Saturday May 30 & Sunday May 31, 2009
Teams/Venue/Officials

ACT Mahico vs Stingray City Seatons @ Clare Hall
Charles Goodwin & Garfield Christian

Player of the Week: Everton ?Say? Meade (John Hughes) compiled 118 runs versus
ACT Mahico.

Minister of Education, Dr Jacqui Quinn-Leandro joined her regional counterparts in a meeting of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Finance and General Purposes Committee.

The one-day meeting discussed the implementation of the UWI?s 2009-2012 Strategic Plan, a release said, and was held at the Cave Hill campus in Barbados yesterday.

Minister Quinn-Leandro said the meeting was important in that as members of the University?s Council, both campus and non-campus territories have a vested interest in defining the university?s finances, be it proposals for fee changes or investments in infrastructure and new Departments.

?As a contributing government, we have a shared responsibility to protect the close to 40,000 of the region?s human resources who use this premier tertiary institution annually,? the minister said.

The meeting opened yesterday with UWI Vice Chancellor, Nigel Harris underscoring the need for UWI to ?be a cut above the rest and to be at the centre of a demand driven education.?

The focus of the Strategic plan is on leadership, managerial and administrative transformation in an effort to make the university more market responsive. Some of the transformation issues being discussed are research and innovation, graduate studies and the teaching/learning foundation.

The meeting will also receive reports from the four campuses: Mona, St Augustine, Cave Hill and the Open campus.

The Bridgetown meeting is a follow up to the University Council meeting held at the St Augustine campus of the UWI three weeks ago.

Minister Quinn-Leandro is due to return to the country today.

An employee of Bargain Centre Hardware, Jason Anthony, was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $20, 000 with a cash component of $2000 when he appeared in the St John?s magistrate Court on several charges in connection with the larceny of a quantity of building materials.

The 31 year- old man of Cassada Gardens is charged with uttering a forged document, larceny, and intent to defraud the hardware centre of lumber valued at EC$8,784.70 and steel valued at $ 4, 137,00.

According to police reports Anthony allegedly stole one (1) bundle of _ inch steel valued at EC$4,137.00, (100) yellow pine 1×8 value E.C$5,956.00, (15) yellow pine TR 2×6 value E.C$1,004.70, (24) T111-3/8 Treated beaded value E.C $1,824.00.

The goods were allegedly obtained through the use of a forged Bargain Centre Hardware Receipt.
Chief Magistrate Ivan Walters further imposed a condition of one surety. The accused will appear in court on September 28 for the committal process for a High Court trial.

On Thursday May 28, in the Parish League Cricket ACB/American Airlines/Sir Viv Richards Thursday League Competition, Bolans beat Peter?s Electrical All Saints by 6 wickets, and ACT Mahico defeated Diamonds International Police by 47 runs.

At Bolans playing field, All Saints batting first scored 101. Trish Phillip hit 38.

Bowling for Bolans, Charan Ramjohn took 4 wickets for 25 runs and veteran Tyrone ?Pacer? Williams picked up 2 for a single run.

Bolans in reply reached 102 for 4. Orlando Peters scored 38 and Earl Waldron 22.

Bowling for All Saints, Jamey Carr captured 2 for 22.

Over at Police Grounds, ACT Mahico took care of Diamonds International Police.

Mahico batting first made 144 for the loss of 7. Owen Graham struck 40 and Stanley DeSilva 31 not out.

Bowling for Police, Anthony Martin scalped 3 for 9 and Alston Ryan 3 for 27.

In reply, Police collapsed for 97 runs. Amwaa Prince scored 22.

Sherman ?Passion? James took 3 for 16 and Gregg Skepple 2 for 7.

PARIS, France – Third seed Venus Williams became the first big name to exit the French Open with a 6-0, 6-4 defeat by Agnes Szavay.

Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam winner, has now fallen at the third round in each of the last three years.
Szavay, the 29th seed from Hungary, stormed through the first set and then edged out Williams in the second to set up a meeting with Dominika Cibulkova.

Top seed Dinara Safina beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-0 and Ana Ivanovic overcame Iveta Benesova 6-0, 6-2.

Maria Sharapova is also into the last 16 after coming through 1-6, 6-3 6-4 against Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan.

Former world number one Sharapova, a semi-finalist in 2007, has won all three of her matches this week in three sets and goes on to play 25th seed Li Na, a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Olga Govortsova.

Safina has dropped just four games all tournament and remains in contention for her first Grand Slam title.
The 23-year-old dominated fellow Russian Pavlyuchenkova from the outset, breaking serve five times and saving the only break point she faced.

Pavlyuchenkova was forced to chase shadows as Safina, the 2008 runner-up, produced one thumping groundstroke after the next and illustrated her much improved movement and positional sense.

Standing between the world number one and a place in the quarter-finals is Aravane Rezai of France, who reached the fourth round for the first time with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 victory over 16-year-old Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher De Brito.

The match was not without controversy, however, as Rezai demanded the umpire intervene when her opponent’s screaming reached ear-piercing volumes.

?She really shouts loud,? said the world number 57. ?Maybe it?s the way she tries to impress the opponent, but it upset me because it was unpleasant.?

Reigning Wimbledon champion Williams was inferior to Szavay in every department and missed the opportunity to face 20th seed Cibulkova , who overcame Argentina?s Gisela Dulko 6-4, 6-2, for a place in the quarter-final.

Williams, playing her third match in as many days, gave herself a glimmer of hope by breaking the Hungarian’s serve to lead 4-3 in the second set.

But with the gusting wind playing havoc with her service throw-up, she lost the next three games and saw her hopes of a first title at Roland Garros ended for another year.

?I had a tough day and I didn?t get the ball in the court, which didn?t help me at all,? said Williams. ?It was just, a day where they didn?t go in.?

Defending champion Ivanovic is still yet to drop a set at this year’s Roland Garros and has reached round four, where she will play either Victoria Azarenka or Carla Suarez Navarro, for the third successive year.

Bad light suspended play on Court 1 of the match between Belarusian Azarenka and Navarro of Spain with the score at 5-7 7-5.

The eighth seed has conceded only five games since her hard-fought victory over Italy?s Sara Errani in round one. (BBC Sport)

Prime Minister- Baldwin Spencer

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has revealed that as many as 40 per cent of people working legally and voting in Antigua & Barbuda are non-nationals.

He made the disclosure as he rejected claims by the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) that his government has been indiscriminately deporting Caribbean Community (CARICOM) citizens, particularly Guyanese and Jamaicans.

?We have thousands of them here?some 35 to 40 per cent of our working population in this country are made up of non-nationals. As a matter of about, about the same percentage is part of the electorate of Antigua & Barbuda,? he said in an interview with BBC Caribbean.

The comments came as he was pressed about whether there was truth to allegations by the opposition that the administration was singling out and deporting non-nationals who did not vote for his United Progressive Party (UPP) in the March general elections.

He categorically denied that there was any such attempt.

?That is absolutely ridiculous and if they do have evidence they can establish that evidence. The fact of the matter is that every country is required to ensure that it protects its borders and you have to have an immigration policy that seeks to ensure that people who are resident in the country, regularise their status,? Spencer said.

?Obviously the immigration authorities have been, over a period of time, seeking to regularise certain situations that have really gone out of control. As a result of that, some individuals may be affected but there is no programme, no plan, no policy to get at non-nationals,? he continued.

The prime minister repeated an allegation of his own ? that the ALP had misled a lot of the foreigners living in Antigua & Barbuda into believing that after the last general elections, there would have been ?some kind of wholesale deportation of persons,? prompting many of those people to give their vote to the opposition party.

In a release issued earlier this week, ALP leader Lester Bird accused the Spencer administration of operating a clandestine and heartless policy toward nationals of other CARICOM countries.

He insisted that CARICOM nationals should undergo a legal process to determine their status and not be sent home on the whims of the government.

But Spencer told BBC Caribbean that his party had welcomed non-nationals over the years.

?Really and truly over the past five years we can look back and say that we have been extremely tolerant and over 1,500 non-nationals availed themselves of the opportunity to become citizens of Antigua & Barbuda while they were here at the turn of the century for three years,? he said.

Minister of National Security and Labour Dr Errol Cort is expected to announce a revamped immigration policy in a matter of weeks.

The 43rd Antigua & Barbuda Sport Fishing Tournament got under way yesterday with the Captain?s Briefing at their new venue, on the lawn of the Copper and Lumber Hotel at Nelson?s Dockyard.

The tournament runs from May 29 to 31. The actual fishing days are on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, lines go in at 6:30 am and pulled out no later than 4:30 pm. All boats should return to the dock by 6:30 pm.

On Sunday, Lines are in at 5:30 am and are to be out by 4 pm. Boats are to return to the dock by 6 pm. Any boat hooked up and reported fighting before 4:30 pm on the first day, has until midnight to return to port.

Diesel and gasoline are readily available at Antigua Slipway at Nelson?s Dockyard.

Last year?s Champion Male was Mick Liney on Rum N? Coke with 600 points, and the Champion Female was Katlyn Hart on Blue Rapid with 400 points.

Most tag and releases went to John Fuller also on Blue Rapid. The Champion Boat was inevitably Blue Rapid.

The 1st Runner Up Champion Boat went to Rum N? Coke captained by Stuart Griffith and 2nd Runner Up Champion Boat was Extreme skippered by Eli Fuller.

St Lucia?s Opposition Leader Dr Kenny Anthony feels the pursuit of an economic union between Trinidad and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, including Antigua & Barbuda, is both ill-conceived and ill-timed.

He told OBSERVER Radio?s morning programme, OBSERVER AM, Thursday that with the global economy in the doldrums, the regional agenda is too ?crowded? and that the governments involved have failed to seek the proper support that such a union would require.

?By that I mean, here you have the OECS moving towards establishing economic union, then you have the OECS in dialogue with Trinidad about a possible economic union involving Trinidad & Tobago, and then on top of all of that you have the initiatives taking place at the wider CARICOM (Caribbean Community) level,? said Dr Anthony.

He also thought that the failure of the governments involved to consult the respective opposition parties was a repeat of the ?historical mistakes.?

Giggling, the former prime minister added, ?It isn?t because I?m now on the side of opposition that I have suddenly become aware of these things. These are always historical realities.?

He said that without the consultation, the leaders pressing for the development of economic unions would reduce their unity ambitions to issues polarised along political lines.

?So you have a situation, A, of an overcrowded regional agenda, uncertainty about what is best to be done, especially in the middle of this crisis, and then on top of this you have the situation where no effort is made to build consensus at the very outset to determine precisely where people stand on this issue. It is clearly gonna muddy the waters,? Dr Anthony said.

The leaders of the OECS and Trinidad have set themselves an ultimate goal of 2013 for the union to be in action and 2011 for a framework that will essentially test the readiness of the union.

Antigua & Barbuda will play host to a group of over 40 men and women that would have spent nine grueling days paddling up the islands in a 60-foot Carib War canoe.

The 145-mile, 50-hour journey, which began in Martinique on May 21 with a stop to Guadeloupe en-route, was due to come to an end in English Harbour last evening.

The event is part of an experimental archaeology programme undertaken by The KARISKO Martinique Association to reenact the pre-Columbian navigation techniques in the Antilles.

It is also being viewed as a way to encourage social interaction amongst persons within the region and facilitate regional cooperation.

Making the journey are Martiniquans, Caribs from Dominica and Guadeloupians.

The group?s mode of transportation: the dugout canoe built by the Ka’lina Amerindians from French Guyana, accompanied by crew travelling in four catamarans and three small motor boats.

In May 2008, KARISKO crossed the channel between Martinique and Dominica with 27 peoples paddling in one of the canoes. The journey, which took less than seven hours to complete, was a major event in Martinique and Dominica.

According to local Archaeologist Dr Reginald Murphy, 1735 was the last recorded date when a Carib War Canoe was rowed to Antigua.

A demonstration row from Nelson?s Dockyard to Indian Creek returning to Nelson?s Dockyard is scheduled to take place between 1 pm ? 3 pm today.

Persons are encouraged to come out to the Nelson?s Dockyard to witness the start of the event. The crossing can also be viewed from Shirley Heights at approximately 2:00 in the afternoon.

Facilitating the event are The Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture, The Ministry of Agriculture, The Museum of Antigua and Barbuda as well as The National Parks Authority.

The 2009 Cool & Smooth Kennedy?s Subway and SoBe Life Water Antigua & Barbuda Netball Association (ABNA) had no big surprises this week.

Red Hot LIME Defante Stingers defeated John Hughes, 18-9. Goal shooter (GS) Kay Joseph and goal Attack (GA) Sabia Murraine banked 5 from 13 and 4 from 9, respectively for John Hughes, while GS Jezel Edwards netted 15 from 28 and GA Corrine Magaloire 3 from 16 in the C-division.

Next game in the same department were between Roman Hill 1 and Parish Shoes/Cool & Smooth Eagles. Roman Hill 1 defeated their opponents in a surprisingly close encounter, 20-18.

GS Kerri-Ann Thomas drained 8 from 17 and GA Shawnita Smith 12 from 16 for Roman Hill 1, while GS Akeila Davis and GA Erverdine Parker both scored 9 from 18 for Eagles.

John Hughes blew out Oakland Defante Stingers, 14-2. Stingers? GS Chardelle Jeremy netted 2 from 5, and GS Sabia Murraine and GA Kerricia Parker drained 6 from 14 and 8 from 16, respectively for John Hughes in another game in the C-division.

Abbott Brothers Invincible Stars defeated Roman Hill 1, 26-14 in the same department. In a dazzling performance, GS Shemeka Baltimore banked 14 from 26 and GA Cozy Simon and 12 from 25 for Stars, while GS Lacovia Thomas netted 6 from 15 and GA Shawnita Smith 8 from 19 for Roman Hill 1.

And in the last game in the C-division, Parish Shoes/Cool & Smooth Eagles lost to Red Hot LIME Defante Stingers in another close battle, 16-14.

GS Everdine Parker banked 7 from 14 and GA Akeila Davis 7 from 12 for Eagles, and GS Teneisha Williams and GA Corrine Magloire netted 10 from 20 and 6 from 12, respectively for Stingers.

And to close out the netball action, Abbott Brothers Invincible Stars defeated Roman Hill, 37-11 in the B-division.

GS Esther Emanuel and GA Sanchez Martin drained 27 from 41 and 10 from 13, respectively for Stars, while GS Shirley Benjamin netted 5 from 7 and GA Morva James 6 from 7 for Roman Hill.