Sauna, RTEA Elite book spots in Village Camp final

Sauna Heat 1 and CIBC RTEA Elite will battle for the Village Camp Shotgun road tennis title after recording contrasting victories at the Deighton ‘Pa’ Roach Facility on Friday night.

In the night’s first semifinal, RTEA Elite were made to pull out all the stops against Sauna Heat 2 before emerging 3-2 winners in the best-of-five team competition.

Meanwhile, Sauna Heat 1, led by world number one Mark ‘Venom’ Griffith, advanced to the final with an easy 3-1 win over the Belfield Blues ‘A’.

RTEA Elite, one of the pre-tournament favourites, started out in dominant fashion when top junior Kenoja Belgrave crushed Darico Jordan 21-9 in the opening match.

The island’s number two player, Shakeem Nurse of the Sauna, then defeated Tyrease Holder 21-19 in a nail biting game that left hearts racing to even the contest at 1-1.

Nurse took control of the game in the early stages, racing out to a 10-6 lead, before a slew of unforced errors and smart strategy by Holder saw him take the lead at 12-11.

Nurse pulled away once again to lead 17-13 after Holder committed several easy mistakes, but Holder won the next four points from his serve to tie the game at 17.

After winning the next point, Nurse never trailed thereafter and despite Holder’s attempt to deuce the game at 20-19, the match came to an end when he sent his backhand long.

With the series locked at 1-1, Antonio Yearwood then delivered the second ‘sow’ of the night by trouncing Donovan ‘Pa’ Riley 21-8 in a lopsided game to give RTEA Elite the lead.

In a must win game for the Sauna, Adrian Scott then delivered a clinical performance to shock ‘A’ class player Curtis Jones 21-18 and force a decider.

But RTEA Elite’s women’s champion Kim Holder led her side into the final with a 21-15 victory over Angela Burrowes in a match she dominated from start to finish.

Holder rushed out to a 6-2 lead which she extended to 10-5, and Burrowes never threatened thereafter.

There was better news for the Sauna Heat 1, which did not even require the services of Griffith to defeat Belfield.

Junior, Zion Moore fought back from being down 11-14 to defeat Tyrico Brathwaite 21-16 and give his Sauna side the advantage.

It didn’t last too long though, as Belfield’s captain Darius ‘Barracus’ Gaskin made light work of Shamon Weekes 21-15 to leave the tie evenly poised.

However, from thereon the heat was just too much for Belfield with Sauna’s veteran Adrian ‘Dan’ Skeete obliterating Wayne ‘Edey’ Johnson 21-4, before Sheldene Walrond brought the contest to an end with a 21-18 victory over Belfield’s Rachel Smith.

The finals will be held on Sunday at the same venue.