THE Masters football fraternity, under the name Guyana Football Association of Masters (GUYFAM), held an over 55 one-day festival last Sunday at the GFC Ground, where the Linden Masters triumphed over the two other competing teams.
On a sunny Youman Nabi holiday, host team, RastafarEye Patriarchs, lost their two matches 0-1 and 0-4 to Club 45 and Linden Masters, respectively, while the Championship decider ended in a 2-all stalemate.

The 40-minute-match Festival was reduced to a triangular competition after Pele Masters failed to muster a team.
In the decisive encounter, Christopher King gave Club 45 the early opening lead with a blaster, after breaking through the defence.
The Mining Town Masters replied almost immediately through Gavin Greenidge, before Gregory Griffith hit a powerful right-booter from at the top of the box to give Linden the advantage, after 15 minutes of pulsating action.

Led by former National midfielder Terrence ‘Old Head’ Lewis, who was here, there and everywhere, Club 45 launched attack after attack, before King again broke free to level the score again, just before the half.
The match, which was upped to a 60-minute affair, produced a 2nd half of near misses and solid defending at both ends, and the scoreline was not changed when the final whistle was blown. Linden, with a +4 goal difference, were crowned Champions over Club 45, who ended with a +1 goal difference.

Captain of the Linden Masters Garfield ‘Snooker’ Shepherd captured the Best Defender and MVP trophies, as well as the top goal-scorer trophy, which he jointly shared with Christopher King for their two goals apiece. ‘Old Head’ Lewis was named the Tournament’s Best Midfielder, while Linden’s Steve Retemiah was awarded the Best Goalkeeper trophy, and teammate Steve Hector won the oldest player trophy at 66 years old.

A number of individuals contributed the trophies that were contested for, including Snoops Jewellery of Linden, and Golden Smile of the Capital City. Three former hockey players also made contributions towards the staging of the festival: Ivor Thompson, Dexter Wyles, and Dr. Claude Gooding, and former Western Tiger’s Shawn Thompson.