MANDEVILLE, Manchester — St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) grabbed their first sports trophy of their 50th Anniversary year when they crushed Holmwood Technical by eight wickets in the all-rural GraceKennedy Knock-out limited-overs cricket final at Manchester High yesterday.

Sent to bat, Holmwood were bundled out for 95 in 33.1 overs as defending champions STETHS, despite the absence of West Indies Under-19 fastbowler Nicholson Gordon, who is nursing back trouble, grabbed wickets regularly.

Off-spinner Rasseei Spencer took 4-19, offspinner Brian Gayle 2-7 and wrist-spinner Donovan Nelson 2-30 as Holmwood failed to come to terms on a slow but fair pitch, falling 11 balls short of their allotted 35 overs.

Damar Gordon, batting at number nine, topscored with 21, while Hanchard Hamilton (16) and Tezwaye Creary (11) were the others to reach double figures.

Holmwood were jubilant when Creary sent back opener Kerry Holness (0) with just two runs on the board, but STETHS took complete control thereafter, cruising to 96-2 in 23.2 overs. Right-handed opener Desmond Jones topscored with an unbeaten 52 in 77 balls with five fours.

He shared in a second-wicket stand of 70 with Jamaica Under-19 captain Paul Palmer, who made 27 (four fours) before being brilliantly caught on the midwicket boundary by Nafras Earle, diving forward.

Gayle was not out on six at the end.

“It feels extremely good to win our first title of the 50th Anniversary year,” said a satisfied STETHS coach Clive Ledgister, who claimed everything went according to plan.

“Our plan was to restrict them to 120 and we did even better than that,” said Ledgister.

He suggested the limited-overs success had provided the perfect platform for STETHS to repeat their all-conquering performance of last year when they swept the senior schoolboy cricket titles, including the all-rural Grace Headley Cup and the all-island Spalding Cup.

Losing coach Orville Pennant blamed “careless shots” for his team’s demise. “Our batsmen let us down”, he said.