by MIKE KING at Beckles Road

TWO VETERANS Sean Armstrong and William Lashley brought their experience to bear in a meaningful way for BRC BCL and Caribbean Lumber Company YMPC respectively yesterday.

Armstrong, a week before his 35th birthday, observed the value of bowling wicket to wicket and delivered 19 overs of steady medium pace from the pavilion end.

His six for 53 was the second best bowling performance of his career, only bettered by seven for 34 as a schoolboy against the same opponents in the early 1990s.

The obdurate Lashley survived the threat posed by Armstrong and, supported by two other long-standing players Adrian Jones (41) and Ryan O'Neale (21), took YMPC to a respectable 251, much more than they would have been hoping for at 82 for six.

Batting a shade under three hours, Lashley mixed defence with aggression and was last man out for 76, brilliantly caught and bowled by 19-year-old left-arm spinner Karran Bhola.

Lashley went up a gear towards the end of the innings, smashing McClean and Bhola over the fence and lifting Dave Clarke's innocuous off-spin onto the pavilion steps.

The first hour and a half of the day belonged to Armstrong and teenager Andre Ferdinand who held four slip catches.

Yutesh Danpaul, the 20-year-old opening batsman, Eric Batson, skipper Calvin Watson and new recruit Shamar Cooke were also prised out by Armstrong, while fast bowler Kevin McClean accounted for Steven Blackett.

Lashley and Jones started the revival with a seventh-wicket stand of 81 and the defiance continued with 43 added for the eighth wicket and 41 for the ninth wicket.

In the last hour, YMPC made an early breakthrough, though luckily, as Roger Williams' bat appear nowhere the edge of a wide ball from Calvin Watson.