By Neto Baptiste
A six-team tournament honouring the memory and contributions of former ABFA general secretary, Gordon “Banks” Derrick, is currently being contested at two venues within his former community.
Derrick, who was also president of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), died suddenly last month in Florida, where he had been residing with his wife and children.
Organiser of the tournament, Freston Ireland, said matches started Thursday and will continue for two weeks.
“We have two playing venues, one at the Princess Margaret School grounds, and the other at Fort Road, but for today [Thursday] we are only at the Princess Margaret School grounds at 5pm, where you will see FA Aston Villa coming up against Real Blizzard. The tournament will run basically for seven playing days so you can call it two weeks. We start this Thursday and we finish two Thursdays from now, which is the Thursday before T-shirt Mas,” he said.
Real Blizzard, FC Aston Villa, West Ham FC, Blackburn Palace FC, Fort Road and Earthquake FC will contest the tournament dubbed the Gordon “Banks” Derrick, Kings of the West Memorial Football Cup.
Ireland explained that matches will be tweaked somewhat to accommodate the fitness level of players.
“Because people are not playing football, we have the games at 70 minutes, and the final will be played for 80 minutes, but if on the given day the teams want to play 80 minutes it is something they would just have to pick up with the referees and go. What we were trying to do also, and I hope I can get it done for Saturday, is that the organisers will have black armbands that the teams will play with during the entire tournament,” he said.
The tournament is sponsored by Cool & Smooth, WIOC, DSC Promotions, Stonewall Reloaded and Hook Me Pasta Snack & Bar.
Matches start at 5:00 pm.