OLDER STUDENTS usually take advantage of the younger ones on the playing field, but table leaders and defending champions Sagicor UWI carried it too far.
They showed no mercy on Guardian General Barbados Youth during yesterday’s opening day of their LIME final series Division 1 match.
And to compound matters, it was a recent graduate Raymon Reifer, who flogged the schoolboys’ lacklustre bowling attack, converting his fourth century of the season into a wonderful 174 as UWI amassed a modern-day record first-day total of 453 for seven in 70 overs.
The 20-year-old left-hander hoisted ten sixes and stroked 15 fours in a 157-ball knock in a shade over four hours, pushing his season’s aggregate to 799 runs.
All told, UWI hit 51 fours and 15 sixes – 294 runs in boundaries – at a venue where high totals and centuries have become synonymous as they stayed on course for back-to-back Division 1 titles once they gain first innings lead and collect at least three bowling points over the youngsters, who are playing without their key opener Kraigg Brathwaite.
Reifer shared in two big partnerships with Romel Currency (87) and Jonathan Carter (68) as UWI, with coach/player Floyd Reifer swifty gathering nine fours in 53 not out off just 37 balls in the last hour, flayed the hapless Barbados Youth bowling.
Batting with a cavalier approach, Raymon escaped being caught a couple of times but also executed superb shots.
Kyle Mayers and Shane Parris missed difficult catches on the edge of the boundary, the ball going for sixes each time when Raymon was 37 and 62.
But Raymon was particularly strong driving through the covers and mid-off as he scored plenty of runs from the lofted shot. He was 83 not out in UWI’s lunch-time score of 218 for three off 38 overs.
Currency, who hammered nine fours and two sixes off 99 balls, was almost unnoticed during a fourth-wicket partnership of 186 in 26.4 overs after left-hander Jonathan Carter, who was dropped on 23, by Parris running back in the covers, moved fluenty to a run-a-ball 68, laced with eight fours and three sixes.
Raymon Reifer celebrated his century by lifting fast-medium Mayers for a straight six and then essayed a glorious drive, wide of long off for another four.
He also lofted rookie pacer Dario Seale for two consecutive sixes.
But when off-spinner Roston Chase came back for a second spell, it seemed that Raymon Reifer felt he had had enough and rather than look for a double century which was there for the taking, he skied a catch to short mid-wicket, giving the youngsters two bowling points.
The schoolboys’ fielding was awful with several dropped catches, some fairly difficult but there were a lot of misfielding.
