Tuff Gong, Assassin in mid-season final

Western Bureau: Zone A front-runners Tuff Gong and their Zone B counterparts, Assassin, will contest tomorrow's mid-season finals in the 2011 J. Wray & Nephew-sponsored Western Domino League, after coming away with favourable results in last weekend's final-round preliminary games in the tournament's first round.

The final, which will be played at Father's Bar & Grill in Long Bay, Trelawny, starting at 1:30 p.m., will form part of a triple-header, which will also feature a Zone B third-place play-off between Tropical Riddim and Fighter Jet and a rescheduled Zone A game between Tornado and Logwood.

Assassin, who entered their game against Fighter Jet knowing that should they lose by more than 25 points they would be bumped from the mid-season final by their opponents, lost the game by a nail-biting 300-299 margin, which was not enough to hurt them.

For Tuff Gong, their passage into the mid-season final was less complicated, as just needing to secure a win against Long Bay to advance, they had a decisive 300-242 win, which landed them atop the Zone A standings with 59 points, one more than Strike Force.

In their game against Fighter Jet, Assassin got an early scare when their opponents took a good 156-129 half-time lead. However, in the second half they stormed back and tied the score at 298-298 before Fighter Jet won the two games required to give them the match.

In their win against Long Bay, it was a post-to-post affair for the Tuff Gong team, who never eased off the throttle in their relentless march to victory.

outscored

In other matches played last weekend, Strike Force outscored Intouch 300-290, Dynasty crushed Deeside 300-264, Star Internationals clobbered Rainbow 300-259, Tropical Riddim brushed aside Mandela Green 300-290, Uptown upstaged Cool Waves 300-274, and Tornado thrashed Ewing Strikers 300-270. Retrieve failed to show for their game against Logwood.

Following the mid-season finals, the competition will move into the second phase of the preliminary round, which will feature a 'Premier League' with the top four teams from the two zones and a 'Division One League' featuring the other eight teams.

The second round, to be played in a knockout format, will see the teams being paired as follows: the Premier League - Tuff Gong vs Cool Waves, Strike Force vs the losers of Tropical Riddim vs Fighter Jet play-off, Assassin vs Deeside Untouchables and the winners of Tropical Riddim/Fighter Jet vs Dynasty.

In Division One, the pairings read: Stars International vs Ewing Strikers, Intouch vs Mandela Green, Uptown vs Morning Stars, and Tornado vs Unity Strikers.