DINTHILL Technical High notched their first hold on the Yardie Challenge Cup, defeating Kingston College (KC) 1-0 at the UWI Mona Bowl on August 10.

The second staging of the Yardie Cup made a return after five years to the preseason calendar, with a nice blend of urban area Manning Cup and rural daCosta Cup teams playing for four days.

Dinthill defeated Manchester High 1-0 in the semi-finals and Kingston College turned back St Catherine High 2-1, setting the stage for a repeat of the 1981 all-island Olivier Shield showdown.

KC, who won the first edition back in 2019, succumbed to a very good Dinthill Technical team, now under the coaching tutelage of Lenworth Hyde.

He was more than satisfied with his team’s displays.

“I feel happy about how we played the whole tournament. Discipline has stepped up, and we are doing the right things at the right time,” said Hyde.

Hyde, widely regarded as one of Jamaica’s best-ever players, coached Clarendon College to four all-island Olivier Shield crowns, four daCosta Cup titles, the all-island Champions Cup, and the rural Ben Francis knockout titles — in a highly successful stint.

He is now focused on returning Dinthill Technical to their glory days to

“We are building a cohesive unit, and how we play on the field — they are understanding the system. It’s getting there. It’s not there as yet, and I believe this competition helps us to see where we are and helps us to fix going forward,” Hyde noted.

“I have been working from the end of June with gym work, sand work, and you can see how it played out today [on Sunday]. I think we went through the tournament with the intention of winning but the physical nature of this tournament helps us, and it sets the tone to see how far we can go in the daCosta Cup,” he added.

Vassell Reynolds, head coach of beaten finalists KC, echoed Hyde’s sentiments on the importance of the tournament.

“It was a very good tournament and I thought we had some very good competitive games over the four days — and these were games that we can use to assess where we at,” he said.

“We had some objectives coming in and most of those objectives would have been met. Most of the players got minutes and, overall, it was a beneficial tournament to us.

“The one-hour games were not bad as we used them to measure the level of fitness so, overall, it was a good tournament,” said Reynolds.

Dinthill swept most of the awards as Kemar Knock won the MVP, Orane Gayle was the Best Defender, while Omanie Morrison named the Best Midfielder.

Knock was the joint winner of the Golden Boot, along with Jevante Gordon of Manchester High, while Devonte Haughton of Papine High was the Best Goalkeeper.

Knock was beaming with his awards. “It was a good tournament. I am overwhelmed with my performance personally, first of all coming out with the MVP and also [the] Golden Boot.

“You can see the confidence in the team having a coach like him, and you could see it in our play. He is a man of his word. We are very confident for the daCosta cup season,” said Knock.

Kemar Knock

HYDE… the physical nature of this tournament helps us, and it sets the tone to see how far we can go in the daCosta Cup Photo: Observer file

REYNOLDS… I thought we had some very good competitive games over the four days