By Tony Becca, Senior Sports EditorDISCOVERY BAY:
THE Antiguan pair of Sylvester Joseph and Wilden Cornwall won the inaugural Jamaica Double Wicket Championship at Kaiser Sports Club yesterday and walked away with the Laurie Williams Memorial Trophy and the cash prize of $10,000.
In a keenly contested final during which each team batted for six overs and with a penalty of five runs for every wicket lost, Joseph and Cornwall pipped the Barbadian pair of Philo Wallace and Floyd Reifer by seven runs.
Batting first after losing the toss, the Antiguans knocked up 73 runs, lost three wickets - two by the run-out route, for which they were penalised 15 runs, finished on 58 for three, and held on to defeat the Bajans who scored 71, but finished on 51 for four after losing four wickets.
Batting for the Antiguans, Joseph, who was dismissed twice - in the first over at four for one and in the second over at seven for two, scored 46 with four sixes and three fours while Cornwall, dismissed at nine for three in the third over, scored 17.
Bowling for the Barbados pair, Wallace conceded 36 runs off his three overs without taking a wicket while Reifer took one for 35 off his three.
Batting for the Barbados pair, Reifer who hit four sixes while scoring 40 but was dismissed twice - once in the first over and once in the fourth, and Wallace, dismissed in the second and fifth overs, scored 20 with one six and one four.
In the semi-finals, Antigua, winners over the Jamaica Masters pair of Courtney Walsh and Jeffrey Dujon in their final match of the preliminary round earlier in the day, defeated Jamaica Black, represented by Mario Ventura and Brian Murphy, and the Barbados pair, easy winners over Westmoreland in their final preliminary round match, defeated Jamaica Gold represented by Brenton Parchment and David Bernard Jnr.
Scores: Antigua 56 for one after losing five penalty points - Joseph 27 with three sixes after he was dismissed in the first over at five for one, Cornwall 27 not out; Jamaica Black 20 for 6 after losing 30 penalty points - Murphy 20 with six dismissals, Ventura 15 not out.
Jamaica Gold 47 for five after 25 penalty points - Parchment 43 with three sixes and four dismissals, Bernard 27 with three sixes and one dismissal; the Bajan pair 48 for one after losing five penalty points - Wallace, bowled by Parchment with the first ball of the innings, 27 with two sixes and one four, Reifer 19 not out.
The individual awards were as follows:
Best fielder in the tournament - Tyson Gordon, most catches in the tournament - Llewelyn Meggs and Bevan Brown with four each, best catch - Courtney Laing, Most wickets in the preliminary round - David Bernard Jnr, Tamar Lambert and Reifer with three each, most runs in the preliminary round - Parchment with 70, and most sixes in the preliminary round - Parchment with seven.
