Sports

A general knowledge quiz, sponsored by American Airlines/American Eagle, was held at Stoney Ground Primary School with participation of all primary school schools.

The Anguilla Tennis Association development programme, involving the training of a large number of children over the past six months, culminated on May 30 with a presentation of awards.

The match which took place last weekend in St. George’s, Grenada, between a WICB Select XI and the touring Bangladeshis had been hailed as the opportunity for the young WICB selectees, who were on the fringe of selection to the Windies Test team, to show what they were made of and grab themselves a spot in the forthcoming two-Test series.

The softball sport for girls has taken on a new dimension with the introduction in Anguilla of baseball for boys, the other side of the game.

Ten or eleven years ago - or was it twelve- I well remember taking some video of my son Zachary and his friends at the Ronald Webster Park playing in the Inter Primary Schools Cricket Tournament. I still have that video and it is quite a shock to see how much the park has changed - for the better- not to mention how these youngsters have grown - but then of course, they do, don’t they?

The Anguilla Tae Kwon Do Club held an examination for its members on Sunday May 16 at the Stoney Ground School Auditorium. It was conducted by Grandmaster Shin of New York.

More than seventy persons from across the region were in Anguilla from May 7 - 9, for the 17th Annual Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Bridge Tournament.

Yacht-racing, like local boat racing, is proving to be a popular past time in Anguilla, attracting large numbers of people to the sport.

The 2004 Junior and Senior Basketball Tournaments commenced on May 8 with an opening ceremony at Coronation Park in The Valley. The ceremony got off to a late start, prompting rebuke, by the speakers, for the players who slowly turned up at the improved court.

Despite a rain-washed out first match at the renewal of the A.L.H.C.S. Interhouse Cricket Tournament, a very impressive opening ceremony went ahead as planned.

Eleven teams participated in the 2004 Fun Day activities held at the Ronald Webster Park in Anguilla on the Labour Day holiday, May 3.

The 2004 Cable and Wireless One Day Series ended all square at 2-2 as England progressed to a comfortable victory over the West Indies in the seventh international match at Kensington Oval in Barbados, eventually winning by five wickets with sixteen balls to spare.

With West Indies cricket recently threatened by the possibility of another "whitewash" and even more recently by frequent "washouts", the West Indian fan can be excused for feeling somewhat downhearted by the way things have been going of late, but if we were to look at what has been happening during the past couple of weeks in Zimbabwean cricket, then perhaps we might just consider ourselves to be not too badly off after all - and at least we did have the benefit of Brian Lara's timely 400mg shot in the arm just as we were all about to descend into a cricketing coma.
In strife-torn Zimbabwe, however, cricketing problems recently reached a haiatus when fifteen of its international squad withdrew themselves from availability for selection after complaints concerning the unacceptable methods of operation by the Board of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union and the subsequent firing of captain, Heath Streak.

The Easter Monday holiday in Anguilla was marked by various social events held by church and community groups in several parts of the island.

Anguilla hosted the 7th Annual Inland Revenue Games, over the Easter weekend, which attracted a large number of Caribbean nationals.

The Anguilla Sailing Association (ASA) hosted a well attended cocktail party at the Pumphouse Bar & Restaurant, Sandy Ground on Saturday evening March 27th. The purpose of the gathering was to acquaint individuals and businesses in Anguilla with the ASA and its projects as well as updating everyone on the planning progress for this year’s Anguilla Regatta which takes place in Road Bay May 7th – 9th.

When WICB President, Teddy Griffith, was elected to that prestigious office in 2003, he stated that it would be his Board's intention to put the West Indies senior cricket team back into the top three Test playing countries in the ICC World Cricket Rankings by the end of the year 2005. Certainly nobody could begrudge him those positive and optimistic remarks when taking over his difficult office and at a time when West Indies cricket was at a generally low ebb. Realistically, however, it was already barely feasible - even if the West Indies had won every Test series between that point in time and the end of 2005.

In a surprisingly one-sided semi-final match against England at Dhaka the West Indies Under 19's cruised through to the World Youth Cup Final where they will meet co-finalists, Pakistan on Friday.

The Leeward Islands drift into Round 6 of the 2004 Carib Beer Series this week without a win under their belt since the tournament began in early January. They seem to be drifting even further off course this year and as they go into St. Thomas for what is a home game against table-toppers Barbados, they are like a ship without a rudder and with all their sails aflap.

The Anguilla Tennis Academy, in association with the Anguilla Tourist Board, will be launching a dedicated “Buy a Brick Campaign” in support of the new, state-of-the-art facility to be built in Blowing Point.