ON FEBRUARY 23 and in celebration of Guyana’s 43rd Anniversary as a Republic, the New Amsterdam Rotary Club held a Mashramani Jamboree and Fun Day at the Rose Hall Welfare Centre ground in East Canje.
The main discipline was volleyball. A competition was held in collaboration with the Berbice Volleyball Association (BVA), and attracted eight male teams

and one female team. The games were played on a round-robin basis in very soggy conditions on a grass court.
Nevertheless, the young players together with a few veterans displayed a high level of volleyball that had many spectators in awe, especially those who were witnessing a real volleyball competition for the first time.
The teams were GTC Red and GTC Blue (under-18 players who are new to the game and students of the Guysuco Training Centre), GTC (seasoned players who represented the Centre), PMTC 1 and PMTC 2 (players who are currently under-19 and national players and alumni of GTC who are members of Guyana’s top team).
Albion Sports Complex, GTC Strikers (made up of supporters of GTC), Falcons of East Canje and Compri Strikers (the lone female team from Corentyne Comprehensive High School).
During the daylight hours over 25 matches were played on a 15-point blitz basis (no time-outs, no substitutions and no liberos) and the final, involving the ever-improving Albion Sports Complex and the all-powerful PMTC 1, was played under floodlights.
The match was played at a fast pace resulting in some long and exciting rallies. The first set was won by PMTC 1, 25 -17, through some good spiking by Quacy Matheson and Creston Rodney.
The second set saw the lads from Albion defend stubbornly and counterattack with some quick spikes to win 25 -22, before the final set was won by PMTC1 through the brilliant power-spiking of Rodney.
At the presentation ceremony held in virtual darkness, BVA president Gregory Rambarran thanked the N/A Rotary Club for sponsoring the competition and congratulated all the teams for performing well in the adverse conditions. He singled out the female players for special praise for competing against their male counterparts.
Trophies were presented to the first- and second-placed male teams and a special trophy was presented to the female team.
President of the New Amsterdam Rotary Club, Robin Sookraj, in presenting the trophies to the second-placed males and the female team, congratulated them on their performances and expressed the hope that more collaborative efforts can be made in the future to raise the profile of volleyball in Berbice.
The first place trophy for the males was presented by Berbice Chamber of Commerce president Imran Saccoor to PMTC 1 captain Jason Seelochan.
Saccoor said that the time was ripe for the relevant authorities to build an indoor facility so that the youths could have the opportunity to use and raise their standard of play and be able to compete at international level.
Medals were presented to several players for their outstanding performances; Jason Seelochan of PMTC 1 – Best Setter, Creston Rodney of PMTC 1 – Best Spiker, Deion Seelochan of Albion Sports Complex – Best Server, Creston Rodney of PMTC 1 – Most Valuable Player and 16-year-old Rayan Dhoray of Albion Sports Complex – Best Player on the Runner-up Team.