Cricket passion stirs at St Jago’s after under-14 title
Published:Tuesday | June 11, 2024 | 12:10 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
ST JAGO High School’s ISSA Urban under-14 cricket victory is re-creating a long-dormant fervour for the game within the school.
According to St Jago coach, Joseph Lemmie, the four-wicket win over Campion the competition’s final last week has brought with it a pleasant surprise.
“Because of this victory, I’ve seen where a lot of students are now coming to me and asking when is the next training session as they now want to play cricket. They want to be part of success and the future looks bright and trust me, look out for St Jago,” said Lemmie.
Campion were reduced to 101-7 in the game last week before St Jago overhauled the total to score 105-6.
The result seems to be turning around what has been a worrying trend for Lemmie at the Monk Street-based institution.
No consistent cricket
“When I liaise with some of the past students, they told me that cricket was at the helm and the glory years of Sunlight Cup. We won the first Grace Shield competition but to be fair it has been a challenge as there’s no consistent cricket being played at the primary school level, so it’s hard to get players to come over to cricket,” said Lemmie.
The victory did not come by accident, with Lemmie explaining that Campion had beaten them earlier in the season, but that the loss gave them an opportunity to learn.
“We played Campion in the preliminary round, and they defeated us. We did our homework and realised that their top player, Zachary Buchanan, got most of his wickets when he bowled a quicker ball to our batters, who weren’t all that technically good. So, we had all the practice to eradicate that so when we met again in the final, we were now immune to that,” the coach explained.
Opener Luwaine Pryce was the chief destroyer for St Jago, scoring 75 of his team’s 105 runs. According to Lemmie, Pryce’s innings was the definition of mature and responsible.
“The objective was that one player from the top three should bat throughout the innings and opener Luwaine Pryce did that. He batted maturely, responsibly and the players at the other end just supported him and as a result, we were successful. He has been training very hard and has been consistent in the under-14 tournament.”