Weekend highlights with James Adderley on Sports Monday!
Good evening, I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday.
Week 9 of the PLB Football Season fell victim to a complete washout as torrential rain pounded the nation all weekend. A look at the MCC Grounds yesterday inside Belize City shows the soggy condition that led to the cancellation of the much anticipated showdown between frontrunner Placencia Assassins and FC Belize. As a matter of fact, all s6 matches on the schedule were scrapped and the schedule pushed a week back—therefore, this weekend, Week 9 should be presented; weather permitting of course.
Thus on Saturday, Belmopan Bandits will host R.G. City Boys, San Pedro will take on San Ignacio at the MCC Grounds, San Felipe will be at home against Paradise Freedom Fighters and the B.D.F. clashes with the Police at the Norman Broaster. On Sunday, FC Belize plays host to Placencia while Juventus will be at the People’s Stadium against Verdes.
In other football news, the Smart Mundialito matched Jane Usher with Young Stars Saturday at the MCC Grounds. And when the Young Stars goalkeeper, Samuel Echeverria clears this ball off his line, Kyle Samuels launches off right away this left foot shot that gives Jane Usher a 1 – zip lead. On this press by Jane Usher, Izah Tewes sends this ball across the goal mouth; poor defending Amil Crawford the chance to slice it into the net as they take a 2-nil lead. Young Stars would pull one back when Uriel Correa pounces on this looseball in front of the Jane Usher goal and the left foot punch cut the deficit in half. Troy Gentle gets a chance to return the 2 goal lead to Jane Usher on this press, but his attempt raises over the crossbar as Jane Usher goes on to post the 2-1 big Win.
In the final game on the schedule, City Boys Jr. and St. John’s Vianney battled to a scoreless stalemate. Results from the other matches shows that Brown Bombers blanked United Ranger 2-nil; Hattieville jumped all over Ladyville Jaguars in a 3-zip final; while 3rd World edged Ladyville Japan 1-zip.
In basketball, the Belize Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce held a one day open tournament featuring 5 teams at the Belize Elementary Auditorium and David Ming told us more. Team Belize took the day beating Team Chinese 47 to 30 in the finals. In other basketball news; here are the results from the weekend of play in the Belize District Basketball Association Firms Tournament. Truckers ran over Belize Heats 74-53. Port of Belize overwhelmed Bowen and Bowen 72-42; Atlantic Bank stopped Smart 64-42; Belize Bank bombed B.T.L. 57-46. In U-23 play, Belize Bank handles Tiger Sharks in a 55 to 46 result.
Turning to the cycling scene, the results from Team Belize in the Caribbean Cycling Championships at Antigua and Bermuda are somewhat deflating except for the performance of Shalini Zabaneh who went in as a defending road champion, but had to settle for 4th place this year and Kaya Cattouse finished 6th. However, Shalini struck for gold in the 12 mile individual time trial for elite females and we say congratulations. On the male side, Roger Troyer was the only Belizean to complete the 82 mile road race. However, we must mention that except for Shalini Zabaneh, Team Belize arrived 1 day late at the event and had to borrow equipment to compete because their luggage had not arrived. As an excuse, this is unacceptable to the nation.
In the meantime, the election for executives to the Belize Cycling Association remains shrouded in that the date and format for this necessary and compulsory exercise remains unknown. As soon as we get something official we’ll past it on; so stay tuned. Meanwhile, we take you out to the Crooked Tree Junction where some 40 elder statesmen of the sport are geared for glory in a 40 mile race that will conclude at Leslie’s Imports and the action beings. At Sandhill, it’s Barney Brown on pace being chased by Ernest Thurton but we’re only 20 minutes in and everybody who’s anybody in this race is still there. As the race heads towards the Hattieville roundabout, the riders continue to enjoy good weather conditions and it’s a large contingent in this lead group. However, around mile 8 they’re caught by the rains and things get a little bit more dicey and around this point, we lost our picture due to the prevailing conditions. We did get a glimpse of the finish nevertheless and it’s Barney Brown of Scotia Bank grabbing the win in 1 hour 54 mins 10 seconds. Frank Burns of Cayo Rentals is 2nd and Warren Coyi f Horizon is 3rd while Santino Castillo and Ernest Thurton finished 4th and 5th, respectively.
Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
