Gleaner grounds Air Jamaica for title

Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

THE GLEANER captured their third consecutive Business House Division One domino title on Friday night when they defeated old rivals Air Jamaica 143-138 in the final at the JPS Sports Club, Ruthven Road.

While The Gleaner were celebrating a hat-trick of wins, having beaten Tankweld in 2004 and Air Jamaica narrowly last year, their opponents were lamenting their third straight final loss.

Air Jamaica were beaten by LoJ in the 2004 Division Two final after blowing a commanding lead at half mile and subsequently lost back-to-back finals to The Gleaner in Division One.

The Gleaner raced into a 10-point lead in the early stages, but Air Jamaica soon found their rhythm to tie the score at 37 all.

Air Jamaica seemed confident when holding a 12-point lead (76-64) over The Gleaner at half-time, thanks to their dominant pair, Roger Hull and Fred Thomas, who won game after game, with Hull running up and down the floor after each winning hand as if in training with Asafa Powell.

Despite winning three quick games after the interval to be 15 points clear, Air Jamaica experienced some turbulence shortly after. They quickly lost momentum, enabling The Gleaner to regain the lead at 95-94 by virtue of good all-round play from MVP pair Leroy Cooper and Michael 'Johnny Handsome' Leighton, as well as Bernard Blackwood and Gary Mowatt, Domion Shorter and Ronald Berry along with Early 'Marro' Morrison and his alternate partners, Courtney Burke and Omar McCurdy.

RACED INTO LEAD

Passing the 100 milestone two points clear, The Gleaner never looked back. They raced into a 10-point lead at 135-125 and kept on well to be five points clear when the match was blown off at 9:45 p.m.

An elated Gleaner captain, Winston 'Pressy' Nixon, said his players were upbeat even though trailing by 12 points at half-time.

"We usually save our best for the second half and during the interval I told the players to stay focused, to concentrate," Nixon said.

"The Gleaner has always shown a capacity to rebound. That's why we never lose finals ... Right now we are looking forward to the champions of champions match to cap another good season. I am happy to be associated with a team which has won three consecutive finals," said the veteran player.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Fire Brigade defeated National Water Commission 139-124 to win the Division Two final which, like Division One, was sponsored by Jamaica Electrical Technologies Limited (JET) and organised by the National Association of Domino Bodies Kingston & St. Andrew region.

The final, dubbed 'Fire vs Water', saw the Firemen dominating from early to hold a 19-point lead at half-time. In the end they won by 15 points to be unbeaten in 11 matches this season. Their MVP pair were Clinford Elvin and Michael 'Burro' Fuller, while the team was captained by Otis Rowe.