Lodge And Tabernacle Draw First Blood In Number Seven Domino League Semis

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, October 7, 2020 (MMS-SKN) — The battle for supremacy in the 25^th edition of Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League begun in earnest Tuesday evening October 6 when the top four teams met for their first encounters in a best of three semi-finals.

Two former champions, Lodge Domino Club and Unity Domino Club, in their pursuit to reclaim the coveted title now that defending champions Parsons Domino Club are out of the equation, met at the Lodge Community Centre in Lodge Project where in a hotly contested encounter Lodge won 14-10.

Lodge had won their in the first round encounter this year when they beat Unity 13-9, but in the second round Unity avenged by winning narrowly – 13-12. The two teams will meet tomorrow Thursday October 8 for the second semi-final encounter and should Lodge win, they will book a place in the finals. However, a win by Unity will trigger off the third game.

The battle between two teams which made a comeback to the league after a one-year hiatus, Phillips Domino Club and Tabernacle Domino Club, took a dramatic turn Tuesday evening when Tabernacle turned the tables on their contemporaries Phillips and beat them 13-11 in the game played at the Edgar Gilbert Sporting Complex pavilion in Molineux.

During the preliminaries, Phillips who emerged at the top of points table had an upper hand over Tabernacle who they had easily beaten 13-8 in the first round and 13-7 in second round. Should Tabernacle continue with their newly found vigour tomorrow Thursday when they meet for the second semi-final encounter, they will book a place in the finals.

Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League, which is the longest running such league in the Federation, is sponsored by Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and Area Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Seven, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris.

In the meantime confusion surrounds results of the three semi-final games played on Monday October 5 in the Best of the Rest competition. Sylvers Domino Club had beaten Christ Church Domino Club 14-10 at the Lodge Community Centre, while Small Corner Bar Domino Club had beaten Mansion Domino Club 13-10 at the same venue, and Unstoppable Domino Club had beaten Molineux Domino Club 13-10 at the Edgar Gilbert Sporting Complex.

With six teams competing in three semi-final games, rules governing Constituency Number Seven Dr the Hon Timothy Harris Domino League clearly state that of the three winning teams, the one with the best results gets a bye into the finals while the other two battle it out for the other slot in the finals.

The fact that Sylvers had a winning score of 14 games, as opposed to Small Corner Bar and Unstoppable who each had scored 13 games, League Coordinator Calvin Farrell had initially declared that Sylvers had received the bye to go into the finals.

Sylvers earned a bonus after they would have been leading 12-10 and only needed one game to win, but playing from table two Captain Octavia ‘Tackie’ Huggins and player Valencia Alexander raced to 100 points before Christ Church could earn a single point, which as a result won them a bonus game and the coveted 14-10 win.

League Coordinator Calvin Farrell, who is also the President of Constituency Number Seven Domino League Executive Committee, has however reported that one of the captains whose team won by a 13 games margin has disputed that Sylvers with their 14 games win had the superior result and called for a vote to determine the team that gets a bye. Though unconstitutional, as far as rules governing the tournament are concerned, majority of committee members have voted Sylvers on the league’s WhatsApp chat.