Lodge Takes The Spoils

Nature Valley Lodge School are the 2008 champions of the Barbados Cricket Association Sagicor General Shield 40-over-a-side competition. Playing in front of a relatively small but appreciative crowd at the 3Ws oval, Lodge defended what looked to be a mediocre score against 3-time finalists Ince Transport MTW.

Lodge, batting first, put 164 on the score cards, with valuable contributions from the bat of Renaldo Arthur who scored the highest in the contest with 55, Stefan Gooding who added 34 and Renaldo Holder who posted 17. The pick of the MTW bowlers were Raymond Kellman with 3-26, Junior Holder 2-28 and Henry Austin 2-30.

Coming in to bat, MTW would have been confident chasing the modest total set for them by the school boys, however this confidence was short-lived. After fifteen overs MTW had slumped to 58 for four and things kept going downhill from there. The next ten overs saw five wickets falling with the addition of just 42 runs, which meant heartbreak for MTW and delight for the school boys of St. John.

After 25 overs, the fate of MTW could have been written in stone, having meandered to 100 for 9. At approximately 4:20, the number eleven of MTW lifted a pitched-up ball to the fielder at deep long off who easily came around to his left, safely taking the ball and dashing all hopes of victory for Ince Transport MTW.

MTW were all out for 114 off of 29.4 overs. MTW Batsmen who got into double figures were Chad Puckerin and Raymond Kellman both with 20, Curtis Greene with 14 and Mark Bailey who scored 11. The pick of the Lodge School bowlers were Stephan Gooding with 2-17, Mario Miller 4-34 and Diego Stuart 2-19.

Man-of-the-Match honours were spilt between two players this time around with Stephan Gooding and Renaldo Arthur, both of Nature Valley Lodge School, sharing the spoils.

Nature Valley Lodge School received $8 000, while runners-up Ince Transport MTW received $5 500.