As­tute­ly led by cap­tain Lindy Ann Williams, Com­bine Forces were crowned cham­pi­ons of the 2011 Cal­i­for­nia Women's Wind­ball Crick­et League, af­ter whip­ping a lack-lus­tre Play­ers squad by six wick­ets in the fi­nal at Macaulay Park, Cal­i­for­nia, on Sat­ur­day. Com­bine Forces won the cham­pi­onship prize of $6,000 and a tro­phy, while run­ners-up Play­ers took home $3,500 and a tro­phy. Prize mon­ey for both teams was do­nat­ed by the league's main spon­sor, Pt Lisas-based Su­per In­dus­tri­al Ser­vices (SIS). Tak­ing first strike in the 15-over match af­ter win­ning the toss, Play­ers got off to a pedes­tri­an start, scor­ing on­ly five runs off the first three overs, los­ing their first wick­et in the process. The scor­ing rate nev­er im­proved and Play­ers could on­ly man­age a dis­ap­point­ing 47 for 9 when the overs ran out.

On­ly cap­tain Mon­i­ca Ra­joo (13) and star batswoman Shereen Ramkissoon (10) showed any form for Play­ers who were helped by 13 ex­tras. Gillian Ma­son (2 for 6), Tri­cia Mar­quis (1 for 5), Lindy Ann Williams (1 for 7) and Deb­bie Jha­boo (1 for 8) did the dam­age for Com­bine Forces. Cap­tain Williams took the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of open­ing the in­nings, con­tribut­ing a com­posed top­score of 18 runs as Com­bine Forces romped to a com­fort­able vic­to­ry. The con­sis­tent Gi­na Gon­za­les made nine runs as they reached their vic­to­ry tar­get of 48 runs in the 13th over, los­ing four wick­ets in the process. "It is great to win the league ti­tle in on­ly our sec­ond year in the com­pe­ti­tion. The Play­ers squad played with re­al grit but I al­ways knew we had the all-round tal­ent to come out on top. We have to thank the great team spir­it of our girls and the man­age­ment team for this vic­to­ry," an elat­ed Williams said.

Ear­li­er, Vic­tors XI beat Queens XI in the bat­tle for third and fourth po­si­tions in the league, tak­ing home $2,000 and $1,000, re­spec­tive­ly. Com­bine Forces was the dom­i­nant team in the league, cap­tur­ing three of the four ma­jor ti­tles at stake in the 2011 sea­son. They won the open­ing-day round-robin com­pe­ti­tion which brought them $700 and ran away with the three-over knock­out ti­tle con­test­ed on the fi­nal day of the sea­son on Sun­day, tak­ing home $1,000. The oth­er ma­jor ti­tle, the Knock-Out com­pe­ti­tion, was cap­tured by Tamana Unit­ed who pock­et­ed $2,500. Out­siders were the Best Uni­formed Team, while Cal­drac were ad­judged Best Dis­ci­plined Team.

Cap­tur­ing a bag of four in­di­vid­ual awards was tal­ent­ed all-rounder Fe­li­cia "Jamie" Wal­ters of Trin­ba­go Ex-Na­tion­als, with Most Wick­ets (19), Most Runs (132), Most Six­es (6) and Most Fours (8). Lau­ren Sakawat reg­is­tered the High­est In­di­vid­ual Score (71) for Vic­tors XI, which made the High­est Team Score (164 for 5). Wilton "Flex" Grif­fith, founder and pres­i­dent of the Cal­i­for­nia Women's Wind­ball Crick­et League, said he was pleased with the stan­dard of play through­out the sea­son and the at­ti­tude dis­played by the teams. "We had a very suc­cess­ful sea­son and we are hap­py with the way things went, since we were cel­e­brat­ing 25 years of crick­et in Cal­i­for­nia," he said. Grif­fith thanked his hard-work­ing com­mit­tee, main spon­sor Su­per In­dus­tri­al Ser­vices (SIS) and the oth­er com­pa­nies and in­di­vid­u­als who as­sist­ed the league in its op­er­a­tions in 2011.

2011 ho­n­our Roll

League Com­pe­ti­tion: Cham­pi­ons-Com­bine Forces; Run­ners-Up-Play­ers; 3rd-Vic­tors XI; 4th-Queens XI

Knock-Out Com­pe­ti­tion: Cham­pi­ons-Tamana Unit­ed; Run­ners-up-Queens XI; 3rd-Com­bine Forces

Round-Robin Com­pe­ti­tion: Cham­pi­ons-Com­bine Forces; Run­ners-up-Trin­ba­go Ex-Na­tion­als

Fi­nal Day 3-Over Com­pe­ti­tion: Cham­pi­ons-Com­bine Forces; Run­ners-up-Tamana Unit­ed

Oth­er Awards: Best Uni­formed Team (Out­siders); Best Dis­ci­plined Team (Cal­drac); High­est Team Score (Vic­tors XI); High­est In­di­vid­ual Score (Lau­ren Sakawat); Most Wick­ets (Fe­li­cia Wal­ters); Most Runs (Fe­li­cia Wal­ters); Most Six­es (Fe­li­cia Wal­ters), Most Fours (Fe­li­cia Wal­ters); Best Wick­et­keep­er (Jenelle Charles); and Best Catch (Sta­cy Bo­lah)