BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - STANDING five feet nine inches among four other contestants, a young beauty from Saddlers Village not only impressed the judges, but also the audience to be declared winner of the LIME Miss Black San’ 2013 Swimsuit Pageant.
The beauty is 20-year-old Patricia Clarke who, in outshining her competitors, had won four of the five judged segments last night (Mar. 31) at the Sandy Point Hard Court.
She was crowned by the Parliamentary Representative of Constituency Number Five, the Hon. Shawn Richards, shortly before 3:00 a.m. this morning, much to the delight of her fellow villagers and members of the audience who know class when they see it.
In addition to the crown, she had won herself an all-expense paid trip to Anguilla to compete in that island’s annual Miss Venus Pageant scheduled for June.
The First Runner-up position went to Chantel Rochester, who scored 1039.5 points and had had won the Best Interview segment with 171.5 points.
She was followed by Christine Carty, the only contestant from Sandy Point, with 870.5 points.
However, Clarke had outdistanced them with 1 075 points by scoring 194 for the Vintage Wear, 190 for Best Creative Wear, 194 for Best Black and Yellow Swimwear, 141 for Best Identical Swimwear, and 196 for Best Body Paint.
The pieces from the Identical Swimwear segment were done by well-known seamstress Faith Benjamin from Cayon.
Clarke and Rochester both won a Blackberry mobile handset compliments LIME and, in addition, the former will also get a trip to Barbados.
Strutting to ‘Get Down On It’ by Kool and The Gang, Clarke emerged onstage in a vibrant pink two-piece and an afro wig with a 1970s type attitude. Striking a pose, she leaned on the wall of the stage and peered at the audience while chewing a gum and patting her afro with the style of a ’70s gal, which sent patrons wild with excitement.
As if the Carib Beer logo on the swimwear was not enough, Clarke appearance was like that of a super model commercial beauty, as she ‘sold’ the brand to the audience by modelling with an empty Carib Beer bottle. And the audience loved it!
Clarke’s Creative Wear, which was dubbed Come Net Come, was blue incorporated sand and fishnet aspects. Her vibrant-looking and historical body painting - Di Terminus – was a reflection of the locomotive and sugar cane industry operations in Sandy Point, while her body art included railway tracks.
In the Interview segment, contestants were asked one question on their biography.
Rochester wowed and pleasantly surprised the crowd when she referred to a Scripture from the Bible when asked how she reconciles being actively involved in the church and participating in such a pageant that some people may see as being immoral.
Rochester eloquently said, “…it is not immoral to enter a swimsuit pageant.” According to her, being in a swimsuit pageant is no different to being on the beach, “the only difference is that I’m on heels and on a stage”.
Thunderous applause and cheers emerged from the crowd when she cited Galatians 5:19-21.
Rochester, who was the most popular contestant in this reporter’s assessment, showed that she had the brains and beauty package following that often ‘nail biting’ segment, whereby she answered the question as if speaking conversationally.
The other competitors were Jomel Elliot and Shakeda Gerald.
It has become customary for patrons to have their say about unfair tallying by the judges but, notably, from Clarke’s initial appearance on stage, the audience fell in love with her and so choosing her as Queen was quite welcomed by the supportive crowd.
One very vocal female, even before the official announcement, throughout the show frequently yelled comments like “Number Two da de queen”.
She even yelled out “well done” compliments to Clarke’s well-known chaperone Dwayne Weekes, who appeared at least twice on the side stage to deal with his client’s music.
Weekes, who was obviously pleased to hear that his client was doing well, slightly bowed and gave his signature pageantry-business smile which some members of the audience caught and laughed.
Notably, Clarke’s smile, her grace, her physique and her presence produced top glow in the eyes of many who attended the show.
In the Fanfare segment, which was the first appearance, contestants gave a brief introduction of themselves.
The judged criteria for the pageant also included Physical Fitness and Poise and Carriage.
Speaking backstage with SKNVibes, following the Pageant, Clarke said she felt that she had "accomplished a great milestone".
As for her goal in the Miss Venue Pageant, “I will definitely put in more work to represent my country…not just my village this time.”
As gathered by this media house, it was Clarke’s second pageant following the 2009 Miss Labour.
The event was hosted by Judy 'Purple' Dupont, who is the Public Relations Officer of the Black San’ Bang-a-Lang Festival, and popular Soca artiste Claudette ‘CP’ Peters from Antigua.
Piece-A-Man was the Master of Ceremonies and he received some heckling from the audience and he humourously tried to make comebacks.
Producing much laughter among the audience, one female said to Piece-A-Man, “Why you don’t come down eh”, to which he replied, “Why you don’t come up.”
Speaking about his well-built friend ‘Skeff’, he poked fun at him for getting injured after being scared by “a mice”. Some members in the audience tried to correct him, noting it was “a mouse and not a mice”. But, according to the MC, he knew what he was saying because there are “rat, mouse and mice”.
Peters, who is known as Antigua’s Soca Diva or Antigua’s Soca Darling, took a break from her hosting duties and boogied down Syoca style, as she swung her vibrant red-dyed dreadlocks in a partying fashion and gyrated in motion…the ‘CP’ way.
Leading up to her performance, she expressed that it was her first time hosting an event and she thanked Purple for the opportunity.
At one point, she sought the granted permission of the audience to take off her red heels, as she kicked her show into a few higher notches. She did hit songs like ‘Flaunt It’ and ‘Something’s Got a Hold On Me’.
CP also did a rendition of Fay-Ann Lyon’s (from Trinidad) popular ‘Miss Behave’.
One proud female fan asked CP to remove her suspenders which was attached to her leather pants. The reason given by the fan was so that she could see CP wine her waistline.
CP invited ladies to goup on the stage and one female patron from Sandy Point named Chelsey’ gladly rushed to the stage and showed the Antiguan Soca Diva that she could move her body to the music and dance instructions. CP also leapt off the stage to get to the audience, and her fans appreciated the gesture.
The house band was the KC5 and it featured popular vocalist Maurice ‘EK’ Flanders who treated the audience to a diverse blend of music including Reggae, R&B and Soca, which kept the audience rocking.
The uprising Charles Emanuel dished out three of his penned songs from his Mixtape called Invincible. The songs performed were the title track ‘Invincible’, ‘Paradise’ and ‘One Night Wine’.
The audience loved when Emmanuel had hit those high notes in ‘Paradise’, as many females screamed with excitement.
There were also some showers of blessing as the rain lightly fell at least four times during the show, but many persons came prepared with umbrellas.
