SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Come next year, the Inter Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) will organise a “pilot” Twenty-20 competition among the “top” cricket-playing schools, administrators say.

Chairman of ISSA’s urban cricket Anthony Ewbanks briefly referred to the Twenty-20 plans at the ISSA/Grace schoolboy competitions’ awards ceremony at St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) last Friday.

George Forbes, ISSA’s competitions officer, put ‘meat on the bones’ in a telephone interview with the Observer yesterday, saying the plan was for the top eight teams, “four in the Grace Shield (urban) and four in the Grace Headley Cup (rural)” to be involved at the “back end” of next season.

“We wanted to do it as a pilot project this year, but because of the rain, among other things, it couldn’t happen… we definitely want to get it in next year,” Forbes said.

He said the “experimental” competition would take on a “festival” atmosphere “initially” and “we will see how it goes”.

At the ceremony, STETHS and former Jamaica Under-19 captain Paul Palmer received the Douglas Orane Award — a scholarship worth $100,000 per year for three years tenable at a locally accredited university.

Established in 2004 in honour of the executive chairman of the GraceKennedy group, Douglas Orane, the scholarship is presented annually to an outstanding high school cricketer who has maintained a good academic record. GraceKennedy is the main sponsor of schoolboy cricket in Jamaica.

“Palmer has done a remarkable job and we’re elated to have the opportunity to make a positive difference to his life,” said Rohan Scarlett, finance manager of GraceKennedy subsidiary, Jamaica International Insurance Company (JIIC).

Among dozens of individual awards, the captain of Innswood High and leading runscorer in the Grace Shield (905 runs), Oraine Williams received the Carlton Alexander award for discipline and sportsmanship.

Top coaches were Clive Ledgister of rural and all-island Under-19 champions STETHS and Kirk Gordon of Innswood.

STETHS formally accepted the Spaulding Cup, symbol of their all-island Under-19 supremacy, and also the Grace Headley Cup. Innswood received the Grace Shield for being urban Premier League champions, while ‘A’ league champions St George’s College took the first Global Bank Trophy.

STETHS also took the Under-19 Grace Limited Overs Trophy for the rural area and Innswood the First Global Bank Trophy for the urban limited overs competition.

At lower age-group levels, Manchester High secured the First Global Financial Services U-16 trophy as rural and all-island champions. Eltham received the Allied Insurance Brokers Under-16 Trophy for the urban areas.

Munro College were national and rural champions at Under-14 level, while St Jago High received the Grace Under-14 Jackie Hendriks Trophy for the urban area.