THIS year (2011) has been described as the most challenging in the 21-year history of the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club (RHTY&SC), according to a release from the club. But Guyana’s leading Youth and Sports Organisation has courageously overcome the many obstacles and in retrospect is describing the year as highly successful as the club continues to dominate cricket in Berbice at the Junior, Senior and Female levels while it has achieved its target of 125 off-the-field projects and programmes.
Club Secretary/CEO Hilbert Foster notes that 2011 has not only been challenging but at times also very stressful with the Club having to deal with several factors including rising cost of sports gear, transportation, electricity bills and office expenses while at the same time dealing with a reduction in sponsorship due to the economic situation.
Foster also noted that the club over the past four years had diverted millions of its sponsorship to the Berbice Cricket Board in an unselfish move to assist in the development of cricket in the Ancient County.
Highlighting the club’s successes in 2011 were their cricket teams which completely dominated all levels of the game in Berbice.
The Farfan & Mendes Under-15 defeated Albion to lift the Tenelec Inc. Under-15 title but lost the final of the Spready’s Bakery Under-19 tournament to the same club.
The Metro Female Team also won the BCB Millie Lewis Memorial Tournament and reached the semi-final of the Countrywide Kares Tapeball Ten10 Cup and Bakewell Ten10 Softball tournaments.
The girls, playing under the name of Berbice All Star, won the GT&T Ten10 softball competition. The Rose Hall Town Gizmos & Gadgets played unbeaten up to December 1 and took home the Ramcharitar Construction 50-overs title; Busta Champion of Champions 50 overs; Guywid Twenty20 Cup; New Amsterdam/Canje Twenty20 and the BCB Universal DVD Twenty20 titles.
The first division team are also heading the table of the Tenelec Inc 50 overs tournament and have played unbeaten in the New Building Society Second Division and Memorex Leslie Amsterdam Memorial Under-17 tournaments.
Individually, the club members have maintained a high level with quite a few representing Lower Corentyne, Berbice, Guyana and the West Indies.
Fifteen members represented Lower Corentyne at the Under-15 and 19 levels while 30 played for Berbice at all levels. At the National levels, Arif Chan played Under-15, Shailendra Shameer and Arif Chan – U-17; Dominic Rikhi, Lloydel Lewis and Clinton Pestano at the U-19.
At the Female National level five members represented Guyana – Shemaine Campbelle, Erva Giddings, Phaffiana Millington, Nikita Toney and Trishanie Cort, while Assad Fudadin and the Crandon brothers played for the senior team with Fudadin captaining the National 50 overs team.
At the West Indies level Assad Fudadin played for the West Indies ‘A’ and Shemaine Campbelle for the Female Regional Team.
The seven cricket teams of the RHTY&SC – Rose Hall Town Farfan & Mendes U-15, Bakewell U-17 and Second Division, Pepsi U-19, Metro Female and Gizmos & Gadgets U-23 and First Division organised over 60 self-development projects in 2011 including raising funds for children who need surgery, feeding of the poor programmes, educational scholarships, donations to clubs and NGOs of sports gear, educational materials and television programmes.
Off the field, the players also performed well in other activities with Nermala Sewdat winning a gold and two bronze medals at the National School Athletics Championship, while several others did remarkably well at the CSEC Examinations including Lloydel Lewis.
The long-serving Secretary/CEO also disclosed that the Club in 2011 completed 126 off-the-field activities including the Annual Awards Ceremony, Annual Cricket Academy, Republic Bank (Guy) Ltd Summer Camp, Tribute to heroes, Lower Corentyne Educational Awards Scheme, Port Mourant Secondary Teachers’ Award Programme, Tribute to Headteachers, Lower Corentyne Outstanding Teachers’ Awards, Tribute to Retired Teachers, Panorama Television Programme, Busta Champion of Champions Tournament, Patricia Moniz Educational Trust Fund, Father- and Mother-of-the-Year Award Programmes, Western Union Junior Cricketers Programme, Construction of Anti-drugs Billboards and feeding of the Poor Programme.
The Club also shared out over $15M in clothing, footwear, educational materials, food items and hygiene kits to the less fortunate and also sponsored trophies, medals and prizes for 22 sporting activities in Berbice including tournaments for Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Boxing, Chess and School Athletics.
The Club also used its influence to raise over $3.5M for the Berbice Cricket Board and co-sponsored 26 programmes for the Berbice Cricket Board in 2011. The Club and Food for the Poor (Guy) Inc. also donated millions of dollars in items to the Berbice Cricket Board and over 25 Cricket Clubs in Berbice
During the year, the Club lost the services of its long-standing Office Manager/PRO Moonish Singh who opted not to renew his contract due to business commitments, while job and school commitments affected some of the junior elected executives from performing their duties and this placed more work on the shoulders of the veteran and long-serving Foster, but he said that with experience and the assistance of few others he was able to successfully guide the Club throughout the year
Another major challenge the club experienced during the year under review was the attitude of some senior cricketers who were poor role models to their younger peers and who seemed to be interested solely in their professional cricketing career while being unconcerned with the development of the Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club.
The Club stated that their unbelievable success in 2011, on and off the field, was as a result of hard, dedicated work, a strong faith in good visionary leadership and the support of its sponsors and supporters.
Special mention was made of Gizmos & Gadgets, Bakewell, DDL-Pepsi, Metro Office Supplies, Farfan & Mendes, Banks DIH Ltd, Guyana Beverages Company, John Fernandes Ltd, ANSA McAl Trading, Sterling Products, Edward Beharry Ltd, Food for the Poor (Guy) Inc., the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints, GT&T Cellink, Republic Bank (Guy) Inc., Western Union, Universal DVD, Ming’s Products & Services, Ricks & Sari Agro Industry Ltd, Bounty Farm, HA Snacks Ltd, NAMILCO, New GPC Inc., Bissan’s Zara Apartments, Berbice Cricket Board, Lynden Armogan, The Trophy Stall and Ravi of Brooklyn, USA.
Also acknowledged were the contributions of the Media especially DTV-8, LRTVS CH 10, NCN, Kaieteur News, Guyana Chronicle, Stabroek News and Guyana Times along with journalists – Franklin Wilson, Sean Devers, Claude David, Rajiv Bisnauth, Avenash Ramzan, Colin Benjamin, Marlon Munroe, Calvin Roberts, Ravi Madholall, Tamika Garnett, Donald Duff, Andrew Carmichael and Leon Horatio.
The Rose Hall Town Youth & Sports Club would complete its activities for 2011 with a massive $2M Christmas Programme for the less fortunate that includes the hosting of four children parties, Senior Citizens Luncheon, sharing out of 1 500 toys, distribution of 200 hampers to needy families, Feeding of the Poor Programme and sharing out of 50 educational sponsorships to students.
Foster also disclosed that the Club has already started to plan for 2012 and has set itself a target of 130 programmes/projects for the year.