CHARLESTOWN, Nevis (CMC) ? Nevis scored an emphatic 44-run win against defending and perennial champions Antigua & Barbuda to claim their first Leeward Islands Masters Championships in a decade.

Electing to bat in the Twenty20 fixture, Nevis compiled 204 for six and Antigua & Barbuda replied with 159 for eight in their 20 overs.

Nevis had won the inaugural tournament in Anguilla in 1999, while Antigua & Barbuda emerged champions on six occasions.

Having romped to the finals with an impressive 72-run win against Anguilla earlier on Sunday at Ramsbury, Stuart Williams? Nevis brushed the defending champs aside in impressive fashion before a large crowd at Grove Park Sunday afternoon.

Antigua & Barbuda had reached the finals by virtue of their seven-wicket win against St Croix.
Williams spurred Nevis beyond the 200-mark with a stroke-filled 28-ball 49 that included four boundaries.

Winston Sutton belted 40 off 26 balls with four fours, while Tony Grant, 39 from 30 balls and Wendell Wallace 30 not out from 14 balls, also scored well.

Pernell Joseph, with one for 27 from four overs, Vinceroy Smith (1-31), Jensen Joseph (1-36) and Robert Bascus (1-50) also claimed wickets for the Antiguans.

Cortwright Piggott (26), Neil Thomas and Clarence Frederick with 25 apiece, MP John Maginley (24), Robert Bascus (20) and Aldrick Meade (13 not out) were the chief scorers in Antigua?s failed run chase.

Frederick took 20 in the 12th over from Wendell Wallace to give Antigua & Barbuda a glimmer of hope, but they never had any realistic chance of achieving the target as wickets fell steadily.

Curtis Morton bagged two for 27 from four overs for Nevis, with support from Charles Hendrickson (2-28), skipper Williams (2-19), Earl Boddie (1-27) and Wendell Wallace (1-33) to keep the defending champions in check.

Nevis took the winning prize of EC $2,573 (US $960).