MONTEGO BAY, St James – Steve Bucknor, coach of the Cornwall College daCosta Cup team, has described as “timely and well appreciated” a donation of $100,000 to the team by Montego Bay businessman Carlton Chin.

Chin, a former student of the all-boys school, made the donation during Saturday night’s annual Dinner and Awards presentation put on by the Montego Bay Chapter of the Cornwall College Old Boys’ Association at Wexford Inn.

He said the funds were to be used at Bucknor’s sole discretion.

Chin was one of four old boys who were honoured for their work to the school, the others being attorney George Thomas, businessman Patrick Reid and dentist Dr Dean Weatherly.

Bucknor told the Observer West yesterday, the gift could not have come at a better time and would be used for a variety of purposes including “taking care of one or two school fees (for needy players), books and meals on Saturdays”.

According to Bucknor, a number of players live outside of the Montego Bay area and to prevent the distractions of players arriving late for weekend games, they are housed at the school on Friday evenings.

Bucknor – who is starting his third stint as Cornwall’s daCosta Cup coach and who won two daCosta Cups, one Olivier Shield and three Ben Francis titles – also said he had paid for a two-week pre-season training camp in Manchester, which was showing dividends already.

Cornwall won their first two games in Zone A of the daCosta Cup, going into yesterday’s game against Green Pond. They came second to defending champions St James High, who won three games.