NOT UNTIL THE NEXT TIME
On Saturday, I traveled to Crooked Tree in order to assist in officiating the remainder of the semifinal game between Brilliant and Excellence, who is last year’s champion of the Harrison Parks National Cricket Competition. Arriving at the home ground, Brilliant’s team was all dressed up, waiting for the visiting team to arrive. By and by, an SUV van pulled up. Four men got out – Burke Howard, Brandon Broaster, Percy Flowers and Sydney Martinez. The aforementioned three were there to finish the game that was stopped the previous Saturday and was taken to the Dispute Board. The Board had ruled that the game be continued from where it was stopped.
Brilliant took to the field, and Percy and Burke went in to bat. In no time, Burke was caught by a ball bowled by then strong-bowling Andrew Banner; then Brandon went in. The two bowlers were Rodwell Conorque and Andrew Banner.
Both men had completed their 10 overs apiece. Captain Lawrence Banner took the ball, and before his first over was finished, he bowled a ball, Percy went for it, and missed it. The ball hit his foot; the bowler appealed; and an LBW was given, ending the game.
For Brilliant, Calvert Reynolds made 31 runs, and Andrew Banner took 5 wickets. For Excellence, Marlon “Camala” Nicholas took 4 wickets.
It was still early, so I got a ride to Lemonal to see the next game playing between Easy Does It and Sunrise (of Lords Bank). When I got over the bridge and looked across the field, there were people and vehicles all around. What a crowd went to watch that game!
First half had finished. The home team had gone to bat first and batted a score of 116 runs, pretty much smaller than the score they had put up in Lords Bank. I believed then that both teams had a victory in mind.
After lunch break, the home team took the field, and the first two of Sunrise’s batsmen went in. Easy captain took the ball. Good bowling and good batting, then, as the wink of an eye, wickets started falling. Imagine the noise and applause from teammates and friends of the home team. At the fall of four wickets, Sunrise had only EIGHT runs. That is not good for a team that had believed earlier that they are the best.
The game was very short. All were out for 83 runs. That is a beating for such thought to be a strong team. None of them, be it Michael Sobers, Satish, Edison, Gareth or other heavy guns, could stand the consistent and excellent bowling of the young captain, Kenroy “Ike” Reynolds. This young man took this game very seriously, and showed his teammates that where there’s a will, there’s a way. The results went like this: For Easy Does It, Warren “Bom Jones” Anthony and Aaron Muslar made 25 and 23 runs, respectively; and captain Kenroy “Ike” Reynolds took 6 wickets. For Sunrise, Conway Young made 36 runs and took 3 wickets; and Edison Parks, the old veteran, made 11 and took 3 wickets also.
This brings the semifinals to a close. Easy Does It and Brilliant will now meet to decide who will be the 2014 champ. This best-of-three games series kicks off in Crooked Tree on Saturday.
To the two teams that had come this far and got beat – as the topic says, to get to the champion is “Not until the next time.” I’ll quote a line from President Obama’s first inaugural speech. To you all who lost, “you must now Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself off, and get to work” for next year.
Before closing, I publicly say to Mr. John Gillett, Sr. and Mr. Gilroy Middleton, who met me separately on Saturday in Crooked Tree and Lemonal, respectively, both of whom congratulated me for the time-out I take to write these articles, which they said are very informative and constructive. Gentlemen, I appreciate your comments. Those few words of encouragement will definitely help me to improve what message I’m trying to get across to the reading public. Thank you both very much.
Sunday is my 40th wedding anniversary, and I thank my wife for putting up with me for all these years, and ask her to please put up with me another 40 more.
Have a blessed weekend, all of you. God bless us all.