a revival after war tore apart the community over the past year.

That revival was bolstered by three fun days on the Easter weekend that involved a netball and an under-15 football competitions.

The activity, the brainchild of former Arnett Gardens and Jamaica player Alex Thomas, in cooperation with Bigga and WATA, was a huge success.

The winning teams involved in both the netball and football competition never mattered, as it was sport, peace and unity that were the real winners.

According to promotions coordinator at Wisynco, the parent company of Bigga and WATA, Keith Gayle, the event was welcomed by the community and should be an annual one.

"It went very well. As I spoke to the supporters of the event in my closing speech I said that it was a privilege for Bigga and WATA to be involved in this," Gayle said.

"The whole idea had to do with peace and unity and giving the youths something else to do. Knowing Alex made it easier for us to get involved," said Gayle.

"It was well executed and the people responded very well so we are looking forward to making it an annual thing in the inner city. You have to remember the inner city, their plight is the plight of Jamaica," he said.

"I lift off my hat to Alex and Keith Kelly, along with Trina (Thomas' girlfriend) for taking this on."

Arnett Gardens won the netball competition for which they received the WATA Trophy along with $5,000. Torrington Park, where the competition was held, were runners-up.

In the football competition, Havanna were first and walked away with a case each of Bigga and WATA along with the Bigga Trophy. Fletcher's Land, who saw their team finish second, received the same prizes along with a second-place trophy. Torrington Park continued to do well on their home turf as they were third and they earned for themselves a case of ice-cream, courtesy of Kelly.

The Manchester senior cricket team brought Easter Monday celebrations to the community of Woodlawn and its environs while warming up for the upcoming national one-day competition with an emphatic win in a 25-over contest.

Batsman Donovan Sinclair, who is the top performer for the parish in the Supreme Ventures Super Cup, struck a boundary-studded 106 as Manchester piled up 256 all out in their 25 overs. The Woodlawn XI, after an ambitious start, wilted to 169 for eight in reply.

The match was part of a day of activities to help fund the purchase of a copier as well as an important agricultural project for Woodlawn Primary.

The school is considered one of the primary resource areas for talented cricketers in Manchester. Courtney Allen, vice-captain of regional Under-15 champions Jamaica, is a recent past student of that school.

Humble Lions and Original Hazard will contest the end-of-round final of the Captain's Bakery-sponsored Clarendon Major League to be played tomorrow at the Gimmi-Me-Bit playing field.

Cash and a trophy will be offered to the winners. No additional points will be gained owing to the 12-team league system this season.

It is Humble Lions who have the stronger reputation, having recently contested the Confed Super League competition, but it is Original Hazard who have the bragging rights. In addition to having won an earlier contest 1-0, Original Hazard (24) lead the competition by three points.

Humble Lions (21 points) owe their place in the final to the disappointing stumble of favoured New Longsville. After watching Humble Lions defeat Moores 4-0 to pass them by a point on 21, New Longsville squandered the chance to earn a mere two points from their last two games.

First they were beaten by Original Hazard 2-1 and then could only eke out a 1-1 draw against New Bowen. Although ending the round with the same points as Humble Lions, they lost out on goal difference.

Christiana, coached by Maurice Duncan, won the Porus one-day fund-raiser Under-15 tournament held on Easter Monday. The tournament is the precursor to the well-established Summer Under-15 Classic run by Barnett's Emporium and sponsored by Western Sports.

Highlights of the day included a three-game challenge between the Under-13 team of National Premier League champions Waterhouse and Porus. Waterhouse proved much too strong for the local team winning 1-0 and 4-0 in the first two matches. The home side, however, managed a 0-0 draw in the third match.

Christiana showed that they could be favourites for the summer tournament winning on penalties over Studds, the defending Summer Classic champions. The two teams were drawn in Zone Two in the preliminary stage, which Christiana won.

Their Easter tournament is sponsored and named in honour of the former Porus community football personality and player Donahue Stewart. The lone female team to take part, Ravensworth, did not reach the knockout stage.

With four evenly-matched teams involved in this weekend's schedule, interest is likely to pick up in the return-round stage of the Manchester Major League.

In today's lone game, second-place New Green (11 points) host Porus (seven) at the Hanbury playing field.

Tomorrow, Downs (seven points), who thrashed Harmons 5-2 in their last league fixture before the mid-season final break, are likely to feature in a tough encounter against Mandeville United (six), also at Hanbury playfield. Both games begin at 3:30 p.m.

The first part of the competition was characterised by the dominance of Hillstars who won't enter the second round until next weekend. Hillstars, who went on to defeat New Green 3-2 in a competitive mid-season final, gained the maximum 18 points from their six games. With a seven-point lead over nearest placed New Green, it means they only need a further nine points to book a semi-final spot.

Newlands Football Club and Albion have it all to play for in next Thursday's Juiciful St. Catherine Major League second-leg final after their first-leg match at the Spanish Town Prison Oval ended in a 1-1 stalemate.

Rohan Smith shot Newland into the lead in the 15th minute while Dane Brown replied for Albion in the 47th.

In the first match of a doubleheader, Steve Dunkley's 61st-minute strike gave True Juice a 1-0 win over Bodles in the Canon-Enterprise sponsored St Catherine Division One final.

The True Juice-Bodles second-leg match is slated for 2:30 p.m. at the Spanish Town Prison Oval, while the Newland-Albion encounter is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. at the same venue.

Two teams from different communities in the Sunshine City, Passagefort FC, from the flatbed of Old Passagefort, and Hellshire United, from the hills of South St. Catherine, meet tomorrow afternoon in a second-leg final at the Greater Portmore playing field with one goal in mind, and that is the WIHCON Portmore Division Two Football League trophy.

The 3:00 p.m. clash will see Hellshire's Paul Edwards, the more reserved of the two coaches, battling the outspoken Robert Ralph of Passagefort FC.

Hellshire have won silverware twice in recent times after back-to-back mid-season titles in the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

While Passagefort FC was the Cinderella team of the past, it is now hungry for the ultimate title and leads by a goal courtesy of a first-leg strike by Paul Chambers.

Passagefort can afford to draw the encounter but Hellshire need two clear goals to take the championship.

The 2006 Business House cricket season gets under way tomorrow with four matches in the Reggae Jammin Foods 50-over league. Jamaica Broilers are defending champions.

The season, with some new rules and regulations in place, promises to be keenly contested, especially with newcomers Cement Company and St. Ann Bauxite expected to do well.

Tomorrow's opening round matches see former champions Jamalco vs Digicel at Jamalco in Clarendon, Nestle vs Cement Company at Bernard Lodge, Cable & Wireless vs Windalco at Chalmers Avenue and National Water Commission (NWC) vs JUTC at NWC ground, Mona. All matches start at 11:00 a.m.

The match between St. Ann Bauxite and cup holders Jamalco in St. Ann has been postponed due to unforeseen circumstances.

The competition has attracted 10 teams, two more than last year. In addition to the Reggae Jammin League, the Business House Cricket Board, for which Cosmo Grant is president, also runs the Best Dressed KO 30-over competition, the Business House Cricket Board 35-over KO, the Digicel Twenty/20 competition and the Herman Spoerri double wicket competition.p> All 10 teams will contest the five competitions.

With the Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum skittles competition having taken a break on Easter Sunday, teams from the Corporate Area journeyed to St. Ann's Bay to contest the Zorro Invitational seven-aside tournament which was won by Track Price Plus.

They defeated hosts Zorro 4-1 in the final to capture the Zorro Easter Trophy. Track Price Plus (merged with three players from Waltham Strikers) first had to beat Starliner, then high-riding Cherry's Strikers 4-3 in a thrilling semi-final. With the scores locked at 3-3 going into the seventh and final game, female player Karlene Wright from Waltham Strikers defeated veteran player Ernel Brown to give Track Price victory.

In the final, Track Price Plus made short work of Zorro as they raced into a 3-0 lead, eventually taking the match at 4-1. Winning players for TPP were Everton Thomas, Charles Service, Leslie 'Toothpick' Puranda and Hensley Vaz.

Meanwhile, the Wray & Nephew competition resumes tomorrow with the sixth and final round of matches in the first half.