Sports

Guyana will host a team of British Rifle shooters in April this year just days before the local team travels to Jamaica for the Caribbean Fullbore Championships.

Whoever pulls the cricket strings from above has set severe challenges for the West Indies on their always tough tour of South Africa.

As Georgetown’s top club Alpha United was destroying the hopes of Lindens’ Top XX and their supporters by stubbornly holding on to their one goal lead in the final of the 18th Annual Kashif and Shanghai football tournament, Stabroek Sport sought the comments of football fans on the tournament.

The Caribbean’s most prominent football administrator, Austin `Jack’ Warner, and the most successful midfielder to ever emerge from this region, John Barnes, arrived in Guyana on Friday evening for the launch of the Digicel Kick Start football clinics here in Guyana to an 18-ball salute.

Guyana’s Road to the 2010 Football World Cup finals was launched on Saturday at the Umana Yana in Kingston with a call for unity and support for the (Golden Jaguars) national team in its quest to secure a place in the 32-team finals in South Africa.

For 50 exhilarating minutes before tea at Newlands yesterday, the unlikely batting combinations of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards and the courageous, doubly wounded captain Chris Gayle appeared to have shifted the momentum of the second Test so decisively that the possibility of a remarkable West Indies victory was not just cockeyed optimism.

Compliments of GT&T, P&P Insurance Brokers, Camille’s Enterprise, RHTY&SC, Trophy Stall Bourda Market and Lifetime Real Estate It was all Brian Lara at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday as Trinidad and Tobago, replying to Guyana’s 334 all out, reached 273-3 at the close of the second day’s play of their Carib Beer Series first round encounter.

The Digicel-sponsored regional football development clinics was launched yesterday in Guyana amidst concerns raised by International Football Federation (FIFA) vice-president, Austin `Jack’ Warner, about the lack of a proper venue.

Dwayne Bravo’s spell of exceptional stamina and high class seam bowling, of the sort that earned Courtney Walsh and Glenn McGrath more than 500 Test wickets, inspired a spirited West Indies fight as the second Test continued to ebb and flow on the second day yesterday.

The Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) in collaboration with the National Sports Commission (NSC) will stage an Open handicap tournament this week-end at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

If you are a budding lawn tennis player in Guyana and you dream constantly of playing against the Roger Federers and Justine Henins of the world then bring your `A’ game to Le Meridien, Pegasus Hotel courts on Sunday.

Revenge is sweet and Alpha United relished a 1-0 victory over Bakewell Topp XX in the 18th Kashif and Shanghai Football final on New Year’s night at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground in Linden.

Two wickets in quick succession at three critical periods of the opening day of the second Test here yesterday undermined stout West Indies resistance to the anticipated South African response to their shock defeat in the first in Port Elizabeth last week.

The national cricketers will begin their quest for regional supremacy in the Carib Beer cricket competition with a tough first round match against Trinidad and Tobago at the Queen’s Park Oval tomorrow.

President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Claude Blackmore, says his association had little production during last year and points a finger at the National Sports Commission (NSC) for created a rift between the two bodies.

It is always easy to look around the world and see the bad news.

South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur says “there is no panic” but the West Indies may read the selectors’ late call-up of Neil McKenzie for the second Test, starting in Cape Town tomorrow, differently.

Linden’s Top XX will be looking for their sixth title when they clash with Alpha United, Georgetown’s premiere league champions in the 18th Kashif and Shanghai football final this evening at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) ground in Linden.

Along with the maxim attached to even sporting surprises that God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform or the more mundane that cricket in a funny game, there were clearly other, more realistic factors involved in the rare and remarkable West Indies’ victory over South Africa here on Saturday.

National racquet-wielder Trenace Lowe has twin goals for the new year.