Jamaicans swept in the finals

Anthony Minott, Gleaner Writer

JAMAICA'S HOPES of conquering their neighbours at the Caribbean Table Tennis Championships were dealt a severe blow on Tuesday night at the University of Technology when the men's and women's sides lost in the team finals.

The feature team final, the battle for the coveted men's title, proved to be an encounter of skills and wits with Caribbean rivals Jamaica and Barbados going head to head with the latter winning the tie 3-1. Kevin Farley, the third-ranked player in the Caribbean, won two of the three matches his team secured. Farley's brother, Trevor, a former Caribbean champion, won the other game for the Bajans.

Barbados' coach, Clifton Mark, said confidence played a major factor in his team's victory. "While we were down I didn't panic because I knew that we have got some confident players. This is my debut as coach and the players promised me that we are not leaving Jamaica without the gold," a smiling Mark said.

Capitalise

Jamaica started fast in all four matches, but only Dale Parham was able to capitalise.

Parham came to the table against Mark Anthony Dowell, with his team down 2-0 and with teammates Peter Moo-Young and Joseph Dibbs sitting on the bench ponde-ring how they let those games slipped away.

Parham won a keen four-setter 3-1 (11-5, 6-11, 17-15, 11-8).

Earlier, Dibbs, the first man out, had a glorious chance to send his team into the lead when he led Kevin Farley by two sets to zero. But, as Farley and his teammates did all night, Barbados rallied strongly, winning three straight sets for a final score of 5-11, 8-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-8.

Gigantic clash

With Moo-Young coming up next, Jamaica were still in the hunt but Trevor Farley turned back his challenge, despite being down two sets to one.

That made way for a gigantic clash between the veteran Moo-Young and the pride of Barbados, Kevin Farley, in a reverse single's match. Moo-Young took the early lead but Farley, a young and cunning player, soon found his rhythm and defeated Moo-Young 3-1 (2-8, 11-8, 13-11, 11-3) to hand his team victory.

In the women's final, Jamaica were crushed 3-0 by Trinidad and Tobago.

Jamaica women's coach, Colin McNeish, said while he acknow-ledged that the Barbados team was stronger on paper, he was disappointed that the players did not make use of early opportunities.

"We had good starts but the pla-yers became too defensive and allowed Barbados back in the games. They just needed to play more aggressively and we would have won," McNeish said.