THE J.C. Chandisingh Secondary School emerged as champions of a four-school, Lower Corentyne area, U-19 competition last week in the Ancient County.

In the final of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB)-organised Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club (RHTY&SC)/Guyana Bank for Trade & Industry (GBTI) Inter-Secondary School ‘Say No to Suicide’ Under-19 competition J.C. Chandisingh defeated Corentyne Comprehensive High (CCH) by 26 runs.

Berbice Under-17 player Chanderpaul Govindan spearheaded the attack. The promising youngster struck six sweetly-timed boundaries in a top score of 46 as his school tallied 88-5 off 12 overs.
Tagwah Ross supported with 15 runs.

Gouray Ramesh led the bowling attack for the eventual second-placers with 2-8, while Tyrese Sealey, D. Bijadder and Mahendra Gopilall finished with one scalp each.
CCH never settled in the middle and they found scoring difficult. Ramesh proved his prowess with an unbeaten knock of 23, but only Sealey (11) and Shamar Scott (11*) lent support as CCH folded for 62-5.
Jonathan Rampersaud, Surendra Ramcharitar and Christopher Deroop took a wicket each for the champions.

The 17th competition of the vibrant BCB, under the presidency of Hilbert Foster, to be completed over the last four months had some intense opening round clashes. Port Mourant Secondary School lost to Corentyne Comprehensive High School by eight wickets. Batting first after losing the toss, Port Mourant Secondary reached 45-5 off their allotted eight overs with A. Hartman (11) and R. Rampersaud (10) reaching double figures.

National junior cricketer Gourav Ramesh led the eventual second-place finishers with 2-5.
In response, CCH raced to 50-2 with Tyrese Sealey hitting 25, with D. Bijadder supporting with an unbeaten 12.

In another clash, Lower Corentyne Secondary were restricted to 30-7 against the eventual champions J.C. Chandisingh Secondary with only Vijay Gopilall (12) reaching double figures. Christopher Deroop claimed 2-2 in an impressive spell; while his skipper Jonathan Rampersaud struck a quick-fire 23 not out to lead J.C. Chandisingh to victory at 32-1 in the fourth over.

HIGH PRAISES
Foster praised the four teams for the high level of discipline displayed during the matches and encouraged them to always strive for excellence.
The BCB president told the attentive youths that Berbice cricket was on the move again after a period of neglect and urged the players to take full advantage of the opportunities being presented to them.

He spoke on the importance of youths saying no to drugs, suicide, alcohol, tobacco, crime and yes to education, sports, culture, religion and life.
Foster said that the RHTY&SC and the BCB, will continue to organise cricket tournaments on a large scale once he remains part of the organisation.
Special thanks were extended to the management and staff of the Port Mourant branch of the GBTI.