By Elroy Stephney

THE sun shone brilliantly and so was the display of members from the Essequibo Technical Institute (ETI) who took top honours in two of the three sporting disciplines in the Inter-Ministry Day of Sports held last Friday at the Anna Regina Community Centre ground in Region Two.

The day of activities was sponsored by the Region Two Administration and saw participation from the Health Department, ‘G’ Division of the Guyana Police Force, ETI, Drainage and Irrigation Department, Fisheries Department and Survival Run Sports Club of Henrietta and the RDC Councillors XI.

The day began with a formal opening ceremony with the Deputy Regional Executive Officer Roopkumar Persaud welcoming the participants and expressing the Administration’s commitment in engaging in such activities which he stated can serve to unite the masses and minimise the stress encountered sometimes from the working environment. He then declared the games open.

The eight-a-side softball competition began with Health Department showing that they were healthier by defeating Drainage and Irrigation Department by nine wickets.
Batting first, D&I registered 71-1 from their eight overs to which Health responded with 83-1 from 7.4 overs and claimed an exciting win. The next game saw the RDC Councillors being taught a lesson by the Essequibo Technical Institute.

ETI won the toss and batted, rattling up an imposing 119-3 from eight overs with David Williams compiling an impressive 55 laced with 5×6 and 3×4. In reply, RDC Councillors could accumulate only 53-5 when their overs expired.

ETI were again in action and this time they arrested Police to win by 10 wickets. Batting first, Police reached 38-4 in 4 overs to which ETI replied with 42 without loss.
The final was then contested between ETI and Health who won the toss and batted. They gathered 45-3 from 4 overs and it was convincingly overhauled by ETI who ended on 46-2 from 3.3 overs with David Williams being the star player again, with another fluent knock of 25 including 2×6 and 1×4 to lead his side to victory and the title for the first time.

ETI then placed aside their bats for their boots and proved decisive every time it mattered, to win the 7-a-side football tournament. The 15-minute affair saw four teams participate. In the first match, ETI had the better of Police during the penalty shoot- out after both teams emerged scoreless when the whistle was blown.

ETI then registered the lone goal from the boot of Rawl Pearce to earn victory. The scenario was repeated with Health scoring in the shoot-out against Survival Run with Health’s Andrey Jeffrey scoring the lone goal. Interestingly the final between Health and ETI was also decided on penalty and it was ETI who held their nerve and came out 1-0 in their favour of another tournament triumph.

The dominoes competition was then contested with RDC 2 stealing the spotlight with a narrow victory over Police and Health. At the end of three sittings, RDC 2 chalked up 43 games with Police and Health ending on 38 games apiece.

There was a large attendance during the day of activities which included Member of Parliament Hemraj Rajkumar, Regional vice-chairman Nandranie Coonjah, Principal Personnel Officer, Bibi Rameeza Mullah, Administrator Morris Walcott and Youth and Culture Officer Herald as well as staff members from various organisations including RDC 2, National Insurance Scheme and the Guyana Power and Light among other well-wishers and supporters.

During the presentation, ETI received trophies for winning the cricket and football tournaments while David Williams received a trophy as being Man-of-the-Match in the cricket final. RDC 2 received the trophy for winning the dominoes competition while Charles Josiah of RDC 2 received a trophy for scoring the most sixes.

The day of activities formed part of the Region’s list of events in celebration of Mashramani 2018, which is being held under the theme ‘Let’s Cooperate and Celebrate Republic 48’.