After four nights of washouts the rains finally stopped for the stars to shine in the National Sports Council’s Inter-Parish Road Tennis Championships with some scintillating semi-finals being played Tuesday night at the Deighton “Pa” Roach Centre in Bush Hall.
The night’s battles produced tough and exciting match-ups, particularly in the veterans, but some of the showpieces turned out to be among the younger players. Left-handed Ezekiel Ward, 12, used a tremendous serve and smoking smashes to reach the finals for Christ Church in the 15-and-Under, stunning Justin Smith of St George 29-27, 21-8.
Ward showed experience to rally from 4-10 to lock the scores from 13 right up to the finish of the extended first set as both players battled intensely for the win. Smith lost the plot in the second game with Ward going for the kill and inflicting a “sow” on his opponent. Ward will meet Justin Hinds of St Michael in next week’s finals.
Emar “Mr Consistency” Edwards advanced to his fourth consecutive finals in the Under-19s when he replayed last year’s finals to oust the defending champion, Dario Hinds, 15-21, 21-17, 22-20.
Hinds, who won in St Michael colours last year switched to St James to escape the tough qualification battles in St Michael.
However, after taking the first game in his aggressive style, he literally played into the hands of the solid Edwards by switching to an ultra cautious match which is meat and drink for Edwards.
Edwards will meet the inaugural winner of the category, Darius “Barracus” Hinds, in the finals. Combermerian Edwards had won the second edition but lost the third last year to Hinds.
The night’s action was launched by the veterans with the consistent St Thomas ousting defending champions of St Michael thanks to the play of Charles Taylor and showman Ricky Hoyte.
Although Taylor lost to the entertaining Jeffrey “Bing Crosby” Layne 23-21, 19-21, 19-2, St Thomas advanced with Hoyte crushing Patrick Craigwell 21-12, 21-13.
The fans will not get to see Layne’s antics in the finals but they are guaranteed equal entertainment from Hoyte who provides plenty of Kodak moments with his trademark posing after his passing shots and smashes.
St Michael predictably advanced to defend the “A” Class title with lethal duo Mark “Venom” Griffith and Julian “Michael Jackson” White dismissing St John.
Griffith, who is looking to set a record of winning the “B” Class one year and then taking the “A”, beat Anderson “St George” Sealy 21-16, 21-9.
Sealy showed some glimpses of his past skills but at 56 in battle with Griffith, 28, the fittest player in the land, Sealy could not keep up with the long rallies and uncanny determinat
White won 21-13, 24-22 from Adrian “Dan” Skeete, with the players using the second game as a personal battle after St Michael had snatched the qualification ticket.
St Michael predictably moved into the “B” Class finals with Davien Taylor formalizing the trip with a 21-11 win over Edwin “Darkman” Ward of St Peter.
Since Sunday, Taylor’s partner Aaron Barker had destroyed Lloyd Deane 21-12, 21-5 which meant that Taylor just needed to earn 18 points for St Michael to defend their “B” Class title. (KB)
