Primary Schools Cricket
June 8th 2008

South -East takes Atlantic Inter-District title with last-ball victory

SOUTH -Eastern clinched victory off the last ball to claim the Inter-District Division Championship title in a nail-biting finish over rivals North Eastern in the 2008 Atlantic LNG National Primary Schools Primary League competition at the National Cricket Centre, Balmain, Couva, last Thursday.

In an even, pulsating encounter, South-Eastern’s eight-wicket pair of Gabriel Blackwell and Chris Nedd held their nerve with five runs needed in the final over, with Nedd hitting the winning run off the last ball of the match. South-Eastern were chasing a victory target of 108.

The batsmen were immediately mobbed by their teammates, students and parents as they celebrated their first Inter-District victory in 12 years.

Scores in the 20-over match: North-Eastern 107 for nine. South-Eastern 108 for eight. Sent in to bat after losing the toss, North-Eastern owed their total to good contributions from Michael Jobent, 28, and Nicholas Williams, 23. The team received great support from the wayward South-Eastern bowlers, who were called for 22 wides as extras totalled a hefty 27 runs.

Brian Williams took 2 for 12, with Sherwin Adams, Chris Nedd, Kimchand Mohammed, Nadir Mohammed and Gabriel Blackwell, each taking one wicket for South-Eastern. Going after the challenging target, South-Eastern seemed well on course for an easy victory, thanks mainly to a well-paced second-wicket partnership of 55 between Negus Smith, 15, and Sherwin Adams, 38, when Smith departed with the score on 67.

After Adams went at 88, South-Eastern lost 4 wickets for 9 runs when their lower order seemed to panic but with the score at 100 for 7, Nedd and Blackwell saw them to their target without further loss off the final ball.

Once again, extras made a significant contribution of 24, with the North-Eastern bowlers accounting for 22 wides. Nicholas Williams (2 for 13) and Darion Manrique (2 for 15) returned the best bowling figures.

South-Eastern’s Sherwin Adams, who attends Moruga RC, was named Man-of-the-Match.

Coach of the winning team, Lester Haynes, said his boys displayed good form throughout the early rounds of the competition and were always confident they could pull off the victory. “It was a close game that went down to the wire and both teams must be congratulated. We have some good players for the future, especially Adams, Negus and Mike Smith,” said an elated Haynes, a teacher at New Grant Anglican.

Bhagwandass Ramolgan, coach of the disappointed North-Eastern team, said his boys played their hearts out and he was very proud of them, since they only lost off the last ball of the match. “The result could have gone either way. They all tried very hard,” said Ramlogan, who teaches at Manzanilla Government.

Bachan Boochoon, Physical Education Officer at the Ministry of Education, who presented the championship trophy to captain Nadir Mohammed, told the players of both teams that they were all winners in the game of cricket. “Every player deserves credit for a great game of cricket. In the future I hope to see some of you playing the game at a higher level,” added Boochoon, a successful age-group national cricket coach.

Anthony Ramjit, President of the National Primary Schools Cricket League, told the teams that there were no losers in the match and that the game of cricket had won out in the end. He thanked sponsors Atlantic LNG, the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, for their “winning partnership” in cricket at the primary school level.