A VOCIFEROUS and enthusiastic crowd was on hand at the Anna Regina ground in Essequibo last Sunday to witness the two Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) Awareness games that were played in the Cinderella County.
The games got off to a late start due to the clearing of the field, but after they did, Henrietta ‘A’ team edged out Queenstown United one-nil while Henrietta ‘B’ team, made up with Under-16 players, lost 5-0 to Richmond.
Devon Romeo scored the winning goal for Henrietta ‘A’ in the 26th minute, after his team had a six-minute penalty awarded to their opponents following a throw off violation, but their custodian was equal to the task, when he thwarted the efforts of the Queenstown player who attempted to score.
Time (6 seconds) ran out on Queenstown, forcing referee Sherwin Moore to blow the whistle and award an indirect kick to Henrietta ‘A’ team.
Two yellow cards were shown, one to each team in a match which saw the crowd supportive of both teams, as they seemed to have grasped the rules quite quickly, with the respective supporters shouting specific instructions on the various rules to the team of their choice.
In the second game, Henrietta ‘B’ team put up a sterling performance against the sturdy Richmond FC but were outmuscled by the bigger players, despite being technically correct with the smaller players dribbling the bigger players much to the amusement of the spectators.
Wesley Boyce had a field day scoring all of the five goals for Richmond, doing so with the blue ball first in the 12th minute as his team took the seven-minute lemon-time break offered to them with a two-nil lead, since Boyce’s strike with the blue ball was doubled.
When play resumed, Boyce found the back of the net in the 20th minute and just as the referee was in the process of ending the match, Boyce scored his 4th and 5th goals with the blue ball in the dying seconds of the match.
Referee Dion Feassal had the distinction of showing the blue card to Olwyn Stewart, captain of Henrietta ‘B’ in the 24th minute, after he denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by handling the ball, but the custodian saved the ensuing kick which was taken by Boyce.
All in all, the teams and spectators had an enjoyable day, with the GT&T representative on hand to give away lots of caps, jerseys and horns.
To date, eight teams from the Cinderella County have indicated their intention to participate in the tournament and after Sunday’s action many persons also showed interest in having their teams registered.