FOOTBALL action in Mayor Hamilton Green’s 79th birth anniversary seven a-side Inter-ward/village knockout football tournament will this afternoon kick off from 14:00hrs (2pm), culminate at the Den Amstel Community Centre ground.Four quarterfinal encounters dubbed ‘Georgetown meets West Side’, will whet the appetite of football lovers who are expected to throng the venue, where players in the caliber of Trayon Babb, Devon Millington, Andrew Murray Jr and Shemroy Arthur just to name a few will be in action.
In the opening quarter-final fixture, Sara Lodge, for whom Keron Schmidt, Livan Blair, Rocky Reddy, Joslyn Williams and Ezeckiel Cox would be making an appearance, will face off with North Sophia, who will be depending on Colin Bowen, Anthony Sancho, Wayne Sharples and Gregory Jones for victory.
Arthur, along with the Kamal siblings in Sheik and Joshua Kamal and Ernie Smith, will look to steer South Sophia past Uitvlugt, who will be represented by Bobb, Charles Stoby, Dwayne Wilson and Jamal Henry in the second quarterfinal matchup.
When Den Amstel, who are favoured to take the title face up against Kitty in the third quarterfinal fixture, players such as Dillon Lanferman, Jeffrey Pereira and Andre Hector will look to stop the challenges of Kitty’s Deron Bowen, Wendell St Hill, Sherwin Vincent and Gavin Bobb and see one of the West side based powerhouses into the final four.
The final quarterfinal matchup can be deemed a scorcher, since it has the Millington, Murray Jr, Solomon Austin and Devon Moseley led North East La Penitence taking on Pouderoyen, who will be looking to Dextroy Adams, Marvin Josiah, Roy Chillcott and Lloyd Prince to steer them into the semis.
All matches for the day will be of 30 minutes duration and following the quarterfinals will be the semifinals which will see the winner of the first game tasking on the winner of the third in one semifinal matchup, while the victors from games two and four will meet in the other.
The two victorious sides will clash for the first place prize of $100,000 and trophy which is being donated by Ramesh Sunich of Trophy Stall in Bourda Market and Hadi’s City Mall, leaving the winner to be contended with $50,000, while both finalists will receive hampers from Ricks and Sari Agro Industries Limited.
Apart from Trophy Stall and Ricks and Sari, other sponsors for the tournament includes Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, Chris Fernandes, Guyana Lottery Company, MACORP’s Mark Bender, Jermaine Langevine (Fish Shop) and Giftland OfficeMax. (Calvin Roberts)