St. Vincent and the Grenadines defeated Saint Lucia 39-17 to take home the Gloria Ballantyne Trophy, in the tournament decider of the 2022 OECS/ECCB International Netball Series last night in Roseau, Dominica. It was the final night of competition, and both teams, having lost to Barbados and the opportunity to gain world ranking points, now faced each other in the decider.
With about 1 minute 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the rains came, and after almost an hour of rainfall, the Saint Lucia camp in consultation with their Vincentian counterparts, decided to forfeit the fourth quarter and the match.
It was a decision also influenced by the number of injuries in the Saint Lucia squad. Key player Shem Maxwell with a broken ankle, another player has a broken toe, while two other players are nursing injuries of one kind or another. Then the day before two players tested positive for Covid-19, which put six players out of reckoning for the critical game. In fact Saint Lucia was forced to field one of the injured players because another player got injured during the second quarter.
The quarter scores in the game were 14-8, 28-12, 39-17, with the match forfeited in third quarter. For St. Vincent and the Grenadines, May-Ann Frederick scored 32 out of 48 attempts, Shellisa Davis 5 out of 9 attempts, and Zanique Vincent 2 out of 5 attempts.
For Saint Lucia Safiya Paul scored 2 out of 4 attempts, Roxanne Snyder 11 out of 13 attempts, and Aaliyah Estephor 4 out of 8 attempts, as St. Vincent and the Grenadines went on to win the second edition of the OECS/ECCB International Netball Series in Roseau, Dominica.
In the other game, Dominica defeated St. Kitts and Nevis 68-46; the quarter scores being 18-12, 19-13, 51-33, 68-46.
For St. Kitts and Nevis Aaliyah Pierre scored 24 out of 32 attempts, Rochella Challenger 18 out of 21 attempts, and Jewel Thompson 4 out of 5 attempts, with Anna Panthier–Xavier 24 out of 32 attempts, and Vincentian-born Galeine Seraphine scored 44 out of 53 attempts scoring for Dominica.
Robertson S. Henry is a multi-time award winning sports journalist from Saint Lucia, currently residing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His coverage of sporting events both locally and regionally, not just landed him the Sports Journalist of the Year Award on numerous occasions, but recognition from the International Olympic Committee in 2005.
Henry began his fulltime career in journalism with the now defunct Crusader Newspaper in 1994, and worked with the Voice Newspaper until 2007. He established the sports website sportcaraibe, and believes “sports is the fourth pillar in the socio-economic development of the Caribbean.”
Henry has also produced work for a number of regional newspapers including the Trinidad Guardian, Stabroek Newspaper of Guyana, and in 2010 did a photo-shoot of Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke for the Australian Herald.
