‘Vincy Heat’ look weak

Goodness gracious, our “Vincy Heat” soccer team played like “Vincy Cool” last Sunday against Canada. Ah not giving up, ah hoping foh ah miracle, dat dey could just play wid renewed vigah and NRG and win de return game dis Sat-dey!

Me ain’t no coach or no trainer but ah did ah lickle weight training in my youth, ah lickle Karate wid Mark Cordice and ah lickle Tae Kwon Do wid Albert Maloney, so ah have ah lickle I-dare of what ah good athlete suppose to look like, ah didn’t see much ah dat in our “Vincy Heat” team on Sunday.{{more}} In de past we have had players wid real Heat in dem, to name ah few we had Babbs and Zoopang Jones, Beige Lucas and Cally Horne; Tweety Spence, Ray Ballantyne, Pete and Luxie Morris, Guy and Ralty Lowe dem nuff. But rather dan dwell in de past, ah think ah better say what ah saw on Sunday. First to begin wid, de men dem look unfit, tired, leg-weary, slow, dey were out-run and out-played by de Canadians on too many occasions. Is like de mind was telling de body to do tings, but de body just not responding; ah sign ah poor physical condition.

What was also evident was we got players in key position who bin around ah while, served us well, but no longer performing up to standard. Players are now ah shadow of dem-selves fourteen years ago. Dey comes ah time when age catches up and athletes rely heavily on experience, but in ah physical game like Soccer, is fitness and skills, head and foot wuk. Some ah we lads are close to de end, time to bring forward more youths. Ah remember de past executive led by Leacock were concentrating on youth, de U23 team, grooming dem foh dis round of de world cup qualifier. Interestingly in de Mike Findlay stand on Sunday, ah heard people asking foh ah youth man who studying in Venezuela who was pulled out ah University to join de team, he played in all de other warm-up games but was side-lined foh both de Canada matches, de selectors opted foh experience, and Vincy Heat had ah experience on Sunday.

We had far too many injuries during de match, age and injuries are like love and marriage, dey go together like ah horse and carriage. De Red Cross stretcher was on and off the field so often for our players, dat at one time ah thought dey was ah vehicular accident on the field of play. Would yuh believe dat recently Dr Eddy Sealey was telling me dat within all de sporting organizations in SVG, is a number ah key national athletes who are participating at international level wid ole injuries that are not even being treated by a specialist. Sealey himself had offered to do de job, but got lickle or no response. And dat is exactly what manifested itself last Sunday, players getting ah lickle tackle and stretcher got to go lift dem off.

President Delves will be getting all kind ah suggestions, dats how it is when yuh losing. Mind yuh, if we would put more money and less talk into Sports, Football would be further ahead, but how can one blame us when de Prime Minister himself, was in Par-liar-mint shouting to Senator Leacock: “Yuh not getting ah red scent foh Football”! Dey got rid ah Leacock and his executive, and de new executive got money, but when de money came it was too lickle too late. De team missed ah important camp in Cuba dat would ah involved ah number of matches. So de new executive spent one hundred thousand dollars on ah hurry-hurry camp in T’n’T way dey played ah few club matches. Dat “Not ah Red Scent” was quite evident in de poor attendance on Sunday, de stands dem MT.

So my concern is way we going from here? We got to step up wid de training, well those who interested, treat dem injuries, and feed de players well. Sunday dey played like people living far from de kitchen, dey pot tun down. Dat should not happen cause if is one ting we got here in SVG, is good food for athletes in heavy training: Small Fish running and Skip Jacks knocking dog in de fish market, three foh $10. 00; Green Bananas, Breadfruit and dry Coconut still plentiful and cheap, Wax apple and Mangoes spoiling on de trees and a ripe Banana is only ah shilling. Das Da Silva will give dem all de Mountain Top water dey could drink, but foh me, Belair Spa Water is still de best and it free. Dat Spa water is like V-agua, V as in Vincy and Agua as in water, just watch how dem ole fellars going rush foh Spa Water now, maybe it might wuk better foh de youths.

ROY WILL MOULD WID GOLD

Roy “Dragon” Ralph would have had to be ah genius, how else do you account foh ah humble village boy, never went to an Arts Class, in fact he had only ah Primary School Education, no formal training in Arts, Craft, Sculpture, no lessons in Physics and yet he was able to produce some of the greatest costumes ever to be made in SVG. And we talking bout costumes wid steel structure; moulding, using from clay to brass, don’t talk bout quality finish, Dragon was de neatess. My pick of all ah Dragon’s Mas was Back Street. Remember Singer, wid de “sewing machine” costume; “Birds and Eggs” restaurant, when de egg opened on stage ah chicken (Miss Llewellyn) flew out de nest. And Barclays Bank’s Eagle played by Ken Browne. SVG costume makers have ah long way to go to catch up wid de Dragon. Is ah shame nobody ever thought ah giving Roy an MBE or CBE something he richly deserved, but knowing him, his happiness was in what he enjoyed doing best, making costumes, bending wire, moulding brass, ah bet Roy never had an opportunity to mould anything wid Gold, well he will now get his chance when he enters de Golden City. Rest in peace my dear Brother. And wid dat, is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy