Gamma causes postponement of weekend sports

Good evening, I?m James Adderley and we welcome you to this post-Gamma issue of Sports Monday. It proved to be a case of water, water everywhere as tropical storm Gamma passed very near the Belizean coastline over the weekend. As a result, all sporting events scheduled from Friday through Sunday were washed out.

On the football scene it would have been week eleven in the RFG Cup Tournament, so we asked B.P.F.L. Manager Ruperto Vicente what happened.

Ruperto Vicente, Manager, B.P.F.L.
?Unfortunately we had Gamma visiting with us over the nineteenth James and because Gamma was a celebrity over the weekend, it was decided by the league, after consultation with the meteorology department, to cancel all games because the grounds would not have been suitable as we were advised by meteorology. So therefore it was incumbent on the league to cancel those games.?

James Adderley
?Inclement weather might have created logistical problems for teams travelling from north to south too.?

Ruperto Vicente
?Certainly, and especially teams going to San Pedro, because BOCA was scheduled to travel to San Pedro and it was not a very suitable situation for anybody to put anybody out there or any boat on the seas for that team to travel to San Pedro and put lives in jeopardy.?

James Adderley
?So the entire week eleven scheduled was cancelled, could we find out now what happens going forward??

Ruperto Vicente
?The decision has been made this morning by the league?s executive to have all games scheduled for last weekend played this weekend. And so week twelve is going to be push back to accommodate week eleven.?

James Adderley
?Looking at the season so far, you?re very close to the halfway point or you have passed the halfway point, eight teams going to the playoffs, what?s the feel? This is one of the biggest playoffs ever presented by the B.P.F.L.?

Ruperto Vicente
?Certainly we expect it to be exciting. We are anticipating an exciting finish this year. We?ll have eight teams going into the playoffs and each team will be meeting each other?s?the teams will be matched up against each other from Group A and Group B and they?ll play home and away, which is going to be a knockout system. So it?s going to be exciting and the last four teams that survive out of that will move into the semi-finals and again those teams will play a knockout system and then two teams will be left who will be playing for the championship.?

Thus this weekend?s schedule will remain the same as week eleven with week twelve getting pushed back.

In Group A: on Saturday Wagiya plays host to Kremandala at Dangriga, while on Sunday Hankook Verdes travels to the Placencia Pirates, and Benque Viejo United comes to the M.C.C. Grounds to meet F.C. Belize.

In Group B: Saturday finds Belmopan at home against Cayo Avengers, on Sunday BOCA sails to San Pedro Seahawks, and New Site Erei will play host to Calcutta Bulls.

We were also able to get a view from the Mountain Bike Cross Country Classic which was to have been staged on Saturday. We caught up with Gerald Garbutt, who is the main organiser of this particular event.

Gerald Garbutt, Coordinator, Mountain Bike Cross Country
?Basically we were watching the safety of the riders because of the storm that we had was threatening Belize City and we were very concerned about riders out there on the wet road. And anybody who deals with cycling will know that it?s very dangerous with the road it wet; not only for cycling, but for vehicles too. And because of that we decided to postpone the race. We plan to have it on the third, which is the third of December. The time will remain the same, nine o?clock we?ll start the race and the route will remain the same.?

James Adderley
?However there might be new features since you have two more weeks to take time.?

Gerald Garbutt
?Well the new features will be new prizes, station prizes and so. We added on two more prizes from one to eight to one to ten now. Crocland Farm is one of the sponsors. We have Lotto, we have lots of sponsors, we have Belmopan City Council, we have a list of sponsors, but Crocland Farm is where the race will finish on the northern road, twenty-five miles and a quarter, you turn left right into Washing Tree Road and that?s where the big event will happen.?

James Adderley
?There was a lot of talk about the vetting process. Some riders wanted to ride and felt unable; they felt they were dealt with unreasonably. You want tell us about the vetting situation??

Gerald Garbutt
?All I can say where that is concerned, we have a vetting committee comprised of three experienced cyclists and we are targeting the Baseboys, the man who flocks bicycle shops, we talk the Barbershops. For this race it?s not scheduled for cyclists or non-cyclists, or elite cyclists who ride racer bikes and because they see the prize is so attractive grab a mountain bike. That is not the case; the race is strictly for what we call the mountain bikers.?

That?s it for now. We invited you back same time, same place next week. Jah over all, I?m James Adderley.

Late this evening Gerald Garbutt called News Five to report that the mountain bike race scheduled for Saturday, December third has been moved to Sunday, December fourth. The nine o’clock starting time remains the same.