… awareness games wrap up in Linden, fans excited
WHAT is expected to be one of the most exhilarating forms of football to ever hit local shores, GT&T’s FastBall Football will officially kick off on Saturday in the bauxite mining town of Linden with a series of games.
Over the past weeks, the organisers – GT&T, Kashif & Shanghai Organisation and Hits & Jams Entertainment – have been running awareness games around the country to ensure that players and fans alike have an appreciation of the rules that would govern this new form of the game.
The response from all has been electrifying and players are anxiously awaiting to showcase their skills in this knock-out tournament that has attracted over 100 teams.
Over the last weekend in Linden a number of matches were played which resulted in confidence-boosting wins for Bakewell Topp XX, Snatchers FC, Amelia’s Ward United and Christianburg Attackers.
Topp XX, once the leading side in Linden have been on the rise again, dishing out a 4-2 whipping of Eagles United.
Many teams have been mastering the use of the blue ball, which when scored amounts to two goals. Topp XX were ingenious as all their goals came via this innovation.
Former National Kayode McKinnon netted the first of Topp XX’s goals in the 28th minute; his teammate Yannick Braithwaite following in similar fashion one minute later to seal the win, blanking out Eagles’ earlier efforts by Mark Thomas 20 seconds into the game, and Randy Small’s 7th minute effort.
Snatchers United lived up to their name when they snatched a 1-0 win over their more accomplished rivals Silver Shattas, Shane Davidson scoring the winner.  
Amelia’s Ward United were in ripping form, upstaging Cool Runnings 5-0. K. Powell (3rd), D. Thompson (8th), G. Daw (14th – Blue Ball) and K. Thom in the 18th minute were the players on target for the winners.
The afternoon’s proceedings opened with a win for Christianburg Attackers over Coomacka Mines by the odd goal in three.
On target for the victors were Keyon Boston in the 10th minute and Rawle Johnson in the 19th; Coomacka actually took the lead in the 3rd minute but could not stop the forward victory thrust of Attackers.