-Hope Street clinches third place

WHEN the shrill sound of referee Wayne ‘Harry’ Griffith whistle was sounded at 01:10hrs yesterday morning at the National Park, it brought the curtains down on the sixth annual Georgetown Guinness ‘Greatest of de Streets’ Futsal football tournament, which saw Queen Street-Tiger Bay being crowned champions over Stevedore Housing Scheme with a 2-0 win.Having seen their neighbours Hope Street-Tiger Bay defeat Albouystown ‘B’ 1-0 to take the third place prize of $200,000, Queen Street-Tiger Bay took the playing surface to a loud round of applause and cheers, even as the words of Buju Banton’s ‘Walk Like a Champion’ rang out from the speakers of King Scorpion Sound System.
The contest started evenly, with the eventual winners, who along with Stevedore had earned the right to represent Georgetown in the national playoffs, controlling the run of play against a defensive minded Stevedore lineup that included Elroy Parks and Stephen Dolphin.
Queen Street’s diminutive striker Dion Alfred, nimbly wormed his way in between three of Stevedore’s four starting players, but could not get a shot off, thanks to the tactics of Parks, who read his next move amicably well after he had cleared his three markers.
At the other end of the playing area, Dolphin, sought to emulate Alfred by attempting to get past two players, but his efforts were blocked by a stubborn Leon Fredericks, as both sides went in search of the go ahead goal.
But it was Queen Street who scored first, when Alfred sent a gem of a pass to the dreadlocks Fredericks who was unmarked and wasted no time in patting the ball home, in the 13th minute of play, even as his teammates and supporters chanted ‘Gold is Money’ and ‘Queen Street’, shortly after, while Queen Street took the lemon time break with a 1-0 lead.
Even control by Queen Street, who were bent on defending their one goal advantage while encouraging Stevedore to bring the game to them, was the order of the day in the second half and when they controlled the ball for a period of 3minutes with triangular passes, the crowd appreciated that effort and showed same with a round of applause.
Fredericks returned the favour shown to him by Alfred, when he gave Alpha Fletchman a wonderful pass through the legs of Parks and Dolphin, then watched as his teammate nailed home the offer in the 27th minute, a goal that definitely knocked the wind out of Stevedore’s sails.
Try as he may, Parks found it difficult to reduce his opponents lead, even as he made several attempts at their goal in a one man effort for his team, before he resigned himself to defeat after being dispossessed by Fletchman, shortly after the final whistle on this year’s tournament was sounded, handing Queen Street the $500,000 first place prize and trophy, while Stevedore collected $300,000 and trophy.
In the third place playoff, Rensford Coleridge scored the game’s lone goal in the 5th minute, following a one on one situation with Albouystown ‘B’s defence player, wherein he rounded his marker and found the back of the box with a well placed right footer, handing his team $200,000 and a trophy while the losers took home $100,000 and a trophy.
Prior to the playing of the third place matchup, two exhibition fixtures were contested wherein Guinness Bar-Durban Street defeated Globe Yard 3-2 in a hard fought encounter, while Oasis Taxi Service walked over a Media XI with ease to come away victors by a 2-0 margin.
Up next for both Queen Street and Stevedore, who were met by Banks DIH’s Guinness Brand Manager Lee Baptiste along with Petra Organisation Directors Troy Mendonca and Marlon Cole before the start of the finals, is the national playoffs which is expected to be contested sometime next year, where they will play the top two teams from Berbice, Linden and Bartica.
The winner of the national playoffs will then go on to represent Guyana in the Caribbean Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Futsal Football tournament which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago in June of 2014.

(By Calvin Roberts )