ST PHILIP has long been accepted as the home of “proper pork”.
Therefore, it could only be an attempt to avoid the Christmas crush that saw the St Philip road tennis team opting to pick up their choice pieces of pork at the Silver Hill court on Tuesday night.
Facing the daunting task of stopping St Michael B and Masters from making a record fifth successive trip into the semi-finals, St Philip suffered two ignominious “sows” as they bowed out of the National Sports Council’s competition at the quarter-final stage.
Former road tennis president Richard Pinder was sliced up by Andrew “Cripple” Holder, 21-5, 21-14 in masters action.
That limp effort by Pinder gave his teammate Rudy “National” Gill little fighting chance against consummate entertainer Jeffrey “Bing Crosby” Layne. Although Gill lost 17-21, continuing was meaningless since the points difference had already given St Philip Masters their early Christmas break.
With speculation rife that St Michael were fielding their weakest B team to date, St Philip, jumped on the chance to score an upset with the solid Ryan Hall battling from a game down to stop fit-looking Barbados Defence Force (BDF) member Terry Smith 20-22, 21-16, 21-17.
Smith, a former BDF Premier League goalkeeper, was undone by his overaggression when he held advantages over Hall.
However, St Michael showed their depth, with the poise, balance and skill of Julian “Ju-Ju” Collymore setting an equation for Frederick Smith mathematics teacher Dwayne Hope that he could not figure out.
With Antoine “Lil Man” Daniel on the side screaming that he was teaching Collymore tai chi, the slimly built player executed all of the foot and hand movements of a tai chi master as he played the ball as if it were a feather to confound and destroy Hope 21-7 in the first game.
With his wife, national badminton star Shari Hope on the sideline supplying him with water and tennis advice, Hope countered with some “flying” smashes to lead 11-9 in the second game.
Daniel then screamed a warning to Collymore not to give Hope 15 points. Collymore showed uncanny skill in putting back every ball on the court with the deftness and skill of a genius as Hope never got his 12th point until Collymore had surged to 18-11. It was then a mere formality for Collymore to take the match 21-7, 21-13 and St Philip headed back to the east with two pigs in tow.
Earlier, the stylish Rickey “Body Doc” Hoyte predictably carried St Thomas Masters into the semi-finals as he took his rescheduled match against Anthony “Noss” Edwards 21-11, 21-15. Edwards had led 15-10 in the second game.
The action will recommence on January 2 with the semi-finals.
