Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

THE GLEANER won the 2004 Kingston and St. Andrew Business House Division I Domino League on Friday evening when they defeated Tank-Weld 128-121 at Jacisera Park, going through the competition unbeaten in the process.

Asserting their authority from early in the first half, Gleaner blew a 17-point advantage in the latter stages to lead by only three points (65-62) at the interval.

In the early stages of the second half, Tank-Weld continued their momentum by winning nine of the first 12 games, to assume the lead in the 70s. However, this forced The Gleaner's captain, Winston Nixon, to make three changes, bringing in the 'big man' Earl 'Marro' Morris and his partner Courtney Burke on one table and Michael Leighton and Leroy Cooper on another.

FOCUS REGAINED

This not only enabled The Gleaner to regain focus, but also the lead in the 80s. With the pair of Ronald Berry and Domion Shorter holding their own as well, the 'newsmen' from North Street kept up the pressure after leading 100-95 to win by seven points, much to the delight of their cheering supporters.

Leighton and Cooper copped the MVP award as top pair in the final, but not far behind were Morris and Burke, Berry and Shorter and captain Nixon and Eric Channer. Bank of Jamaica finished third in Division I.

In the Division II final, Life of Jamaica rallied from a 15-point deficit at halftime (76-61) to beat Air Jamaica 133-128 in an exciting contest. The MVP pair for Life of Jamaica was Winston Brown and Douglas Forbes, while not far behind were teammates Trevor Barnes and Herbert Garriques. For Air Jamaica, Roger Hull and Fred Thomas won 28 games.

In the presentation of trophies and prizes, Nixon received the Division I Trophy on behalf of his team from Denzil Wilks, general manager of the Sports Development Foundation, while LoJ's captain, Danny McCalla, accepted the Division II trophy from Donna Nugent of Lexsun Limited.

MOST DISCIPLINED TEAM

Dennis Beckford of BoJ won the award as the competition's most versatile captain while BoJ were the most disciplined team and McD's the most improved.

The competition was run by the National Association of Domino Bodies