Inter-Bank football starts today

The league competition for the 2009 JNBS/Western Sports-sponsored Norman Goodison Inter-Bank football competition commences today with three matches at two venues.

At the Old Men's Hockey playing field, first-year entrants Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited take on JNBS in the first match at 2 p.m. while this will be followed at 4 p.m. by the match between defending champions Scotiabank Group and RBTT.

Meanwhile, at the NWC playing field, NCB will oppose FCIB at 4:30 p.m.

The activities kicked off last Sunday at the NWC playing field with the traditional dress parade and one-day five-a-side competition. The eight participating teams were defending one-day rally champions Jamaica National Building Society, Scotiabank Group, National Commercial Bank, RBTT, First Caribbean International Bank, Bank of Jamaica, ICWI and Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited.

Western Sports presented each team with two match balls during the dress parade ceremony which was won by Scotiabank Group. Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited were second and RBTT Bank third.

In the preliminary rounds, the teams were placed in two zones of four, with Scotiabank Group winning Zone One with nine points and BOJ second with six. JNBS won Zone Two with seven points with FCIB second on four. Both semi-finals were decided on penalty shoot-outs with Scotiabank defeating FCIB and JNBS stopping BOJ after after both games ended 0-0 after full and extra time.

In the final, Scotiabank turned the tables on JNBS, winning 1-0 in extra time, thanks to a late goal from Rayon Clarke.

LIME on top in cricket

LIME defeated arch-rivals Digicel by 27 runs in the Best Dressed Chicken 30-over KO competition at Kensington Park last Sunday, as both teams continued their ongoing battle in Business House cricket this season.

Batting first, LIME were dismissed for 216 in 29.3 overs, thanks to national players Horace Miller (68) and Yannick Elliott (46), with their Melbourne Super league teammate Damion Jacobs getting 35 against Sadiki Bolt 3-17, Marvin Thomas 3-26, Paul Harrison 3-30.

Digicel replied with 189 for nine off their allotted 30 overs - Jowayne Robinson 56, Lloyd Gold 47; Jacobs taking 5-30. Andre McCarthy 3-36.

On the previous Sunday at Kensington Park, Digicel defeated NWC by 139 runs in the Reggae Jammin 50-over league. Digicel 253 off 45 overs - opener Joywayne Robinson 94, Garfield Moore 51; Duran Whyte 3-53, Carlos Francis 2-45. NWC 114 off 29 overs - Fabian Forbes 29, Oneil Wright 28, Whyte 23; Hanif Palmer 4-24.

Netball

Open League champions Scotiabank 'A' defeated RBTT 31-5 at the Leila Robinson Courts on Saturday, September 5, to be unbeaten in four matches at the halfway stage of the competition.

With several past and present national players at their disposal, Scotiabank 'A' had previously defeated their 'B' team, as well as NCB and the highly fancied Jamaica Broilers, who have lost only once.

In another Senior League match played recently, Broilers crushed NCB 62-19, while in the Intermediate 'A' League, JPS beat NWC 47-21, Sagicor drubbed ATL Group 62-29 and the Wisynco Group stopped Digicel 37-28. In the Intermediate 'B' League, NEM Insurance clipped Guardian Life 23-21 and JIO beat JF Mills 38-19.

Carib Cement winChallenge Trophy

KSAFA Business House knockout champions Carib Cement defeated league champions Scotiabank Group 8-7 on penalty kicks at Barbican playing field recently to win the annual Challenge Trophy play-off.

Defending league champions Carib Cement were beaten 3-2 by Scotiabank in the semi-final of the league, while Carib Cement had beaten them 1-0 in the KO final. Scotiabank went on to beat The Gleaner 1-0 in the league final through a Richard West first-half goal.

In this their third meeting of the season, Carib Cement won the penalty shoot-out after both teams were locked at 1-1 in regulation and extra time.

Jermaine 'Fast Car' Rowe drew first blood for Cement when scoring with a powerful free kick in the 44th minute, but this was cancelled out by an 88th-minute penalty from Nicholas McCreath. Then came the dreaded shoot-out.

Scotiabank, who are co-managed by Business House Football president Wayne Shaw and coached by Calvert Fitzgerald, also won the dress parade and five-a-side competition to cap a fine