THE curtain came down last Thursday at Strikers Sports Club as the inaugural All-Christmas Bonanza concluded. Six female teams for six weeks battled it out for supremacy in a points system aggregate dominoes tourney.

The six teams were Turning Point, All Seasons Angels, In Time, Cody Girls, Bing Boss Girls and Big Girls with the captains being Sandra Welch, Barbara Marshall, Loraine Rodney, Claire Benjamin, Charlyn Barnwell and Yonette Christmas.

This gesture was seen as a step in the right direction according to all the captains of the various teams in their closing remarks at the tourney. The idea was the six teams play each other twice while amassing points as the winners get five points, second-placed 3 points and third 1 point. 

Women are always made to compete against men and most of the time they are at a disadvantage because the numbers are against them i.e. If there is a tournament consisting of 21 teams, we barely may find at the most three (3) all-female teams that can compete and, this does not augur well for them.

They are usually booted out by their male counterparts, as we would say in Guyanese parlance, before seeing the ‘promised land’ to a final nine in the competition.

The idea was also to move away from the traditional monetary prizes and present hampers and tokens instead for the winners. After due diligence and lobbying six all-female teams were gathered to compete among themselves.

The winners were awarded with a hamper each from Dynasty Sports Club, the Most Valuable Player on the other teams after tallying up their scores were also awarded hampers compliments of Mr Earle Aaron of Sterling Products Limited and Mr Nigel Worrell of Ansa McAL Trading under the STAG Brand. A complete Gas Range was donated by Mr Heekima Paul of Massy Gas Products Guyana Ltd for the overall Most Valuable Player.

A bonus was added for the final by Clifton’s Electronics of two Black and Decker irons and one Black and Decker Microwavable bowl set for the winners of the final matchup and the first love in the final. Tokens were also given to each participant for their participation compliments of Strikers Sports Club.

Trophies were sponsored by Mr Stephen Thomas of Sunrise Marina Inc., Dynasty Sports Club and Big Boss Transportation Services.

At the conclusion, Big Boss Girls were the leaders with 24 points, Turning Point Girls and Big Girls locked at 19 points, Cody Girls 16 points, In Time Girls 15 points and All Seasons Angels 14 points.

The overall MVP and Player-of-the-Final was Cheryl Fraser while MVP for Turning Point was June Watts, Emily Dobson carted away hers for Big Girls, Amanda Singh was adjudged best player for All Seasons Angels, Loraine Rodney was the top scorer for In Time Girls and Sheron Jerome was the leader for Cody Girls.

The first love in the final was shared by Ann Thomson of Cody Girls. Barbara Lee also of Cody Girls and Roseann Taylor of In Time Girls won the irons.