By Frederick Halley

TORONTO, Canada – Victoria Park Cricket Club (VPCC) and Trinity Women’s Cricket Canada shared top honours when the Scarborough Cricket Association (SCA) held its 39th annual gala presentation, dinner and dance at the East Town Banquet Hall, Scarborough recently.

On a night when juniors, seniors and women were rewarded for their outstanding performances during an eventful 2019 season, VPCC were crowned the Elite League playoff champions while Trinity captured the women’s playoff championship, the former carting off the Shiv Persaud of Primerica trophy and the latter the Caribbean Wave-sponsored trophy.

Both VPCC and Trinity, however, failed to win the regular-season titles with defending Elite champions Hawaiian Arctic Cricket Club (HACC) and Tranzac Cultural & Sports Club finishing the season on top.

The Most Valuable Players (MVP) in the Elite finals were Kumar Erramilli (VPCC) and Anas Malik (Highland Creek) while Nicole Samuel (Trinity) and Durriya Shabbir (Tranzac) topped for their respective sides.

Highland Creek’s Fahad Ali (440) registered the most runs in the Elite Division while Ambassadors Amerish Deoraj was the top wicket-taker with 28. The leading run-scorer in the women’s division was Trinity’s Teresa Bess Lavia with 171 while her teammate Lorraine Kenton claimed 17 wickets to lead in the bowling department.

After finishing the regular season in the fourth spot, VPCC upstaged HACC in the semi-finals, earning the right to play second-place Highland Creek, who had gotten the better of Ambassadors in the other semi-final. HACC had to settle for the Trophy Stall of Toronto trophy.

Islanders powered their way to the Premiere Division playoff title, whipping Highland Creek in the process after also ending the regular season on top, waltzing away with the Frank Faubert and J. Pirali-sponsored trophies. The MVPs were Mahadeo Moonasar (Islanders) and Ishan Shah (Highland Creek).

Champions lived up to their name by emerging winners of the First Division playoff final, defeating Panthers to capture the Trophy Stall trophy while they also finished the Conference B regular season on top with Ajax/Scarborough Kingz B taking top honours in Conference A.

Second Division playoff champions United Titans captured the Norman Sue Bakery-sponsored trophy with runners-up being Toronto Rhinos, who had earlier won the regular-season title and the Caribbean Wave-sponsored trophy.

The Third Division Roy Lalkissoon-sponsored trophy went to Phoenix Kerala while the Conference A and B winners were Maple and Phoenix Kerala.

The T20 competition saw Bawa upstage VPCC to win the Bisham Singh Conference B playoff championship while Elevens Kerala took the Deo Samaroo Conference A playoff crown with victory over Scarborough Strikers.

After failing to capture the regular-season title, SCA Blues bounced back to defeat archrivals Action Zone Cricket Academy to cart off the playoff title while the latter took care of business in both the regular season and playoff final in the Under-14 category.

The Under-17 category was sponsored by long-standing SCA Chief Financial Officer Vish Jadunauth and assistant secretary/treasurer Mathew Francis while Liz Anandjit and Calvin Alexander took care of the Under-14 division.

The Norman Sue Spirit Award, given annually to a worthy individual who has played a big role both on and off the field, was presented to HACC long-standing executive Deo Samaroo by the late businessman’s daughter Kim Sue.