Mona High once again put their ISSA Walker Cup title on the line when they face Hydel High in the curtain raiser at 2:00 pm before many-times winners Kingston College tackle archrival Calabar High at 4:15 pm at the Waterhouse Stadium on Monday.

In the other two quarter final games to be played at the Ashenheim Stadium, Vauxhall High take on St Catherine High at 2:00 pm and Charlie Smith tackle Tivoli Gardens High at 4:15 pm.

Of the eight teams left in the Walker Cup, only Vauxhall High have never won it before, with Kingston College (KC) the most successful with nine titles, followed by Tivoli Gardens with four and then Calabar High, Charlies Smith and St Catherine High with two wins each. Mona, the defending champions, and Hydel High have won it once.

Mona should prove too hot to handle for a Hydel team coming off an embarrassing 0-5 defeat to Jamaica College on Saturday. It is left to be seen whether Hydel will recover physically and mentally to challenge the champions who are motivated by the hospitalisation of the head of the school’s football programme, Craig Butler.

Calabar are also coming off a poor run in the Manning Cup, losing all three games in the quarter-final stage but it takes nothing to motivate themselves when facing archrivals KC. Their last encounter ended 2-2, a result that knocked KC out of the Manning Cup and head coach Jeremy Miller told Observer Online that he expects the Famed Purples to come seeking revenge.

“We are expecting a tough game. There is no doubt KC will be coming to exact revenge for Calabar knocking them out of the Manning Cup,” Miller pointed out.

“We ourselves have to brush off our disappointment of also exiting the Manning Cup and look to seize the opportunity to finish the season with a Cup,” he continued. “I think everyone can expect this rivalry to once again be an intense affair and we are just hoping for a positive result.”

Calabar last won the Walker Cup in 2007, while KC’s last success was in 2016 and the stage is set for an epic battle between two schools with a lot to prove.

KC’s head coach Vassell Reynolds said he is looking forward to this clash between two rival schools.

“We see it as an opportunity to get one back from Calabar although it was a 2-2 draw the last time we met. I take it that both teams are taking this quarterfinal Walker Cup matchup very serious,” said Reynolds.

“The boys are upbeat. We are fully focused on giving a good performance. It’s the type of game that both teams are motivated and looking forward to. It’s always like that when these two teams meet, with regards to whatever is at stake,” said Reynolds.

Meanwhile, two-time champions St Catherine High, which benefitted from the change of format in 2018 to win in 2019 and 2021, face a Vauxhall High team that is searching for their first football title of any kind at this level.

If St Catherine can reproduce the form that saw them starting the Manning Cup as favourites, then the stage is set for an intriguing match at the Ashenheim Stadium.

The fourth match between Charlie Smith High and Tivoli Gardens High will be interesting as Charlie Smith are coming off a deflating 0-1 loss to Excelsior that eliminated them from the Manning Cup on Saturday. It will be crucial to see how they recover with just one day’s rest after they threw everything at their opponents. Will the legs hold up against a Tivoli Gardens team that was rested from last Wednesday?

If Charlie can perform as well as they did on Saturday, they should get the better of Tivoli.

The Walker Cup was formed in 1961 in honour of HN “Chicken” Walker, the devoted former general secretary and treasurer of ISSA. Group winners and runner-ups from the preliminary round of the Manning Cup competed for the knockout trophy until it was controversially changed in 2018 to a ‘best losers’ format for schools that are eliminated from the later rounds of the Manning Cup with the semifinalists unable to compete.