Melbourne Beat Boys Town in Opening of JCA Kingston Wharves Competition

Melbourne cricket club seeking their first hold on the new look Kingston Wolves JCA under 15 competition trophy, defeated Boy’s Town by 31 runs in a low-scoring encounter at Collie Smith Drive on Tuesday.

 

The competition over the years has been played on a parish select team but is now being played by clubs and parishes and has been divided into four zones. This was one of the opening games of the new season and Melbourne batting first or bowled out for 86 with only Caleb Dixon 26,  Elicia Russell and Christopher Nuyan 13, each entering double figures, Rajay McGeachy 4 for 42 and Marcos Brian 4 for 27 were the top wicket takers.

 

 

 

 

Boys Town in reply were blown away for a mere 55 runs with McGeachy top scoring with 40 against the bowling of Anel Crawford with a career best eight for 19 from 7.4 overs. Ackeem Grant picked up the other two wickets for no runs.

 

It is the 35th consecutive year that the competition is being played and over a thousand players are representing all 14 parishes taking part, bringing the number of teams to 18.

 

Just before the first ball of the new campaign was bowled, Fritz Harris, Vice President of the Jamaica Cricket Association and O’Neil Cruickshank, who is the Operations Manager, spoke at the opening ceremony.

 

Harris told CVM Sports, “It's extremely important. It goes to the very heart of Jamaica's cricket. The Kingston Wharves program really is where the young talents are born, where the young talents are groomed initially, and developed into what you see as the output of Jamaica's cricket at all levels. So, the sponsorship at that level is extremely important and one of the great aspects or advantages or benefits of the Kingston Wharves sponsorship is that the program is not just about sponsoring cricket. It's about developing young minds. It's about inculcating good habits. It's about helping the youngsters to be part of a team to understand processes in  determining match steps and so on. So, the sponsorship arrangement Kingston Wharves is what I would describe as fundamental to the overall success of Jamaica's cricket and in achieving its objectives.”

 

 

Corporate Services and Client Experience Manager at Kingston Wharves Limited Simone Murdock said, “We are very integrated into inside the competition. We ensure that the program not only touches sports but as we say touches youth development and in particular this year this this 35th anniversary year, we are going one step further with our association with the Jamaica Defence Force because they host a specialist camp within the competition that started last year. And this year we've combined I mean with not much hesitation to focus on the children the young men and young women in the west who would have played in the competition but certainly would have been affected by the hurricane and we want to bring them back in the fold by having a specialist camp in St Elizabeth. So, we're looking forward to having that this year, giving us an extra opportunity to give back.”

 

 

Operations and Development Manager at the JCA O’Neil Cruickshank said, “Based on what we had last year, we believe that we're going to have a good crop of youngsters this year because what we found that the teams, because last year was the new year where there were no overage players allowed, a lot of them were playing with youngsters who are 13-14, so, they will have two years in this competition. Bear in mind also, that you know from our under 15 team this year there are about six or so guys who will be eligible to be playing. So, there will be those youngsters who are playing.”

 

He added, “Additionally, we have members of the Jamaican under-19 female team who are allowed to play and who will play. I believe there's quality in this competition, but I am more looking out for the next the next step in terms of what we're going to do with the youngsters who we have we pick up. We're looking for that next set of youngsters. Last year, the development team had a few youngsters who were very interested in today I saw about three of them at this launch, and of course we had about three national players. So, I believe we will have good quality cricket.”