SEVERAL players had double strikes last Thursday night during the opening night of action in the inaugural Petra Organisation/Guyana Beverage Inc. Busta soft shoe football championships, which was contested at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground.But none would be more memorable for those gathered than Sparta Boss’ Devon Millington’s brace, scored in one minute, handing his team a come-from-behind win over a game and physical California Square lineup.

Competing in the penultimate game on the night’s six-game card, Sparta Boss found themselves two goals down within the first four minutes of the contest, as Nash Moe (3rd) and Vassel Cantzlar (4th) had given their team the lead.
Not one to panic even though the scoreline was to his team’s disadvantage, Millington fed Travis ‘Zorro’ Grant, who, along with Millington, Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson and Dennis Edwards made up the core of their team, with a wonderful through ball which he converted in the 13th minute.
At the Busta lemon-time break the score read 2-1 in favour of California Square and many felt an upset was on the cards, especially after California Square custodian Abfzal Gafoor had affected several saves to thwart Millington and company.
But in the 28th minute, a lame free kick from Moe was intercepted by Millington who raced to the smaller goal area and lobbed the ball to the right of Gafoor to level the score, while he latched on to another pass from Cantzlar and beat Gafoor to his left one minute later to give Sparta Boss the lead.
Not satisfied with the one-goal advantage, Sparta Boss increased it to two in the final minute, when Millington dribbled Nash with the greatest of ease and found an unmarked Richardson, whose finish to an empty goal was as easy as taking candy from a child, following which the final whistle went.
Earlier in the night’s action which was witnessed by several executives of the sponsor, Ballerz, through the efforts of the Ramsay clan, got things rolling by edging D’Urban Street 6-5, with Steffon Ramsay hitting a hat-trick of goals in the 4th, 23rd and 26th minutes of play, backed by a double from Lyliton Ramsay (5th and 22nd) and Amos Ramsay’s solitary strike in the 12th.
Leon Kennedy responded first for D’Urban Street in the 8th minute and was backed by double strikes from Jermin Gilbert (11th and 29th) and Quincy Ashby (15th and 17th), but it was a little too late for the D’Urban Street boys.
In the second game, Leopold Street and Tucville played to a 3-3 draw, with Omallo Williams (6th and 23rd) and Andre Sookhoo 7th scoring for Leopold Street, even as Romello Fraser (4th), Rishawn Sandiford (11th) and Raphael Edwards (26th) did the same for Tucville.
Sophia met Broad Street in the third game of the night and were indebted to a hat-trick of goals from Dwayne Lowe in the 6th, 9th and 14th minutes along with Shemroy Arthur’s 2nd minute strike, as they defeated Broad Street 4-2, with Ryan Jones (12th) and Akeem Sam (13th) scoring for the losers.
Game four was played between Alexander Village and Charlestown and saw no outright winner, as this contest ended with a 4-4 scoreline.
Chavez Hescott (12th and 13th), Quincy Bourne (11th) and Golden Jaguars’ Jermaine Junor (24th) netted for Alexander Village, with Claude Bascom (4th and 18th) and Devon Charles (17th and 26th) responding for Charlestown.
Following the Sparta Boss versus California Square encounter, Albouystown and a determined-looking Hope Street-Tiger Bay lineup took the field for the final game of the night, which ended 1-1 with Marlon Nedd (10th) scoring for Albouystown and Calvin Shepherd nullifying his goal four minutes later.
Preliminary action in the first round will continue tonight at the same venue from 19:00hrs, with Queen Street-Tiger Bay facing Cross Street-Werk-en-Rust, North Ruimveldt colliding with Globe Yard and Back Circle taking on West Back Road.
Following the Busta break, Bent Street will go head-to-head with North East La Penitence, Festival City will open their campaign for the $600 000 first prize against Kitty Weavers and West Front Road ‘Gold is Money’ will culminate the night’s action when they face Stevedore Housing Scheme.
Apart from the first-place prize, the second- to fourth-placed finishers will respectively pocket $300 000, $200 000 and $100 000, while in the group stage, the first- to fourth-placed finishers will respectively receive $30 000, $20 000, $15 000 and $10 000.

By Calvin Roberts