At around 8 pm on Sun­day night, the sleepy vil­lage of Di­a­mond in South Trinidad came alive with a mo­tor­cade of about 20 cars honk­ing horns and blar­ing mu­sic, much to the amaze­ment of the res­i­dents. The oc­ca­sion was a his­toric cel­e­bra­tion, as F&E Di­a­mond Unit­ed had copped the Colfire South Cham­pi­onship and was on its way to the top flight of T&T's crick­et for the first time in their long his­to­ry.

The Di­a­mond Unit­ed team end­ed their cam­paign in the South Cham­pi­onship with 153 points, one more than their clos­est ri­vals Va­lients who end­ed on 152. Ever­green came in a dis­tant third with 126 points. Di­a­mond made sure of the ti­tle, with a com­pre­hen­sive in­nings and 185-run vic­to­ry over Pro­gres­sive of Ce­dros. Bat­ting first, Pro­gres­sive made 82 all out with To­taram Bishun tak­ing 2/23 and Ri­car­do Jadoonath 2/12. Jadoonath, their play­er of the sea­son cracked an im­pe­ri­ous 137 to lead his team to 351 for nine de­clared. In their sec­ond in­nings Pro­gres­sive scored 84 to hand Di­a­mond the vic­to­ry and the ti­tle.

FI­NAL STAND­INGS

F&E Di­a­mond 153

Va­lients 152

Ever­green 126

Rousil­lac 122

Vic­to­ria 110

Clarke Rochard 92

York­shire 75

Pro­gres­sive 60

St Mary's 51

Dow 30.

scores

At La Ro­maine

Va­lients 172 all out (Mar­cus Richards 68, De­von Nel­son 22, Roger Sam­bury 3/38, Faoud Bas­sarath 3/34) & 208/6 dec (De­clan Cadiz 92, Mar­cus Richards 49) vs St Mary's Su­per­stars 103 all out (Dil­lon Heyni­gaa 30, Roger Sam­bury 24, Xaviee Gabriel 4/69, Akiel Tim­o­thy 3/5) & 132 all out (Dil­lon 35, Isaac Nicholas 34, Ke­iron Lynch 4/15, Ju­nior Gibbs 4/47) - Va­lients won by an inns and 145 runs.

At Ce­dros

Pro­gres­sive 82 all out (To­taram Bishun 2/23, Ri­car­do Jadoonath 2/12) & 84 all out (Evans Ma­habir 3/31, Son­ny­lal Kan­hai 3/12) vs Di­a­mond 351/9 dec (Ri­car­do Jadoonath 137) - Di­a­mond Unit­ed won by an inns and 185 runs.

At Bar­rack­pore

Dow 69 all out (Wil­fred Debe­sette 26, Ra­jin­dra Dhan­raj 3/18) & 112 all out (Gopie Bhukal 22, Breedesh Nanan 6/54) vs Vic­to­ria 253/6 dec (Shir­van Sankar 75, Christo­pher Siewsankar 57, An­dre Siewsankar 38, Sadick Bhukal 3/25) - Vic­to­ria won by an inns and 72 runs.

At Cun­jal

Rousil­lac 104 all out (Rakesh Ma­haraj 40) & 132 vs York­shire 90 all out (Riguel Brown 3/17) & 85 all out (Riguel Brown 3/29) - Rousil­lac won by an in­nings and 71 runs.

At Wood­land

Clarke Rochard 134 all out (Hamish Ma­haraj 2/21, K De­osaran 2/29) vs Ever­green 116/2 - Game called off be­cause Clarke Rochard reached late on the fi­nal day and Ever­green was award­ed vic­to­ry.