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Star-Studded
(1 September 2000) - You could pick half the West Indies women's cricket team from this weekend's domestic matchup in St. Lucia, between defending champions Toughest Wrecking Crew and Sparklite Rangers for the Patsy Felicien Memorial tournament, Sunday from 10 at the Mindoo Philip Park.
On the one hand, you have the Crew, led by Windies skipper Verena Felicien, still fresh from leading St. Lucia to a third consecutive triumph in the West Indies Women's Cricket Federation competition. The hefty Babonneau native is assisted by fellow St. Lucia and West Indies allrounder Eugena Gregg.
They come up against a lineup featuring no less than four West Indies players, none more critical to her team's success than frontline bowler and captain Elizabeth Williams - though hard hitting Windies wicketkeeper Rosalyn Emmanuel might contend for the MVP honours. Those two are more than ably supported by Julietta Herman and Leona Vitalis, in what should be a thrilling encounter between a pair of exceedingly talented and experienced teams. The Crew go in as favourites.
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Windwards Win! (Wait, Windwards Win?)
(31 August 2000) - Four St. Lucians were named earlier this year to the Windward Islands under nineteen team to contest the regional age group competition in Guyana. Two of those young men had been part of St. Lucia's under fifteen success at the Windward level. One, batting allrounder Sergio Fedee, had been selected to a West Indies All-Star team. The point is, these guys - Fedee, Gairy Mathruin, Sharm Pierre and Darren Sammy - are acquainted with success, if not used to it.
They may not have played crucial roles for the Windward Islands this year. Devon Smith and Camilus Alexander were the stars for that side, as the most consistently weak first class cricketing territories in the Caribbean claimed their first-ever regional title. The Windwards claimed first innings honours over Jamaica in the final, a game which ended in a draw and gave the boys from St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Grenada their first real taste of glory.
Fedee, Sammy, Mathurin and Pierre, the latter two in particular, were overshadowed by more illustrious colleagues, but they must be congratulated for their part in a great win for the "small" islands. As Ti Rocher's Sammy said upon his return home: "We played as a unit, and our teamwork was what really pulled us through. The manager (Lennox John) told us we could win it all, and they told us everybody was expecting us to lose, so let's go and prove them wrong...so we did."
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Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright
(2 September 2000) - St. Lucian boxer Benjamin "Tiger" Modeste is the World Boxing Council's Continental super lightweight champion today, following a unanimous decision awarded him in his bout against Learie Bruce of Trinidad and Tobago this week. Fighting at the YMCA in Bridgetown, Barbados, Tiger ran his record to 30 wins and four losses (including 14 knockouts) and set himself up for a pretty nice payday down the road. He has a mandatory title defense in the next three months, according to the rules laid down by the WBC.
Tiger, weighing in at 136 lbs, had been preparing to fight a Barbadian pugilist for the title until that boxer was forced to withdraw. Tiger joins a little-heard-of list of St. Lucians who've had some sort of achievement in the squared circle. Julius Francis, Lester Jacobs and Daniel Fontalio have all made good names for themselves and for St. Lucia in European circles. All three gentlemen (Fontalio is retired from the ring, and he lives and works in St. Lucia; Jacobs recently defended his European title; Francis is most famous now for his January bout with Mike Tyson) have said that they'd like to assist with the development on the island of boxing, perhaps St. Lucia's most defunct sport. They mayn't be able to find a better place to start than with Tiger.
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Tee Up!
(1 September 2000) - The St. Lucia Golf and Country Club finally (officially) unveiled its eighteen-hole, international-pedigree course this week, at a specially convened press conference in Cap Estate. The course according to Golf Association president Trevor Cozier, will enable St. Lucia to host hitherto undreamed-of competitions, including such contests as the recently-concluded Caribbean Amateur Championships.
The Association's plans, though, extend well beyond - or below - that goal. According to Cozier, they're in a "transitional stage." Next week St. Lucia hosts the annual St. Lucia Open, which will be combined with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States team championships. A number of the finest golfers from the sub-region will give the new course a good workout, but St. Lucia's best will be missing.
Chris Taylor returned to Coker College in North Carolina recently for his sophomore season (which begins on the same weekend as the St. Lucia/OECS Open) two weeks after a so-so run at the Caribbean Championships on the Royal Westmoreland course in Barbados. Cozier points to Taylor and professionals like Timothy Mangal as the standard bearers for St. Lucian golf, but he says that there'll be a few younger people following the standard. The Association's junior programme comprises twenty-five boys and girls of whom we should be hearing more in the coming months and years. Of Taylor, Cozier notes that "St. Lucia needs more like him" and the Association is doing what it can to make sure "more like him" come through.
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St Lucian Rugby Back On Track
On Sunday August 13, 2000 the St. Lucia Rugby Football Union elected a new executive to manage its affairs and to implement programmes consistent with promoting the sport on the island. The posts were filled as follows:
President Colvis Samuels
Vice President Mike Cowing
Secretary Kurlyn Augustin
Treasurer Leslie Serieux
PRO Maurice Fahey
Specifically the organisation aims to:
1. Launch a promotional programme designed to entice new members and to make the game more visible to the various communities around the island
2.organise overseas tours and host visiting teams to provide incentive and motivation for members.
3.resuscitate youth rugby and introduce the game to schools
4.promote the St Lucia 10-a-Side Rugby Tournament around the Caribbean and beyond with the aim of making it the premiere competition in the region.
The Union wasted no time in expediting its plans when on Sunday August 20, 2000 it hosted a training session and practice game in Jacmel. In the game that followed a very intense training session conducted by Head Coach Mike Cowing, Akim Herbert's team overwhelmed Colvis Samuels's team seven tries to three. For the winners Herbert scored two tries and Lucas King, Emmanuel Bastien, Jerry Charles, Maurice Fahey and Patrick Fahey one try each while Lincoln Wagacha scored twice and Colvis Samuels once for the losers.
Training continues at the Castries Comprehensive School every Thursday and Sunday from 5.00pm and 10.00am respectively.
In the immediate future the Union plans to participate in a 15-a-side tournament in Martinique on October 14, 2000 and compete against a British war ship on October 29 at the Mindoo Phillip Park. In addition, the rugby Development Officer for the Caribbean, Mr Mark Hewitt is due to visit St Lucia in October to engage in dialogue with the Union and to conduct a coaches training programme.
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New National Record! (Well, Almost)
 (28 August 2000) - St. Lucia's Dominic Johnson is clearly the best pole vaulter in the Caribbean (and Latin America) except that there aren't many pole vaulters in the region, as Dominic will tell you. "It's the weakest region in the world for vaulting," he said in a recent interview. So, what to do? Dominic's has always said that his goal is to become one of the best in the world, and he thinks he's right on track to achieve that.
In September, he'll compete with the best in the world at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and he appears to be peaking just in time. Saturday, at a special invitational meet in El Paso, Texas, Dominic had a career-best clearance in the pole vault. His leap of 5.70m won't replace his 1998 height of 5.65 as St. Lucia's national record, though. The more recent height wasn't achieved at an International Amateur Athletics Federation-sanctioned meet, so it won't remain on the official records.
Knowing that he can jump nearly 18'9" will have been reward enough for the 24-year-old St. Lucian, at least for the time being. Dominic has been consistent over 18' for the past couple of years, and he's aiming for a legitimate career-best mark Down Under. The St. Lucia Olympic team leaves for Sydney 6 September, and with no relay team Dominic will be focused on his event, and focused on getting higher than he's ever been. It could well be the beginning of a Caribbean pole vault tradition.
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St. Lucia Is Second Best, And That's Excellent
(27 August 2000) - On the surface of it, you might call the national netball team a failure, missing its two best chances to claim regional gold; anyone disappointed by Germaine Altifois and her charges, though, would have had excessively high expectations of our girls who, as a unit, are poised for greatness.
St. Lucia fell to Jamaica in the penultimate hurdle at the Caribbean Netball Championships in Nevis. The second-last game for the two previously unbeaten teams, it was close early on Friday evening, St. Lucia within five after a quarter. Eventually, though, the team known in Jamaica as the Caribbean Queens would pull away and establish their authority, winning 67-33 and sealing the 2000 championship, having missed the St. Lucia-hosted 1998 tournament.
A damper on St. Lucia's theretofore perfect tournament? Hardly.
As hosts in '98 the St. Lucians were seven goals away from the championship, a tournament, weakened by the absence not only of Jamaica, but also of Trinidad and Tobago. The host territory - with a team comprising young veterans, four debutantes and two near-retirees - lost to Barbados and eventual champions St. Vincent and the Grenadines by a combined total of eight goals.
This year, a more settled team that has truly declared Altifois and prolific shooter Barbara Joseph-Theobalds its offensive leaders made up that difference against SVG, whipping them by thirteen. The St. Lucians even eked out a 44-41 victory against an All-England selection. Just two nights later, the Englishwomen would defeat an Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States team.
These St. Lucians, still fairly young, completed their best finish ever at the Caribbean Championships (they're behind only Jamaica) with a win over Nevis. With some tweaking, they could be on course to mount a massive surprise in 2002. With teenaged girls eager to take up this game throughout St. Lucia, the national association wants to beef up its club structure, so that there's a greater degree of training at all levels. The game against Jamaica will have demonstrated the value of playing teams from Australia and Great Britain. As more than one Jamaican commentator has noted "the St. Lucians are always the most talented, the most athletic" but the lack of exposure at the highest level is holding the national side back.
This year, the Jamaicans actually were a bit worried about their game against St. Lucia - in two years, let's give them a real scare!
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OECS Ladies Second At SoCa Squash
(27 August 2000) - Mixed news for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States this week at the Southern Caribbean Squash Championships:
Friday, the OECS matched up against Trinidad and Tobago, and an eventful match between the number one players from those teams, St. Lucia's Charlie Sonson and Paul Devertuil. The Trinidadian took the first game 9/7 but early in the second game, Sonson was accidentally hit by his opponent and sustained a cut beneath his eye. Injury time was allowed and Sonson came back to win the second game 9/4. Unfortunately, his cut was bleeding and play had to be brought to a halt once again, Sonson eventually defaulting the rest of his match.
During Sonson's injury time, Jason Noon playing #4 for the OECS battled through a nail biting five setter losing the first two games 1/9 6/9 before taking the match in the next three games 9/7 9/7 9/0 to put the OECS team in a lead of three matches to five in the men's division.
In the veterans ladies, Cheryl Renwick of the OECS started the OECS Ladies team on a winning role by defeating Cecilia Prudent of Trinidad & Tobago 9/7 9/3 9/6. Lily Bergasse of the OECS went on second to defeat Karina Luthmeesingh of Trinidad & Tobago 9/4 9/0 9/0. Alana Simmons of the OECS continued the three love win for her team by defeating Kimberly Farah of Trinidad & Tobago 9/6 9/6 9/1. Diane Julien of Trinidad & Tobago was unable to pull off a win and Carol Dodd of OECS took the match 9/1 9/1 9/0.
Saturday the OECS men lost to Guyana by a single point, and the ladies finished second overall by dismissing Guyana 3-2.
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