St John held the advantage when their clash with St Thomas in the National Sports Council’s Inter-Parish Road Tennis Competition was partially completed at Superlative, St George yesterday morning.
St Thomas will now be pinning their hopes on the defending masters champion, the stylish Rickey “Body Doc” Hoyte to capture a spot in the next round, after St John entertained fans with some sweet tennis.
Ironically, Hoyte will start with an advantage against Anthony “Noss” Edwards when their rescheduled match is played tomorrow at Silver Hill. Edwards has never beaten Hoyte and although the dreadlocked Wendell “Duck Flu” Husbands defeated Anderson “Chef Andy” Smith, the loser earned a higher points ratio combined.
Playing with a cool and calm style, Husbands was able to chop down every lead acquired by Smith to take the first game 21-19. Obviously rankled by the defeat and the support given to Husbands, Smith stormed back to crush his opponent at 21-10 to bring on the decider.
Unfortunately, Smith was unable to maintain his form as Husbands calmly built up a 10-6 lead which bulged to 19-14 before Husbands took the decider 21-15 to give St John one leg into the masters semis. With Smith earning 55 points and Husbands 52, Hoyte just needs to win, preferably in straight games, to carry St Thomas forward.
Earlier, the ‘B’ class clashes brought the village alive with the gloved Winston “Balees” Padmore playing a very focused game for St. John to trounce Sean Jordan of St. Thomas 21-17, 21-10.
However, after St Thomas’ Decoursey Beckles stopped Frederickson Gill 21-19, he needed to take the second game under 10 to prevent St John from advancing. After averting that possibility at 10-13, Gill then took charge of the match to surge from 13-19 to lock the scores and then he took the extended battle 25-23.
The decider was not contested as St John had already earned the ticket to the B class semis. Tomorrow, the final stop of the Inter-Parish road tennis wagon will be made in Silver Hill where St Philip will clash with St Michael in the B class and masters.
The tournament then restarts in the new year.
In addition to that key fixture between Hoyte and Edwards, the fans will also see the entertainer Jeffrey “Bing Crosby” Layne in battle with the likes of Rudy “National” Gill who is better known as a road tennis official.
