St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) will entertain Innswood High for the ISSA/GraceKennedy Financial Group Spalding Cup three-day play-off match, starting today at 10:00 am.

The encounter will be hosted at STETHS’s base in Santa Cruz.

The Spalding Cup, the symbol of all-island schoolboy cricket supremacy, is contested between the winners of the rural area competition and the urban area champions.

STETHS, the dominant force in schoolboy cricket in recent times, retained the Grace Headley Cup title after taking first-innings honours against Holmwood Technical in the drawn final late last month at Manchester High.

The STETHS team was winning the rural area competition for a 30th time. STETHS Head Coach Clive Ledgister has guided the school to 11 Headley Cup titles in his 12 years at the helm.

His team is expected to have special motivation to regain the Spalding Cup after surprisingly being thumped by Papine High in last year’s play-off.

Innswood, coached by Kirk Gordon, lifted the urban area Grace Shield crown after narrowly beating Excelsior High in a high-scoring final last week at Melbourne Oval.

That gave Innswood their first title since winning three times between 2010 and 2012. Despite imperiously dominating their urban area counterparts during that period, they fell down at the Spalding Cup hurdle on each occasion.

However, this time around, the St Catherine-based school will be hoping to spring a shock similar to that inflicted by Papine last season.

— Sanjay Myers