Layou hosts 7/7 fund-raising cricket tournament

Young men in Layou channelled cricketers of the calibre of Sir Garfield Sobers and Brian Lara on Sunday, in an effort to raise funds for children in the community.{{more}}

Layou resident Chester Morgan hosted a 7/7 cricket tournament to raise funds which will go towards buying school supplies for less fortunate children.

“We’re trying to give them back something to go to school, such as books and so forth,” the 27-year-old said.

Morgan, who has a degree in sports training, told SEARCHLIGHT that while studying in Venezuela, he would play sports with children and would often buy school supplies for them out-of-pocket.

“I used to be on the park with the kids and I used to use my own money and buy [supplies] for them, but afterwards it wasn’t serving a purpose, because I could only buy a certain amount of books,” he said.

From this experience, the physical education teacher formed a foundation dubbed “Negative to Positive” with fellow Layou resident Kevin Smith and has been raising funds for the children of the community through various activities.

“We do sporting events and other ventures to raise funds to help the kids in any way possible. We had a fair in May and bought spikes for 10 athletes from that money,” Morgan disclosed.

On Sunday, 10 teams, each consisting of seven players and a substitute, entered the tournament at a cost of EC$40 each.

The tournament began at 2 p.m. and consisted of three rounds: quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.

A series of friendly, but intense cricket matches ensued, which had the rapidly growing crowd on their feet and shouting from the stands.

Vikings and Jam Rock were the two teams in the final round.

Jam Rock did a commendable job of aquiring 23 runs in five overs; however, it was Vikings that emerged victorious when they made 25 runs in four overs and won the Carib Beer sponsored prize of two cases of Hairoun Beer and EC$50.

Morgan, a very community-spirited individual, explained that his main goal is to bring the community together and have fun through positive activities.

“We’re trying to bring back the community also. We’re trying to get people to come out and support the athletes,” he said.

Additionally, the co-founder of “Negative to Positive” stated that the foundation has been facilitating a fitness group for over two months on the Layou, hard court on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, beginning at 7 p.m.

He also revealed that big things are in store for the community of Layou, as they can look forward to netball tournaments as well as futsala — football with five players on a half field.

Morgan also said that his foundation works with the National Olympic Committee and Athletics Association on some projects and thanked them for all of their support.(BK)