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Spartan 324-9 v Maple

Big B Spartan started the 1999 season the same way they have for the past three years – scoring over 300 runs.

Yesterday, they got off to a flying start thanks to an opening stand of 128 by Corey Yearwood and Ryan Burke, and after a mid-afternoon slump an unbroken last-wicket stand of 59 between Dexter Toppin and Suleiman Benn fortified the innings.

Yearwood, in his second season with the club, and Burke, playing for the first time, gave the innings a flamboyant send-off. They posted the 50 stand in the seventh over and by the first water break Spartan had added 94.

Yearwood brought up 50 in 68 minutes with his eighth four, the same stroke that brought up the century stand in the 13th over. Burke, less technically correct but equally as breathtaking his partner, reached 50 in 75 minutes whith six fours and a six.

They fell within three runs of each other as medium-pacer Ryan Nurse snared three wickets to set back Spartan in the final half-hour before tea. Yearwood was well caught at short midwicket to be one of thre excellent catches by Don O'neal, and Burke needlessly lofted a catch to mid-off. Livy Puckerin and Rowehan Walcott also departed before the interval as Spartan went to the break on 160 for four.

After tea Kerry Lucas, with 41 off 44 balls, and skipper Ronnie Griffith, a well-compiled 47 with seven fours, kept the momentum going, before medium-pacer Pedro DePeiza put a brake on proceedings.

Belatedly introduced from the northern end as the seventh bowler, DePeiza, better known as an opening batsman, took four wickets in 20 balls as Spartan slipped from 247 for five to 265 for nine.

Then the 17-year-old Benn, in his first match for the Parkites, and Toppin, a 40-year-old veteran of 15 season, combined to regain the initiative.

They posted 59 in 45 minutes of real entertainment. Toppin ended on 37 not out, including a polished on-side boundary which brought up the 300 in the 56 overs, while the left-handed Benn had three fours in his unbeaten 23.