Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

The twice-postponed Ben Francis Knockout semi-final between Garvey Maceo and Dinthill Technical, which will decide which will meet Rusea's in next Wednesday's final, is slated for Brancourt, Clarendon, this afternoon starting at 3:00 p.m.

"The game is on for Brancourt tomorrow (today) and the final is slated for next Wednesday at Jarrett Park," said George Forbes, the competition's coordinator. "The daCosta Cup will therefore resume per schedule on Saturday with the games that were slated for Wednesday pushed back to another date."

The match-up between Garvey Maceo and Dinthill was originally slated for Wednesday, but a water-logged field at the Spanish Town Prison Oval prevented play. The game was rescheduled for Thursday at Brancourt but heavy rains and a water-logged playing surface again forced a postponement.

Raring to go

With three days of extra rest and a lot of anxiety, both teams should be ready and raring to go when the referee signals the start of play.

In their last outings in the competition's quarter-final, Dinthill clipped Fair Prospect 1-0, while Garvey Maceo were most impressive in blanking Clarendon College 3-0.

Looking ahead to the originally scheduled game on Wednesday, Garvey Maceo's coach Jeffrey Hewitt, while declaring that his team was ready, hinted that they had a few niggling injuries in the camp that were being worked on. With the extra days of rest, those injuries should now be history.

"We are looking forward to this game against Dinthill because we are pretty confident that we will make it into the final," said Hewitt. "We have sorted out the injury problems we had and we are now ready to go."

Team on a high

The Garvey Maceo team, which is unbeaten this season, is currently on a high, having conquered all before them in Zone I of the daCosta Cup, including defending champions Glenmuir. With prolific striker Ashton Bennett - who has 23 goals this season - on top of his game, this team has all but taken on an air of invincibility.

While not as flamboyant as Garvey Maceo in terms of scoring big wins, the Dinthill team, which is also unbeaten this season, is clearly a team of some worth, having topped Zone J of the daCosta Cup ahead of Glengoffe and Bog Walk and knocking off Brimmervale 2-0 in the first round of the Ben Francis Cup.

"Our approach this season has been to take it one hurdle at a time," said Dinthill's veteran coach Frank Brown, whose charges will be led by the dynamic duo of Kevin Skyers and Oswaldo Hunter. "Now that we are in the semi-final, the next hurdle is to get into the final."

In the first semi-final, which was played at Jarrett Park, Montego Bay, on Thursday, Rusea's booked their place with a 1-0 win, courtesy of an André Atkinson strike.