Kensington, St Mary hunt Senior Cup

Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

The final of the 2010 Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) Senior Cup will be played today at Chedwin Park, with Kensington going up against St Mary, beginning at 10 a.m.

Kensington will be seeking to go one better than 2008 when they lost out in the final to Hanover, and as such failed to advance to the top-tier JCA Super League, while for St Mary, the hope is that their relatively unknown unit will continue to surprise.

The winners of the Senior Cup gain automatic qualification to next season's Super League, while the runners-up will play off against the team finishing last in the just-concluded Super League.

"The weather sort of presented us with a challenge this week regarding training. But we played a good semi-final last weekend against Clarendon, and heading into the final we are quite optimistic," said Kensington coach, David Bernard Sr.

"We just hope we can hold our head down and do what we need to do when the situation demands," he added.

Leading the way for Kensington will be batsmen Wavell Hinds, Maurice Kepple and Horace Miller, and bowlers Dennis Bulli and Akeem Dewar.

Hinds and Kepple, who were not in the team when Kensington lost in the 2008 final, will be hoping to use their experience to telling effect, while Bulli, the competition's leading wicket-taker, and Dewar, who is third in the bowling stats, will be hoping that their fine form will continue.

St Mary will be seeking to pull off an upset, as they did in the semi-finals when they toppled St Thomas by virtue of having qualified for the round as group winners.

The game ended in a draw after both teams ended tied on first innings and could not forge a decisive result in the time remaining.

"The aim is to move from the Senior Cup up to the Super Cup, and we will be urging the players once again to give of their best," said St Mary coach, Jefferton Meeks.

"It will be a tough challenge, but at the end of it we believe we have what it takes to come out on top," he declared.

St Mary will bank their hopes on batsmen Maurice Clarke and Domain Wilson, who have in the past been outstanding in JCA competitions and represent the backbone of their batting.

Meanwhile, the sixth and penultimate round of the top-tier Super League will also be played this weekend, with five teams in the hunt for the title.

In the feature game, defending champions Manchester Lions, who lie in second position on 16 points, will host fourth-place St Elizabeth Warriors (12), while leaders Melbourne Kangaroos, on 17, will play away to relegation-bound Trelawny Buccaneers (1) at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium.

Elsewhere, fifth-place St Ann Cutters (11) entertain third-place St Catherine Saints (15) at Kaiser Sports Club, and sixth-place Westmoreland Wizards (9) will travel to Sabina Park to face Kingston Tigers (6).