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Diamond Mineral Water Hockey Festival
Under-21 star Aroydy Branford leaves two Hikers defenders in his dust.
GCC got off to a cracking start as this year’s Diamond Mineral Water Hockey Festival commenced last Thursday evening at the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue. The Bourda club posted two wins in the veterans and men’s divisions with the latter being another exciting matchup with the outcome hanging in the balance until the very end. The Old Fort Shooting Stars shocked the Hikers ladies with their first ever victory over the veteran side in the opening matchup of the ladies division. YMCA of Barbados in the veterans division and the Pepsi Hikers men completed the evening’s winners.
In the feature match of the evening, Old Fort and Bounty GCC squared off in the men’s first division competition. The two teams had recently played to an exciting draw in the just concluded GT&T national championships and were both back to settle the score. Although the game began somewhat scrappy as both teams struggled to put together any meaningful attacks, GCC secured a penalty stroke in the 18th minute which was converted by Kevin Spencer who ended as the game’s top marksman. Spencer followed his opening goal with a pair more of unanswered goals as he sent a well-placed shot high into the Old Fort net almost immediately upon resumption and scored a rebound in the 23rd minute. Old Fort’s John Abrahams, who was having a quiet night thus far, kept his team’s hopes alive with a goal in the 28th minute to bring the score to 3-1.
Although Old Fort would score twice more through Dwight Sullivan and a brilliant solo effort from Jason Clarke, Spencer’s heroics were not complete until he stole the ball from an errant pass to finish a swift counterattack with his fourth goal of the evening. GCC secured the full three points at the end of the match with a 4-3 victory.
The other men’s match of the evening saw a spirited effort from the National under-21 selection as they held defending champions Pepsi Hikers within reach for most of the match before conceding a 5-3 victory to the Hikers. Young Aroydy Branford produced another dazzling display of hockey skills and scored all three of the goals for the under-21 side. The Hikers however used their normal composed passing game to pick apart their junior counterparts with five goals from Devin Munroe (2), Randy Hope, Robert France and Colonel Heywood.
Macaela Harding proved to be the star of the lone female match which featured the young Old Fort Shooting Stars against the Hikers. Harding was the source of several raids on the Hikers goal throughout the match and managed to score a penalty corner 13 minutes into the second period to give the Stars a 1-0 victory. The Hikers failed to make use of several chances created and paid the price with the surprise end result.
YMCA of Barbados got off to a successful start in this year’s campaign to hoist the Carib Veterans trophy. The two sides, YMCA and Old Old Fort, featuring only players over the age of 35 years, managed to entertain the crowd with trickery, good hockey skills and amusement. While the YMCA appeared to tire in the closing minutes, their two goals through former national Ralph Watson and Beaumont Trotman remained unanswered by Old Old Fort at full time giving the Bajans a 2-0 victory.
GCC vets made light work of the Hickers with a 6-3 victory in the other veterans clash. Dwayne Scott led the GCC scoresheet with a hat-trick, while Philip Fernandes added a double and Alan Fernandes a single. Devin Munroe, Jerry Bell and Robert Fernandes were the goal scorers for the Hickers.
Matches continue throughout this weekend the three finals set for tomorrow from 17:00hrs.
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