Manning Cup champions, Jamaica College (JC) and DaCosta Cup winners, St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), clash on Saturday in the ISSA Flow Olivier Shield to decide who is the best schoolboy team in the island.
The game will be played at the Stadium East field, starting at 2:30 pm, in which the match will be played to the finish and must provide a winner. JC are the defending two-times champions, having won in 2013 and 2014 and will be looking for a three peat. The last time any school won three consecutive Olivier Shield titles was some 45 years ago when Vere Technical actually won four straight in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970.
Jamaica College is the leading school with 19 Olivier Shield titles, having won the first edition in 1909 while STETHS were successful only once in 1999 when they defeated Tivoli Gardens High.
STETHS who have won the DaCosta Cup five times, were twice beaten by JC in the Olivier Shield decider 0-4 in 1974 and 0-2 in 2013.
They also lost 1-2 to St George’s College in 2009 and are eager to secure their second hold on the Olivier Shield.
It should be a good game between two evenly matched teams with no clear-cut favourites. It has been nine years since a DaCosta Cup team get their hands on the Olivier Shield and that was in 2006 when Glenmuir High shared the title with Bridgeport High. In fact, Glenmuir was the last rural school to win the title outright in 2004 when they defeated Excelsior High.
It should be a hard-fought game between STETHS and JC, to be crowned all-island champion and bring a closure to the schoolboy season.
