National opening batsman Royston Crandon copped five awards, including the illustrious Cricketer of the Year award, when his club Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club (RHTY&SC) held their 17th Annual Awards ceremony at the J.C Chandisingh Secondary School last Sunday.
Crandon, the younger brother of national all rounder Esaun Crandon, was the recipient of the RHTYSC/Cellink Role Model Cricketer of the Year, Windies Sports Bar Batsman and Cricketer of the year, Guyana National Player of the Year (an Award he shared with Esaun and Guyana’s middle order batsman Assad Fudadin), and the illustrious Cricketer of the year Award, when he was the recipient of the Ian Hercules Memorial Award.
Hard working Secretary of the club, Hilbert Foster, took the opportunity to update the invitees including Speaker of the national Assembly Ralph Ramkarran who was also the guest speaker at the ceremony, Rajendra Persaud (Bank of Guyana), Taejnauth Jagunauth (CEO Metro Stationeries), Carl De Matos (GT&T’s Area Executive for Berbice) and Ms Alicia Anderson (DDL’s Marketing Manager Berbice) along with the awardees on the achievements of the Club for the past 17 years.
“Looking at our achievements for the year gone by, we have three senior cricketers on the Guyana National team. We also produced five senior, five Under-15, three Under-17 and three Under-19 cricketers for the county of Berbice. Young Dominic Rickey also had the distinct privilege of representing Guyana at the under-15 level.”
Foster further stated: “Our teams performed exemplary well on the field as we won five championships for the year including the illustrious Busta Champion of Champions tournament and the Clive Lloyd Challenge Trophy. We were fortunate to reach the semi final of the Neal and Massy 40 overs competition and at present we are one of the semifinalist in the Berbice zone of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Pepsi/ Ansa Mc Al nationwide 20/20 cricket competition.”
The club which also had the distinct opportunity of producing one of Guyana’s most successful youth captain in Andre Percival (Timur Mohammed being the other) also launched a female cricket team with 22 players of which seven went onto represent Berbice in the female Inter-County competition, with Tremayne Smartt going one step further to represent Guyana in Trinidad. They also had 10 representatives on the Berbice female under-19 team.
“Apart from being on the receiving end, RHTY&SC was also on the giving end in 2007. Twenty (20) students received $200,000.00 worth of educational materials under the Ramnaresh Sarwan Educational Trust Fund, $10m worth of educational materials and hygiene kits were distributed to over 30 schools at the Nursery, Primary and Secondary levels in a joint project with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” said Foster
“We also printed and distributed 1,000 youth magazines along with the same amount of stickers, 500 posters, and 1,000 information leaflets all on HIV/AIDS Awareness and 500 t-shirts. Over $100,000 worth of trophies and prizes were donated to schools for various events. Three (3) anti-drugs awareness bill boards were erected whilst jobs for 22 youths within the area were sourced.”
Foster further stated: “We had 72 feeding days where over 15,000 meals were distributed whilst we distributed over $6m worth of clothing, foodstuff, footwear to the less fortunate, Mental Hospital Senior Citizens Home, Amerindian Hostel and Orphanages. Senior citizens in the town of Rose Hall also benefitted, when they were the recipients of monthly hampers worth $2,500.00. Single parent households and fire victims were also on our list of beneficiaries for the year.
“We also held our massive Christmas programme in December where he hosted over 500 children at our Christmas party, held a luncheon for 100 Senior citizens and shared out over 200 food hampers along with our general feeding programme and visits to the Dharm Shala senior citizens home, New Amsterdam Hospital Children’s Ward and the Mental Hospital where clothing, toys and foodstuff were distributed all over the tune of $1.5m.”
Some 13 Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), sports clubs and Neighbourhood Development Committees (NDCs) were the recipients of stationery, sports gears and hygiene kits all to the value of $500,000.00 on the day of the awards presentation, whilst Scotia Bank Guyana Limited took the time to donate $110,000.00 to the Club towards the publication of a youth information booklet for sportsmen/women in Guyana.
The 40-page booklet will contain topics such as ‘The Role of a Sports Ambassador’, ‘HIV/AIDS’, ‘Basic Table Manners’ and ‘The behaviour in public’ amongst others. The Lower Corentyne educational Awards Scheme was also launched and 35 students from seven schools in the area were rewarded for their exemplary performance in their end of term examinations. Some $400,000.00 in prizes including educational and hygienic kits were handed over to the students.
Other award winners were:
Farfan and Mendes Under-15: Dominic Rickey (batsman), Shawn Perreira (Bowler), Lloydel Lewis (Cricketer of the Year).
Pepsi Under-19: Naresh Mahadeo (batsman), Eon Hooper (bowler) Hooper (Cricketer of the Year).
Bakewell Second division: Jason Sinclair (batsman), Ravin Narine (bowler), Sinclair (Cricketer of the Year).
Windies Sports Bar: Troy Matheison (bowler), Royston Crandon (batsman), Royston Crandon (Cricketer of the Year).
Jackie Singh (female batswoman of the year), Shemaine Campbell ( female bowler of the year), Nermala Sewdatt ( female fielder of the year), Tremayne Smartt (female cricketer of the year).
Lloydel Lewis won the Most Disciplined player award whilst Clifford Wong was the Most Committed Player with Jamal Jarvis being adjudged the runner up in this category.
Rohan Sookram won the Martin Cort Award after being adjudged the Most Promising player whilst Travis Frank, Rohan Sukhdeo and Mark Fernandes all occupied the runner up spot. Surendra Kissoolall (Most Improved Player), Dominic Rickey (Best Emerging Player for 2007), Delbert Hicks (Fielder of the Year) and Moonish Singh and Stanley Alexander (Workers of the Year).
This year is being designated as the benefit year for the club’s long serving player Renwick Batson whilst 2007 was the benefit year for Khemraj Mahadeo. Fudadin copped the runner prize in the Cricketer of the year category to Crandon.
