Clarendon College, led by a workmanlike all-round performance by Terrin Wickham, copped the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/GraceKennedy All-Island Under-14 championship after handing Excelsior High a five-wicket defeat at Melbourne Cricket Club yesterday.

Wickham starred with the ball bagging a hat-trick to end with four for 43 to restrict their opponents, and then found favour with the bat making an unbeaten 35 from 41 balls.

Excelsior, playing without their talismanic skipper Raewin Senior, saw the dimunitive Okachie Brown coming to the fore, but his unbeaten 70 from 81 balls and three for 39 was not enough to deny the Chapleton-based school.

Scores: Excelsior 121 all out (34.3 overs); Clarendon College 122-5 (28 overs).

The Mountain View- based Excelsior as they have done all season, won the toss and took first strike. They, however, found runs hard to come by and were at 35 for two in the 14th over, after openers Rohan Beadle (zero) and Ackeem Malcolm (17) fell cheaply.

Nico Jolly’s stay in the middle was short-lived as he was run out for five with the score at 58, and it was 87 for four when Lowen Green had Jamaal Clarke trapped in front for 13. Brown brought up his half-century, but was left stranded at the non strikers’ end, when three wickets fell with the score at 95.

Brown injected some steam to the innings hitting four boundaries to push the score to 121, when Geovani Williams was caught off the very first ball of the 35th over, which was bowled by Terrin Wickham as they went to lunch at 121 for eight.

Wickham completed his hat-trick at the resumption to wrap up the innings, as Excelsior failed to add to the score. Green ended with two for 28.

Skipper Ricardo McIntosh with a 12-ball 20, which included two six and a four, gave Clarendon College a cracking start as they were 21 without loss after two overs in their reply. Brown got the breakthrough in the third over when he removed Lowen Green for two, and it was 25 for two when McIntosh was caught off the bowling of Rohan Beadle.

The game was in the balance as Clarendon College found themselves at 32 for four in the sixth over when Taffari Mullings (four) and

Winning coach Andre Dwyer told the Jamaica Observer that he expected his team to win despite the fact that they were playing below their usual standard.

“If they had played up to the standard that I know they can play, then the game would have ended a long time, nevertheless they went out their and made themselves proud. Our spinners got the ball in the right areas… they applied the pressure and we restricted them as expected,” he said.

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