Cawmere serve notice of intent

While Cawmere established themselves as definite dark horses for the 2012 volleyball season, Foundation United, Plus Club United, Toners and Safe Carlton all tumbled to their second successive losses when the Cooperators General Insurance Volleyball Knockout preliminaries continued at the Wildey Gym on Sunday night.
Playing with the same happy-go-lucky style that has become their trademark over the years, Cawmere, led by Caribbean Best Scorer, Shawn Simpson battled from a set down to defeat last year’s losing finalists Progressive, 25-20, 19-25, 22-25, 25-15, 15-13.  
Former junior captain Raffael Lovell along with Gavin Brewster and Richard Forde, who came off of the bench, looked the better of the teams.   
With Ramon Blades running the offence, Cawmere held the advantage as Progressive, gutted by the defection of Ronald Rice, struggled with Daneal Marshall, who is in way above his league and the portly Marcus Green, who is way above his fighting weight.
Barbados players Akeem Payne and Fabian Cox, along with Renier Grace were packing a lot of fire but the lack of consistency in the setting department along with the strong net defence by Cawmere thwarted Progressive. That was accentuated at game and match point when Forde ended the match with a crushing block on Cox.
Earlier, defending champions Chargers looked unimpressive without injured Jamaican Mark Lewis along with Romel Agard and Damien Danzel to labour to victory over Foundation 25-19, 26-24, 25-20.  
While it is uncertain if Agard will stay with Chargers or return to Foundation, Danzel is injured and has been clamouring to play in a lower division.
With a retired Andy Jordan sitting in the stands and an injured Elwyn Oxley sitting on the bench as coach, Deacons suffered no such intrigue as they humbled the Juniors 25-13, 25-20, 25-13.
The Juniors continued to haemorrhage points profusely whenever captain Jabarry Goodridge rotated to the back court.
The only surprise in the women’s clashes was Carlton taking the opening set from double crown queens, Chargers.  
However, Chargers and Carlton then followed the lines on the script with Chargers taking the match from their hot and cold opponents 20-25, 25-13, 25-14, 25-16.
Barbados’ six-foot netballer and volleyballer Rheann Niles, who represented Chargers up to last season, turned out for Warrens to link forces with two other defectors from Chargers, Anthazia Mason and Talya Layne, for that trio to trounce Toners 25-12, 25-18, 25-19.  
TeleBarbados Sentry Brokers Deacons blew past Club United 25-14, 25-13, 25-16.