C & R Enterprises Sion Hill are the winners of the 2004 ECGC OECS Champion of Champions Netball.
Sion Hill made a clean sweep of the tournament, winning all seven matches.
Playing in the sub-regional tournament for the first time, Sion Hill made sure that the title resided in the host country.{{more}}
The victory road began on the opening day, last Friday, with a 49-37 win over Tropical Shipping Newtown of St. Kitts. Continuing, the girls from the hill soared above Antigua’s Courts Eagles 56-46. They got the better of last year’s winner Elite Strikers of St. Lucia 48-43. The winning path followed, with a 50-45 triumph over Grenada’s Ideal Garment Panthers. Sion Hill’s biggest test was supposed to have come from the experienced Shamrock of St. Lucia. However, with partisan crowd support in their corner, Sion Hill romped to a 50-40 win over the Shamrock. Sion Hill’s title lien was formalised with a 55-43 win at the expense of Dominica’s Spartans and a 54-33 downing of Nevis’ Pace-Setters. Dethroned champions Elite Strikers docked in second, with Shamrock third.
It was a happy time for the C & R Enterprises Sion Hill Club and supporters last Monday night, as the tournament ended at the Arnos Vale Sports Complex. Manager of the Sion Hill Club, Sylvia Clarke, speaking last Monday night, said that she was “overwhelmed” with her Club’s achievements.
She said that it was a “total team effort” and it came against the “odds” as many persons believed that they were not ready for such a task.
Clarke singled out Coach Joanne Ballantyne, Managing Director of C & R Enterprises, Cleve Lewis, and Manager of the National Sports Council, Osborne Browne for their input. She said her Club would focus on copping the Knock Out competition of the National Club Tournament. A confident Clarke said that they are out to win that phase, having lost the League title.
For Elite Strikers, they are looking to get another crack at the 2005 OECS title, as the 2004 St. Lucia Netball Competition has not yet been convened. Manager of the Elite Strikers, Wayne Bent, and captain Vanessa Williams believed that they did “their best”.
The four-day tournament ended last Monday night with the closing ceremony. This was addressed by President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Netball Association Doris Mc Intosh, ECGC’s Acting Manager Steve Francis, OECS Sports Co-ordinator David Peterkin, and Minster of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Clayton Burgin.