Middlesex top Surrey in Kingston Wharves U15 Cricket final

Middlesex overpowered Surrey in the final of the 35th Kingston Wharves under-15 Cricket Competition at Up Park Camp last Friday.

The final was a replay of last year’s matchup when the teams shared the trophy after bad light stopped play but Middlesex made sure that the result was different this year.

Surrey batted first but were skittled out for 73 with Ricardo Clarke, 19, top scoring and captain Rajae McGeachy contributing 12, to be the only batsmen to get into double figures, after a promising start of 37 without loss. Middlesex’ captain Andino Edwards led the bowling with six for 13 in 9.1 overs while Najae Wright supported with three for 27 in 10 overs.

Middlesex got past the score without losing a wicket with Daniel Wolliston (36) and Jeremiah Johnson (27) to win the coveted Kingston Wharves U15 trophy by 10 wickets.

Coach Oral Simpson was delighted that his charges delivered so well in the final.

“We have been preparing for this from we assembled as a Middlesex team. We spoke about what happened last year and we did our research. We played them in the first game and we won but we analysed certain things that we needed to do. They won the toss, they decided to bat, which we wanted them to do and the bowlers put the ball in the right areas. We took our chances and got them all for 73,” Simpson said.

Raymond Hart, the Surrey coach, said that his team got off to a good start but came up on a very disciplined team on the day.

“We started off well at 37 without loss and then everything just fell apart from there. But still we have to give some credit to Middlesex who I think bowled well. They were in a good areas most of the time.”

The awards ceremony followed the end of the final. Every member of the runners-up and the winning team walked away with a bursary from Kingston Wharves for school expenses, a knapsack, and a water bottle while two got scholarships to cover all expenses to their respective high schools and four copped trophies from the Jamaica Defence Force for their exemplary performance during the two-week camp at Manley Horne Park in St Elizabeth.

There were special awards for Middlesex captain Andino Edwards who was the MVP of the final, while Rajae McGeachy picked up the MVP award for the runners-up. Jeremiah Johnson of Middlesex bagged the trophy for most runs after making 209. Ansel Crawford of Surrey topped the bowling with 23 wickets.

The two scholarship awardees were Jayden Newell of Munro College and Taviano Campbell of Black River High School.

Mark Wiliams, CEO of Kingston Wharves, explained why the scholarships were given.

“We had scholarships before at the university level but what I wanted to do today was to recognise and celebrate resilience. Those youngsters from the west who were severely affected by hurricane Melissa came out for the camp. We hosted over 100 youngsters and from all indications, it was well received but what we wanted to do also was to acknowledge academic performance and how we can assist in that so what we did was to give two additional scholarships to two young men from the west.”

The four JDF awardees were Jayden Newell – most outstanding participant, Janavia Williams – for leadership excellence, Vinroy Dell – for sportsmanship and Adriel Allen for outstanding support.