DEFENDING champions Western Union Hikers retained the Guyana Hockey Board’s (GHB) John Fernandes Insurance Services Limited second division hockey league title with a 5-3 victory over All Greys, when the action culminated last Monday.

After a long delay due to the unavailability of grounds, the GHB managed to stage its final match of the 2013 League and the tournament’s point-leaders All Greys faced second-place Hikers in a winner-take-all final match.
The two sides had crossed swords in the first round of competition which ended in a stalemate and it would now come down to the wire in a fitting final match of competition to determine who will wear the crown as 2013 second division champions.
As was predicted, the All Greys, featuring ageing stars of yesteryear, sat back in defence and absorbed an onslaught of attacking manoeuvres from the youthful Western Union Hikers in the opening minutes of play.
With the All Greys seemingly playing the rope-a-dope made famous by Muhammad Ali, the Hikers appeared to run out of ideas and seemed vulnerable to the occasional All Greys counterattacks and it was a battle of attrition as a draw would see All Greys capture the trophy and the Hikers seemed less and less likely to penetrate the tight All Greys defence marshalled by former national full back Ivor Thompson.
After 24 minutes of pressure from the Hikers however, the All Greys defence finally cracked as a loose rebound fell into the path of Aroydy Branford who smashed his shot into the high right hand corner of the goal.
The All Greys emerged with renewed enthusiasm in the second half of play and enjoyed a greater share of possession than they did in the first.
After seven minutes of play in the second half, All Greys captain breathed new life into the game with an accurate penalty corner strike in the near post to draw the score level at 1-1.
Aroydy Branford, who produced an MVP-type performance on the evening, received a pass high on the right side of the All Greys goal area in the 46th minute and swiftly dodged left before slipping the ball past the advancing goalkeeper Rawl Davson who had been having a stellar performance himself.
With the Hikers enjoying a 2-1 lead former national captain Alan Fernandes scored possibly the goal of the match as he eluded several defenders and finished with a diving reverse stick effort to draw the score level at 2.
Despite another well-placed goal from Gavin Hope for All Greys, the top class performance from Branford saw him register two more goals in the dying minutes to pull off the Hikers victory.
Mrs Kerensa Fernandes was on hand to present the shield to the victors in the ceremony that followed the final match.