THE ISSA/LIME Walker Cup Knockout competition took centre stage in Corporate Area schoolboy football last weekend, despite rain forcing the postponement of two enticing quarter-final games.

Those rained-out matches will now be played today with Hydel High facing St George’s College at 1:00 pm and Jamaica College and Excelsior High closing out the afternoon’s show at 3 o’ clock at the Constant Spring playing field.

In the double-header at the Constant Spring venue last Friday, the title-holders Wolmer’s Boys, beset by bereavement within the camp, romped to a 4-0 victory over Spanish Town High in damp conditions.

Despite Wolmer’s totally outplaying Spanish Town with a mature, possession-based brand of football, plenty of focus was on Demar Rose, whose mother Farrah Smith died during childbirth two days earlier.

Rose’s baby brother survived a day, before also passing away.

The Wolmer’s midfielder, who failed to hold back the tears after the encounter, headed in one of his team’s four goals and one could tell from the impassioned celebrations that followed just what it meant to him and the throng of supporters at the venue.

In the opening quarter-final match that day, a hard-working Charlie Smith High team also booked their last four place in the Cup KO with a 2-1 defeat of a spirited Holy Trinity High outfit.

The quality of football witnessed in those matches whet the appetite for plenty of fireworks the following day, but fans’ hopes were washed out by persistent showers. ISSA were then forced to reschedule the games after match officials ruled that the playing surface was waterlogged.

The schools’ body had originally planned to stage the Walker Cup semi-finals today, but those clashes will be put on hold until further notice, while the second group stage of the Manning Cup commences on Friday.

The teams to advance in the Manning Cup are Hydel, Calabar High and Ascot High from Group A, Excelsior and Norman Manley High from Group B, Wolmer’s and Denham Town High from Group C, reigning champions St George’s, Charlie Smith and Camperdown High from Group D, Jamaica College and Bridgeport High from Group E, Spanish Town and Kingston College from Group F and Holy Trinity and Innswood High from Group G.