By Calvin Roberts (Guyana Chronicle)

HEAVY showers which drenched Georgetown and its environs from 10:23hrs on Monday morning, leaving both the Demerara and Everest Cricket Club outfields soggy and under water in some areas, prevented any further play on the final day of the first round in the Guyana Cricket Board/Igloo Under-15 Inter-County two-day tournament.

In Queenstown, defending champions Demerara were marching to victory over President’s XI who were 97 for 7, having trailed their opponents by 163 runs on first innings the previous day, when the rains intervened with only Christopher Campbelle 57 offering resistance with the bat.

Campbelle resumed on 19, with his team’s score reading 37 for 3 and reached his 50 from 46 balls, with nine fours before he was dismissed for his eventual score which took him 71 balls to compile, without the addition of any boundaries after he posted his half-century.

Chandrat Veerasammy (0), Khemchand Hardyal (4) and Shivnarine Chattergoon (0) were all dismissed along with Campbelle by the defending champions before the heavens opened up at 10:27hrs to halt play which was later called off for the day at 12:55hrs.

First innings destroyer Sagar Hetheramani had at that time taken 3 for 17 to end with match figures of 8 for 28, following his 5 for 11 in the first innings while his teammate Joshua Persaud, who scored an enterprising century in the first innings, was named the Player-of-the-Match, receiving his trophy for such from Match Referee and former Guyana and West Indies fast bowler Colin Stuart.

At Camp Road, Essequibo were shakily placed on 20 for 5 when the rain forced the players off the field, as Junior Williams and Steven Kalamudin, with two wickets each, were leading Berbice to a comfortable victory.

The Cinderella County lads, who like the President’s XI had conceded first innings points to their opponents the previous day, started their second innings yesterday morning with a deficit of 70 runs and were soon in trouble at 3 for 1 when Shane Wong was run-out for 1.

It became 20 for 5, as Darshan Indar who topscored with 8, Orlando Jailall (1), Shamar Dhasrat (0) and first innings topscorer Junior Jones (0) all fell to the combination of Williams and Kalamudin, who took their two wickets each for 4 and 9 runs respectively.

The continuous rainfall prevented play from resuming and at 13:50hrs, the umpires called a halt to proceedings, with Steven Deonarine being the Player-of-the-Match, following his first-innings 44 for Berbice.

The action continues with second round matches commencing today at the Enmore and Wales Community Centre grounds, with Demerara taking on Essequibo at Enmore and Berbice and the President’s XI doing battle at Wales.