Jamaica win title

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Jamaica's Under-16 netballers barely broke a sweat as they thrashed Guyana 74-9 to register their fifth consecutive victory and retain their Jean Pierre Caribbean Championships title at the Leila Robinson Courts late yesterday evening.

The rampaging Jamaicans will play the Trinidadians at seven this evening comforted by the fact that even an unlikely loss would not prevent them being crowned champions, due to a far superior goal difference, which would be used as the tiebreaker in such an eventuality.

The Trinidadians suffered their first loss of the championship yesterday, going down 25-22 to eastern Caribbean rivals Barbados in another of yesterday's three matches.

Dominica beat the Cayman Islands 26-14 in the other contest.

Expected to win

Cora Ricketts, manager of the Jamaica team, said: "This was a game that we were expected to win and we did. The girls played well and had no difficulty because we ran the court as should have."

In a one-sided encounter the Jamaicans, who began the game with leading goalshooter Marvadean Anderson on the bench, took control from the opening whistle through goalshooter Deneen Taylor, who converted 36 goals in the first half, which they led 42-3.

Taylor ended with a whopping 55 goals.The third quarter ended 58-8.

Taylor received solid support from Anderson, with 15 goals from 18 tries and Vanessa Jones, five from nine.

Shanette Eswick scored all nine goals for Guyana, from 16 tries.

Jamaica's coach Joan Cargill introduced the 6ft 10in Anderson at the start of the fourth quarter, much to the dismay of spectators who were cheering on the Guyanese at this time.

However, this did not slow the junior Sunshine Girls' romp to an easy victory.

Lawrence Kellmon, Guyana's coach, said: "I think my team played positive because I think that they recognised that the Jamaica team is unstoppable."

Today's games

- Jamaica vs Trinidad and Tobago at 7 p.m

- St Lucia vs Cayman Islands at 5:45 p.m

- Guyana vs Barbados at 6 p.m.