James Adderley analyses the weekend in sports
Good evening, I’m James Adderley with yet another delivery of Sports Monday. Week nine of the Belize Bank Super League brought the re-match between Kraal Road and Hattieville F.C. to the M.C.C. Grounds yesterday as the city team looked to avenge a 2-1 loss earlier this season at seventeen miles. However, absolutely no one was ready for the amazing start by Kraal Road as off the kick off Delroy Andrews frees up Whitfield Patnett who shakes the net for the quick 1-zip lead. It’s Kraal Road who dominates this one early and Andrews teams up with Patnett again but this time the ball bounces outside the sticks. Folks, we’re only ten minutes in when Raymond Gentle finds Whitfield Patnett, who strikes for his second goal of the match as Kraal Road rolls. In fact, things are going so well for the home team that when Leon Jones and Delroy Andrews squander scoring chances on this center, nobody even complained. In the meantime, Hattieville finally gets some offense going when Richard Usher’s attempt to shoot is unintentionally blocked by his team-mate, Maurice Francis, who turns on this ball only to produce a high riser. The visitors again try to pull one back when Maurice Francis tries to outrun the Kraal Road defense who come up with a big time stop. Again Maurice Francis tries to get onto the scoreboard, only this time we must give goalkeeper Elden Linares credit for reading the move. At the other end, Raymond Gentle finds the keeper Herson Gonzalez outside the goal and tries to knock the ball into the net over his head but he misses the target and halfway through the ballgame, Kraal Road shows a 2-zip lead.
Immediately into second half action, Anthony Williams picks out Whitfield Patnett, whose right foot bomb is right at Gonzalez who pushes it over the crossbar. We’re at the fifty-fourth minute of play when Raymond Gentle’s attempt to score is blocked. Lorenzo Diaz pounces on the loose ball with a right away grounder that makes it a 3-zip ballgame. At the sixtieth minute Floyd Jones tracks down this loose ball, travels left and swings to get Hattieville F.C. on to the scoreboard. And yes, Whitfield Patnett, I agree with your team-mates that this ball should have been a service across the mouth of the goal. For sure folks, Delroy Andrews does everything right on this search for goal only to be denied by the long stretch from John Smith. Still, today Delroy Andrews will not be denied. He runs down this ball, beats the keeper and then promptly smacks the ball into the near corner to make it a 4-1 score. The visitors get this chance to reply immediately but Richard Usher misfires from point blank range people. Tyrone Muschamp then gets his turn to score after out running the defense but his launch crashes against the crossbar. It’s a comedy of defensive errors for Hattieville, who get many opportunities to clear this ball and fail to do so. Raymond Gentle comes out of nowhere to score his goal to make it a 5-1 final score for Kraal Road who certainly exact sweet revenge inside the M.C.C. Grounds against the Hattieville team.
In other results around the league, Placencia Assassin held Texmar United to a scoreless draw, Valley Renaissance doubled Paradise Freedom Fighters 2-1, Cayo South dumped San Felipe 2-zip, while Santa Elena Synergy sank San Pedro 1-nil. Thus in the North Zone, Kraal Road leads with sixteen points, Hattieville has twelve, San Felipe nine, Cayo South has seven and San Pedro is in the cellar of this zone with six points. Over in the South, Valley Renaissance leads with twenty points, Paradise Freedom Fighters has nineteen, Texmar fourteen, Placencia Assassin eleven and Santa Elena Synergy nine. Week ten’s schedule finds five Sunday matches on the program. San Pedro travels to Hattieville, Cayo South comes to the M.C.C. Grounds to take on Kraal Road, Paradise Fighters will host Texmar, Valley Renaissance visits Santa Elena Synergy and Placencia Assassin plays host to San Felipe Barcelona.
In dominoes news, the first annual Belikin Domino Tournament blasts off on Sunday, eighteenth October at Bayview Oasis Bar and Restaurant at mile five on the Northern Highway. Six teams representing the six districts have signed up and are ready to aim at the first prize of one thousand dollars and twenty cases of Belikin, while second place takes home five hundred dollars and ten cases of beer.
Meanwhile, folks we take you to Viking Club here in Belize City where yesterday the Belize Billiards Association staged its three man team nine ball Pool Tournament, which featured all of thirty teams nationwide and we must congratulate the Billiards community for the large number of fans who crowded the venue. In money time, Larry Lisbey, Angel Vargas and Manuel Ramos outstroke the Cayo team featuring Luis Usher, Lionel Pinelo and Javier Solana to walk away with the thousand dollar prize and twenty cases of Belikin beer, while the Cayo team took home five hundred dollars plus ten cases of Belikin beer. We take this opportunity to congratulate Larry Lisbey, who emerged with MVP honours.
Hey folks, that’s our show for today. We invite you back same time, same place, next week. Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
