It will be?an all-Belfield affair when the inaugural Village Camp Shotgun Road Tennis Championship climaxes with the finals at the Bush Hall courts on Sunday night.
Belfield Lions defied tremendous odds, including defeat in the quarter-finals, to set up a date with favourites Belfield All Whites after Wednesday’s matches.
Captain Sylvan “Lama” Burnett registered one of the biggest upsets as his team defeated Bush Hall Strikers 4-3 in the semis.
The fans never got to see an expected exciting clash between Julian “Michael Jackson” White of All Whites and Kerry “TC” Francis of Vietnam Green Flowers after the All White wrapped up their contest 4-1.
Virtual unknown Curtis Quimby of Gully Side played some scintillating shots to stun Barnett 21-19 early in the proceedings. Things got worse for Barnett as he was “sowed” 21-8 in the quarter-finals encounter by Adrian “Dan” Skeete, the captain of Green Flowers. But a better losers’ record put the Lions through.
The All Whites reached the semis by rolling over Progressive 4-1, with the latter returning as the best loser in the earlier rounds. With the captains structured to play each other, Skeete opted to open the contest against Mark “Venom” Griffith.
In spite of taking an early lead, Skeete could not hold off the resolute Griffith, who won 21-15. Veteran Edward “Dabo” Carrington evened the contest by dismissing Adrian “Adee” Best 21-11 before Shabbir Greenidge gave the advantage back to the All Whites by beating Junior Boyce 21-14.
Jeffrey “Borah” Best then outplayed Michael Jean 21-18 for the Lions to draw level. However, an exciting Juniors battle saw Darius “Barracus” Gaskin outgunning Kyle King 21-16 before national table tennis player Aaron Barker stunned Lloyd “Dickman” Burke 21-16 to carry the All Whites into the finals.
The Lions then lost their opening match as reserve Andrew “Cripple” Holder felt the bite of Julian “Snake” Quimby 15-21. Curtis Jones showed no mercy in destroying Ricky “Body Doc” Hoyte 21-8 to pave the way for Chesterfield “Boy Boy” Brewster to beat Leon Carter 21-15 to carry the Lions 2-1 up.
The battle of the captains saw Barnett using every tactical and psychological ploy to stop the explosive Antoine Daniel 21-19. Both players reeled off some vintage shots, which excited the large crowd. Charles Taylor then beat Stig Merritt 21-17 to delay the Lions.
The match of the tournament then proved to be the junior battle between Emar Edwards and Keon Murrell. Edwards won 21-19 as both players exhibited a high standard of play. However, in the tiebreaker Louis “Louis Dog” Daniel exorcised Anthony “Baku” Simmons 21-17 to carry the Lions into the finals.
