Not even LOSSES at the beginning and the end of the prolonged 2010 Goddards Enterprise Division 1 league season could stop giants RBTT Deacons from capturing their 20th crown and fifth in succession.
They completed their fixtures with a five-sets (25-20, 22-25, 21-25, 25-10, 13-15) loss to Chargers at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex on Monday night but did enough in winning one set to secure the title.
Another crown
Ironically, Chargers had disrupted Deacons’ consecutive run of 12 titles back in 2005.
Chargers needed to stop Deacons in straight sets to prevent another crown from heading to Deacons’ overcrowded cabinet.
But, with Dale Addison and to a lesser extent Damien Danzell doing most if not all of the paddling, it was remarkable that Chargers reached shore before Deacons.
A close first set, with veterans Andy Jordan, Elwyn Oxley and former Chargers player Jamaal Nedd maintaining the upper hand for Deacons, pointed to the difficulty of Chargers taking the match in straight sets.
Nedd brought up set point with a vicious quick attack and he then shut out the set with a reached-in block on Danzell.
With Addison all over the court, as he has done every season for Chargers, Deacons faded in the next two sets and it seemed that the calculators might have been needed to determine the clear-cut champions.
However, Deacons destroyed any such ideas with a 25-10 demolition in the fourth set to carry the game to five sets and take the title.
Chargers were due to play their final match, against Progressive, last night. There was little riding on the result as regardless of the outcome Progressive would maintain third position.
Deacons ended with a 12-2 record with 64 points; Chargers were 11-2 with 58, and Progressive were 10-3 with 51.
Cellar spot
In another game on Monday night, Cawmere beat O-Aces 25-21, 26-24, 25-23.
Cawmere ended 7-7 with 40 points, one fewer than Sunpower Foundation United who were to meet the BNB Juniors last night with the Juniors needing to win two sets to evade the cellar spot.
The Juniors were 2-11 with 13 points, one fewer than Friendly Hall who ended 1-13 with 14 points.
O-Aces ended their first season among the big boys with 27 points from a 4-10 record.
In the women’s matches, Sentry Insurance Brokers Deacons formalized their second spot with a 25-16, 25-19, 28-26 victory over 8000 Inc. Carlton to condemn the Black Rock team to a winless season.
Plus The Club repeated their first-round win over a disappointing Carefree Toners, 25-17, 25-18, 25-13.