Alexandra are the champions of the Barbados Cricket Association’s Republic Bank Right Star Sir Everton Weekes Under-13 Competition. They defeated Combermere by 7 wickets in the final at Kensington Oval
this afternoon.
The St Peter school led by Rikeem Headley won the title after losing to the lads from Waterford in 2011 and 2012. Combermere batted first and were dismissed for 111.
The pitch had plenty bounce and this was cleverly used by the Alexandra captain who took 5 wickets for 11 runs from 7 overs with 3 maidens with his off-spin.
Indal Persaud’s contribution of 15 was the highest total
by a batsman in the Combermere innings while extras accounted f
or 51 runs of their tally.
Set a small total to win the match and the championship, Alexandra slipped to 42 for 3 and this led to some Combermere fans in the Three Ws stand voicing their belief that the reigning champs would retain the title. But the Alexandra supporters were equally vocal in their view that they were going to break the stranglehold Combermere had held on them over the
past two years.
At that stage Headley joined Deshawn Toppin and they guided Alexandra to victory with a partnership of 73 for the fourth wicket. Headley made 27 and Toppin contributed an unbeaten 49, the highest score of the match.
Coach of the Combermere team Jedson Yarde told Barbados TODAY that his charges were 20 runs short of a defendable target and his spinners “did not turn up” for the match.
“Our spinners Nicholas Austin and Indal Persuad were not effective today. But I must admit that Toppin and Headley batted well,” Yarde said.
Renaldo Parris, coach of the champions, said Alexandra’s victory was sweet after losing to Combermere in two previous finals.
“This team is not the strongest that I have coached but the morale was high and they had the desire to win. It is easy to coach a team that believe they are capable of winning. And these boys had the winning spirit from the start of the competition.”
Patron of the tournament Sir Everton Weekes told the two teams that he was impressed with the young cricketers he had seen in the competition.
“If you play cricket well then the sky is your limit. You must work hard, then success will come your way. Set your goals and work toward them,” the batting great told the young cricketers.