No play in daCosta Cup

Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

As was the case on Wednesday, the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) was yesterday forced to postpone all the scheduled games in the 2010 ISSA/Pepsi/Digicel daCosta Cup because of the bad weather, which has been affecting the island since Tuesday.

Shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday, ISSA's competitions officer, George Forbes, released a statement to the media, outlining that the full slate of matches which had been switched from Wednesday to yesterday had to be postponed yet again because of the inclement weather.

"All games originally set for Wednesday, September 29 in the rural daCosta Cup will now be played on Monday, October 4, except for matches in Zone G, H and J, which will be played as per original fixture," the release said.

However, while ISSA is looking to resume action on Monday, if that plan is to go ahead some schools might be forced to seek out alternative venues as, in the case of Herbert Morrison and several other schools in western Jamaica, their playing fields are either flooded or have sustained significant damage.

"Our drainage here is not the best so I think it is a safe bet to say our field will not be able to accommodate any matches any time soon," a source close to Herbert Morrison told The Gleaner yesterday. "In fact, we depend more on the sun than the drains to remove the water."

Flexible schedule

Because of the flexible schedule of the daCosta Cup, ISSA is not unduly worried about the rescheduling of games. In an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday, Forbes said if the need arises ISSA could look at schools playing three games per week - Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

With just one round of matches to complete the competition's first round of preliminary games, the daCosta Cup, which is symbol of rural schoolboy football supremacy, is now interestingly poised with several former champions among the teams leading in the various zones.

The current zone leaders are St James High and Spot Valley in Zone A, Rusea's in Zone B, Marcus Garvey in Zone C, St Mary Technical in Zone D, Manning's in Zone E, Munro College in Zone F, Manchester High in Zone G, Clarendon College in Zone H, Glenmuir in Zone I, Charlemont in Zone J, Buff Bay and Port Antonio in Zone K and Paul Bogle in Zone L.