The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Shell Saxons Superstars have emerged as the official winner of the 2019 Boxing Day parade after a penalty reversal, according to a group official.

This pushed the Valley Boys, the original winner, into second place. Questions had swirled across social media about shifting results. 

Kendenique Campbell-Moss, co-chair of the Saxons, confirmed yesterday that the official results were disclosed to Junkanoo officials during a meeting Monday night where a report by the Independent Review Committee (IRC) was presented. 

The Saxons had placed second in the unofficial tally, followed by Genesis, One Family and the Roots.

The Saxons also won the New Year’s Day Parade.

Dion Miller, head of the Junkanoo Corporation New Providence, could not be reached yesterday. Anthen Mortimer, head of the Parade Management Team, said on Monday that the official results would be released in 24 hours. A press conference is expected today. 

On Facebook, Valley Boys Chairman Brian Adderley said group officials will strive to prevent the changes to the unofficial results, though he did not say how. 

For Mrs Campbell-Moss, the sweep is a treat for an historic group that recently hit a rough patch. The group placed fifth in the 2018 Boxing Day parade. This is the first time it has swept parades in years. It was among several groups that protested penalties during the 2019 Boxing Day parade.

“The five point penalty was reversed,” she said.

“The process is now completely finished. To challenge the results, the Supreme Court or Magistrate’s Court would have to be accessed and a group would have to use their own funds to oppose the ruling by the IRC.

“Our back has been against the wall in terms of music, people saying it’s falling apart, we only got one tuba, no choreograph section and we don’t have sponsorships,” Mrs Campbell-Moss said. “The most challenging thing has been the personalities. You may want to go left, other people might want to go right and for me as a woman it’s very, very difficult. The point is that you may not get everyone to agree but you have to get everyone to buy into the idea that we have to work together. At one point, we were falling apart at the seams and we had to become more cohesive. We were falling apart because we had so many losses. We had a situation where we weren’t winning anything and sometimes people are drawn to only wins.”

It is not unusual for differences to emerge between unofficial and official results of Junkanoo parades, much to the anger of fans. The Valley Boys was a victim of such changes in 2017. The group was declared the victor according to unofficial results for the 2017 New Year’s Day parade, but lost that title to Roots. Then JCNP Chairman Silbert Ferguson cited errors in the allocation of penalties as the reason.