WILLIE VASSALLO
Floriana 61
Mosta 87
(14-24)(11-8)(18-32)(18-23)
Mosta consolidated their second spot in the standings, and recorded their third seasonal win over bottom-club Floriana.
Mosta were without Steve Gouder, abroad, and Matthew Bonnici, injured, but it hardly made any difference, as they romped home, although at one stage the Greens were dangerously near.
The game exploded at the start, with five treys, four from Mosta, and three from Oliver Sammut. This opening served Mosta in good stead, as they established a first-session lead. Floriana settled down well in the second session, although they were only playing with six men.
They prevented Mosta from increasing their lead, as Mosta had changed all their players for this quarter, and they could not coordinate their play. At the interval it was a 32-25 match.
After the break the scoring picked up again. Floriana had a good start, and went just 35-39 down, but Mosta got in their stride again, and a long 21-2 run, with Ray Muscat and Oliver Sammut the protagonists, made the issue safe for their team.
After three sessions Mosta were leading 54-43. In the final quarter Mosta continued to extend their lead, but Floriana came more into the game as time passed, and they could tot up a satisfactory score in their favour, although Mosta were in no way bothered, as they were well ahead.
Ray Muscat concluded his fast breaks, enhancing his personal score, as did Anthony Shoults with his drives at the end. for Floriana.
Floriana: 22 Anthony Shoults, 13 Glenn Gauci Grech
Mosta: 40 Ray Muscat, 22 Oliver Sammut
Referees: Emanuel Mangani, Gordon Barbara
SN Suns Bell Med 63
Mellieha SVS 47
(16-7)(13-12)(14-12)(20-16)
Suns reached Mellieha in third position in the standings, and overhauled them on two direct league victories. Suns’ strong opening laid down the basis for a sound win, as Mellieha were always trailing, after their poor start, as Suns rode eight point runs back to back.
In the second session Suns could control the game, although Mellieha had the better ending, after a Mark Schembri trey for Suns. At the interval Mellieha were still trailing on 19-29.
After the break, Mellieha made a good attempt to cut down their deficit, doing so with a Robert Loporto trey, but Suns settled down again, and Roberto Formosa, who was posssibly playing his best game since he joined the team this season, helped them to a 10-5 run. After three sessions Suns were 43-31 in front.
In the final quarter Suns pushed further away with an 8-0 run, and another Mark Schembri trey. Mellieha recovered, posting a similar 8-0 break, with a Lawrence Deguara trey, going to 44-54 down, but Suns stopped the run, and ended the game on a high note, for their fifth league win.
Suns: 23 Roberto Formosa, 6 Mark Schembri
Mellieha: 10 Samuel Aquilina, 10 Lawrence Deguara
Referees: Emanuel Mangani, Clive Terribile
Loyola Xuereb Inst. 50
Qormi Kia 64
(13-13)(12-12)(12-17)(13-22)
Qormi had to sweat this one out, as Loyola provided stiff resistance for a good part of the match, and it was only in the final quarter that Qormi could break free, and make sure of the game.
This was Qormi’s fourth win over Loyola this season, in three different competitions, including last week’s KO final.
Loyola opened up well to take the lead, and increasing it till late in the session, when Qormi made their first trey, by Nello Xuereb, before going on to tie the first session. I
n the second period Qormi took a brief lead, but it was Loyola who dictated play for some time, making an 8-0 run, with a couple of treys, for a 23-17 lead. Qormi had a reply till the end of the session, and an Antoine Grech trey helped his side to tie the score again. At the interval it was a 25-25 match.
After the break Loyola forged ahead again with Qormi making up the leeway. Loyola had a quick reply, gaining a 36-31 advantage, but then they had to suffer Qormi’s insistence, as the latter made a closing-session 11-1 run, to start the last quarter on a 42-37 lead.
Loyola fell away in the last session as Qormi turned on the pressure, and pulled free after a long 19-2 run, which killed off Loyola’s hopes, although they had a good ending to the match, with three treys, for a more respectable score, which justified their contribution in the game.
Loyola: 16 Jonathan Ransley, 12 Sam Farrugia
Qormi: 13 Nello Xuereb, 12 Antoine Grech, 12 Keith Scicluna, 12 Simon Cauchi
Referees: Alfred Carbonaro, Jennifer Mangani
Standings: 17 Qormi Kia (8-1) 15 Mosta (6-3) 14 SN Suns (5-4) 14 Mellieha SVS (5-4) 12 Loyola Xuereb Inst. (3-6) 9 Floriana (0-9)
New F1 programme on the Sports Channel
After having revealed that it had acquired the exclusive TV rights for the transmission of the Formula 1 Grand Prix races, Melita Cable has also decided to produce a new programme, OverSteer which will go on air on the Sports Channel every Thursday after each Grand Prix.
This programme is being produced and presented by Sports journalist Sandro Micallef who is to set make his debut on the Sports Channel for Melita after having produced and presented several sports programs for Net TV over the past years.
The aim of this programme is to promote this sport in Malta which is followed by thousands of enthusiasts. Melita has also contracted Maltese F1 expert Pierre Vella who will help in the production of the programme and will be the resident expert in the 18 programme series which will end in October 2006.
During this evening’s programme starting at 8.30pm, a special analysis will be made about the first Grand Prix which was held last Sunday in Bahrain. The second Grand Prix of the season is scheduled for next Sunday in Malaysia.
Badminton
Three at the top of Division I
This competition is now well underway, being played regularly twice a week at the Cottonera Sports Complex and at St. Martin’s College, Swatar.
The latest round of matches saw some First Division Singles action. This division is gradually developing into a two-horse race between Kenneth Vella and David Cole, both hailing from the Pawla Wolves club.
Both are undefeated after their first two encounters and therefore lead the provisional table with the maximum four points.
Kenneth Vella defeated Tony Xuereb 15/3 15/13 and Patrick Cassar 15/5 15/4.
On his part, David Cole defeated Cassar 15/8 15/6; he then proceeded to notch another win against Tony Xuereb, whom he defeated 15/8 15/12.
Xuereb himself is equally on the four-point mark, having however played four matches. He won his encounters against Patrick Cassar 15/5 15/12 and Jacqueline De Giovanni 15/5 15/6.
The congestion at the top of the table may be resolved in the next round of first division Singles matches, to be played on the 22 and 23 March, which will see the direct encounter between Kenneth Vella and David Cole.
In the second division Doubles section, brothers James and Michael Bugeja (Shuttles BC) secured the maximum four points by winning both their initial encounters in straight sets against Joanne Vella/Norman Spiteri as well as Annalise Falzon/Keith Buhagiar.
They are followed on the two-point mark by the said Vella/ Spiteri as well as by Olga Fedotkina/Adrian Urpani (Msida Arrows BC).
Charles and Christianne Dimech (Pawla Wolves BC) seem to have a firm grip on the proceedings in the third division Doubles section. They lead the table with five points from three matches, having so far dropped only a single point in their drawn match against Dirk Urpani/Thomas Borg Barthet (Msida Arrows BC).
The H2Only League will continue tomorrow and on Thursday with more First Division Doubles fixtures; it will then resume on Sunday with additional Singles fixtures from the Second and Fourth Divisions of this competition.
Karting
Top Brazilian driver Martins makes debut in international competitions
The official training for the 17th edition of the Andrea Margutti Trophy has started. This traditional international kart competition is considered an avant première of the World Championship, scheduled to come to an end on October 1, in Angercille (France).
This year, 238 pilots from 32 countries, divided in three categories, will gather in the Parma Kart Motordrome (Italy), looking to conquer a championship which once was in the hands of Giancarlo Fisichella – one of the great names of Italian kart in the 90’s and today a Renault Formula One pilot.
Brazil has sent only one pilot to the Andrea Margutti’s 2006 edition: Henrique Martins, supported by the Agrenco Group, who is 14 years old and is about to take part in his first international competition. “Never before a Brazilian has been able to win this championship and this is one of the major challenges of this new generation of Brazilian kart pilots”, he says.
Agrenco Group, which operates in the agrobusiness sector, is represented in Malta by Finacom, whose offices are situated in The Park Lane Buildings, G’Mangia.
Henrique won the São Paulo State Championship in 2005, and is one of the more promising names of the Brazilian kart in the Junior category. Beyond the natural goal of persuading victory in the Andrea Margutti, he travelled to Parma aiming to get used to international competitions, which may be his focus on the next seasons. “Obviously I will get in the race track focusing victory, but to compete overseas is so different than competing in Brazil that the learning is also one of my goals”, he adds.
When Saturday comes
JAMES CALVERT
Pardew’s concerns are real, not racist
A lot of fuss has been made over Alan Pardew’s comments about Arsenal.
In case you missed it, the West Ham boss expressed his concern about the fact that the Gunners failed to play a single British player in their match with Real Madrid.
Pardew had said he was surprised to read that Arsenal were ‘flying the flag’ for Britain considering their team was full of overseas players. “We are losing the soul of English football,” he warned.
This lead to Pardew being branded a racist by Arsene Wenger and a whole host of other complaints from a variety of politically correct goons.
Well, I am sorry but I have to agree with Pardew on this one. The West Ham boss was not being xenophobic. Just honest. And, in my opinion, absolutely correct.
It’s fantastic to see Arsenal doing so well in Europe. I cheered their draw with Real as much as the next guy. But it is disappointing and disturbing that they are not playing a single Brit.
It’s not about being racist, it’s about being a realist. Arsenal are an English team, owned by English people, based in an English city, with English heritage. It’s only right they should have at least a few English players on the pitch.
And the same goes for any other team playing in England which fields sides made up entirely of foreigners. This is not something that is directed solely at Wenger’s team.
Personally, I think UEFA need to do something about this. I know there has been a lot of talk about ensuring teams have a certain amount of home-grown players in their squads but I think they need to go further than that and ensure there are a certain amount of locals in the team.
Otherwise, as Pardew said, the national identity of the team will be lost and that will not be good for any country in the long term.
Steven Gerrard
Working on the assumption that once every other year Steven Gerrard will make an attempt to win ‘worst back pass of the season award’ then Sunday’s through ball to Henry can only be good news for England.
The Liverpool player, normally so dependable and reliable in the heart of the midfield, showed he has an incredible generous streak by laying the ball on for Henry to score the winner in the clash at Highbury.
It was, as bad back passes go, quite incredibly awful and cost his team a match they had fought very hard to get back into.
Strangely it is the second time Gerrard has made exactly the same mistake although his previous error came while playing for England against France. Then it led to France winning a penalty which, with David James in goal, they inevitably went on to convert.
Hopefully Sunday’s mistake now means they he will not be planning on doing anything so quite outrageously bad during this summer’s World Cup. Unless, of course, England come up against France and Henry during the tournament in which case Sven might be advised to leave Steven on the bench…
E-mails
Just so you know writing this column is not always fun and games, I have received a couple of emails this past week which were of the rather harsh variety.
The first one was from an old friend of mine, Edward, who, in his own succint manner, asked me to stop making predictions which invariably go wrong.
“Do you have to go on making predictions on matches? Forget it. If you had to pick both teams to win or draw you’d still find a way of getting it wrong. You must be Ubet’s dream customer. With your prediction today you have doomed Liverpool and Arsenal. Hope you are happy,” he wrote.
Well, strangely, my prediction that those two teams would go through was only 50 per cent inaccurate. Sadly for him, it was the Liverpool one that I got wrong. Sorry mate.
The other email came from a chap called Wylie who took offence to my suggestion that Scotland are, as a football team, “pants”.
He took great pleasure in pointing out that England were, in fact, much, much worse than Scotland at rugby. And that is something I am absolutely not in a position to disagree with.
Unfortunately, much of his e-mail was unprintable due to his x-rated approach to language but his point was a valid one and let it not be said that I shy away from criticism.
Having said that, it would be nice to get the occasional supportive e-mail too. Please. Pretty please…
Forgetful stupidity
In a fit of forgetful stupidity, I actually managed to miss the first three quarters of Sunday’s Grand Prix and only tuned in, in time to see Alonso snatch the lead from Schumacher.
However, I have to say, from the little that I did see, it would appear the sport has fulfilled its promise to regain some of the excitement that has been abundantly missing in recent years.
It certainly seems like there are four teams which will be competing and fighting for podiums this season – the four which everyone predicted would be strong.
Ironically, it is nice to see Schumacher back at the front of the pack. It had got tedious back when he was winning everything with little or no competition but, equally, it somehow just didn’t feel right not having him challenging for the title.
Let’s hope the rest of the season lives up to the expectations created by the first race.
And I have a funny feeling it will.
David Dunne
Unfortunate admission of the week comes from Birmingham midfielder David Dunne who has been receiving a bit of stick recently for not being as svelte and slim as he might be.
Instead of accepting the criticism and heading for the gym as many would do, David has instead chosen to fight back verbally.
“I have got big legs and big backside. It’s just the way I am. I will always have a big arse. I can’t get rid of that,” the one-time England player said in his defence.
To be fair, a couple of injury-plagued years had not helped him in his bid for slimline perfection.
That and playing for a team which spends most of its time wandering around the pitch wondering what’s going on and very little actually running with purpose.
Contact James on: [email protected]