ST?THOMAS?brought the punch on Boxing Day when three of their players advanced to the semi-finals of the National Sports Council’s Island-wide Road Tennis Championship.
Playing at the Deighton “Pa” Roach Centre in Bush Hall, St Thomas saw their veterans team and also Kyle King, in the under-21s, moving into the semis.
King played a polished game against the rising star of Christ Church, Hakeem Ellis, to take the match 21-14, 24-22.
Both players showed tremendous skills and contested long rallies while executing both backhand and forearm gems. However, the greater experience of King proved the dominant factor particularly in the second set which Ellis had looked like winning to force a decider.
That match was contested between the two veterans with Charles Taylor setting up the advantage for St. Thomas as he dismissed Wendell “Flute” Husbands of St John 21-10, 21-14.
It meant that the stylish Rickey “Body Doc” Hoyte just had to earn 25 points in his match against Anthony “Nosh” Edwards for St Thomas to eliminate St John.
Hoyte went for more than that, winning the game 21-12, 21-19 with his overplaying to the cameras at times allowing Edwards to escape a sow in the first set and then challenging in the second.
The qualification wagon moves to Vauxhall, Christ Church, on January 3 with the home team meeting St George.
More qualifying rounds will be staged the next day at the Barbados Defence Force’s Headquarters at the Garrison. (KB)
