Clean sweep

Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) made a clean sweep of the Banks DIH and Infab night hockey tournament following their men’s first-division team’s 2-1 win over Everest Hikers in their decider, Wednesday evening at Thirst Park.

The Bourda men’s senior team followed up on the success of their ladies and second-division men’s teams who had earlier won their divisions.

GCC and Hikers were forced to play a final after the two teams had been locked on similar points and goal average at the end of the regular competition, and the marauding Bourda side did not disappoint their fans with a relentless attack on the Everest Hikers team which was without experienced striker Jerry Bell.

GCC powered their way into the lead in the 10th minute when Orlando Semple found the back of the net on the second attempt after Hikers’ goal-keeper Azad De Abreu partially saved his first shot at goal.

Four minutes later, GCC’s frontline rampage received further success when Alan Fernandes and Most Valuable Player (MVP) Shad Fernandes combined well in the 25 yards area and the ensuing pass to Stephen Fernandes was well struck at goal to beat Hikers’ goalkeeper once again.

GCC kept up the pressure throughout the first half but several raids at goal were thwarted by excellent defensive work by Robert Fernandes and Alex Gouveia and some timely saves by De Abreu to hold a commanding 2-0 lead at half time.

Hikers’ striker, Marc King, who had one missed opportunity in the first half, pulled one back for his team six minutes into the second-half following a counter-attacking play by the Camp Road side.

King received a perfect pass from Timothy McIntosh and send a powerful shot which beat GCC’s custodian Gregory Garraway to his right.

Both teams battled to gain the upper hand but in the end the score remained unchanged and GCC celebrated a well-deserved win.

Earlier in the evening, the national women’s squad played to a 0-0 draw against the national Under-23 men’s squad in an exhibition match. The women’s squad along with the senior men’s squad are preparing for the inaugural Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) Caribbean Cup billed for November 7-11 in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

The top performers were awarded at the presentation ceremony with national sweeper Trisha Woodroffe of GCC being awarded the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the ladies’ competition while Shad Fernandes of GCC received the MVP for the men’s second-division. The accolade for the men’s first-division went to left back Dwayne Scott of GCC.

The local hockey players will now shift their focus to indoor hockey in preparation for the Annual International Indoor Festival at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall next month.