However, after issuing a statement and assuring reporters that these are “the real scores”, the National Junkanoo Committee (NJC) did not inform the Junkanoo groups of its decision yesterday. It said later in the day that no statement would be made until today.
Junkanoo groups and the media left in confusion, and representatives of the NJC did not return calls to The tribune yesterday.
Brian Adderley of the Valley Boys was not willing to comment until the committee’s position was absolutely clear.
This is the first time in the history of Junkanoo that the judges have changed their minds on the winning group.
The unofficial results released on New Year’s morning put the Saxons in second place to the Valley Boys by just six points, but, according to yesterday’s press release, a review of those results has now revealed that the Saxons were over-penalised by fifteen points for wearing cloth. That was all the Saxons needed to pull them into first place with 3415, beating the valley Boys 3406 by just nine points.
The National Junaknoo Committee said yesterday that there were “discrepancies” in the issuing of penalty points, with marshals putting the number of Saxons penalised for wearing cloth between eight and 100. When this was noticed, the penalties committee decided that such a wide variation was not satisfactory, and settled on the figure of 48 persons in cloth – a figure consistent with the numbers most penalty marshals had initially settled on. This left the saxons with fifteen fewer penalty points overall, giving them their nine point lead over the Valley.
Source: Robert Bain, The Tribune
