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Premier League outfit
August Town and Super League champions Cavaliers will go head to
head to decide the winner of the Claro Kingston and St Andrew
Football Association (KSAFA) Jackie Bell Knockout competition on
Saturday April 17 starting at 6:00 pm at the Waterhouse
Mini-Stadium.
There will also be a curtain
raiser between an Entertainers XI versus a Masters/Celebrity XI
scheduled for 4:00 pm.
The competition which started
in November 2009 with 40 teams, will see both teams fighting for
their first lien on the prestigious trophy plus a winning prize
of $350,000.
Premier League strugglers
August Town under new coach Onandi Lowe, must start favourite
having been playing in a higher division than Cavaliers. But as
it stands, both teams seem to be going in opposite directions
and might pass each other at some point in time. August Town are
one of two relegation favourites in the premier league and could
be playing Super league football next season if they don’t get
their act together.
Meanwhile Cavaliers, have won
the Super League and will be trying to gain promotion to the
premier league in a four-team playoff starting soon. One might
be going up, while the other might be coming down. Whatever the
future holds, nobody knows, but one thing is for sure, they will
be fighting to the death to win the Claro KSAFA Jackie Bell
Knockout.
With the competition structure
allowing the six premier league teams to enter at the
quarterfinal stage, August Town eliminated five-time winners
Arnett Gardens 3-0 on aggregate over two legs after playing to a
0-0 draw at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex. They then
turned back Boys’ Town 1-0 in the semi-final on February 3, 2010
at the Harbour View Mini-Stadium.
Cavaliers entered the
competition from the outset dispatching Major League teams
Central Kingston 4-1 and University of the West Indies (UWI)
4-0. They then turned back fellow Super League outfits Rae Town
2-1 and Real Mona 3-2. They saw off Greenwich Town 1-0 in the
Confederation playoff final.
Then on to the bigger stage,
the Lamar Morgan-led Cavaliers stunned former champions and
premier league team Waterhouse on the away goal rule after
playing to 0-0 and 1-1 draw. Their giant-killing act continued
as they dump the defending champions Tivoli Gardens out with an
impressive 2-1 come from behind win in the semi-finals.
Cavaliers has since been
inactive after lifting the Super League in February while August
Town should report much sharper having been playing more
regularly and that factor could prove decisive. There is also
another factor that could swing the advantage in Cavaliers
favour as August Town has their hands full with the relegation
dogfight and could be distracted. But the football is round and
anything can happen, therefore August Town should start
favourite but a Cavaliers upset would steal the headlines and
climax their fairytale run.
And just who didn’t know, the
competition is named in honour of the memory of a great Jamaican
sportsman Winthorp 'Jackie' Bell who died in a bus crash along
with fellow ST Georges College alma-mater Dennis Ziadie at the
World Cup finals of 1986 in Mexico. He was a former St Georges
College Manning Cup player, national player, coach of Santos
Football Club and president of the Club.
The Jackie Bell KO started in
1987 and is regarded as a family competition as it embraces all
KSAFA affiliated clubs which participate in the Premier League
and all KSAFA run senior competitions — Syd Bartlett, Major
League and more recently the Super League.
List of winners
- 1987/88 Constant Spring
- 1988/89 Tournament abandoned
- 1989/90 Arnett Gardens
- 1990/91 Duhaney Park
- 1991/92 Arnett Gardens
- 1992/93 Jamaica Defence
Force
- 1993/94 Tivoli Gardens
- 1994/95 Arnett Gardens
- 1995/96 Harbour View
- 1996/97 Waterhouse
- 1997/98 Olympic Gardens
- 1998/99 Arnett Gardens
- 1999/00 Constant Spring
- 2000/01 Harbour View
- 2001/02 Waterhouse
- 2002/03 Waterhouse
- 2003/04 Tivoli Gardens
- 2004/05 Arnett Gardens
- 2005/06 Boys' Town
- 2006/07 Harbour View
- 2007/08 Harbour View
- 2008/09 Tivoli Gardens
- 2009/10 ?????
Number of wins
- 5 Arnett Gardens
- 4 Harbour View
- 3 Tivoli Gardens, Waterhouse
- 2 Constant Spring
- 1 Boys' Town, Duhaney Park,
Jamaica Defence Force, Olympic Gardens
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