CONSTANT Spring continued their stranglehold on the Kingston and St Andrew Masters League Association (KSAMLA) midseason final by defeating Park Rovers 2-0 to retain the Peter Cargill Trophy at Winchester Park on Sunday.

ONeil ‘Chippy’ McDonald, Constant Spring’s top striker while they campaigned in the National Premier League not so long ago, scored a goal in each half to enable Constant Spring to continue their monopoly of the Peter Cargill Trophy since its inception in 2011. The Peter Cargill Trophy was offered as an incentive to the two teams who reached the KSAMLA midseason final five seasons ago. Since then Constant Spring have won the trophy four times — in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. The only blip was in 2013 when they did not compete.

Competing this year in Zone Three of 10 teams, Constant Spring played unbeaten by winning their nine games to reach the midseason final. Park Rovers did likewise by coming out on top of Zone One of 11 teams with nine wins and a draw.

The midseason final was played in good spirit, with the standard of play comparable in many respects to that of a number of modern-day National Premier League matches. However, it was Constant Spring with a number of former outstanding National Premier League players in their line-up that caught the eye, with Durrant ‘Tatty’ Brown, Craig White, Raymond Smith, Lincoln Taffe, Andrew ‘Rusty’ Chisholm, Gary Francis, Robert Scott and McDonald among others showing glimpses of their old virtuosity that made them so memorable and in so doing served to dominate proceedings.

Even so, Park Rovers, on the other hand, had their moments but were less settled than their counterparts and spurned whatever goal-scoring opportunities came their way.