By Neto Baptiste
Hotsprings Bath United Football Club out of St Kitts and Nevis is set to be the invited team during this month’s re-launch of the Warriors Cup here in Antigua.
This is according to chief organiser, Colin James, who said the Warriors Football Club will host their SKB counterparts after having made an initial trip to that country in April this year where they played several matches against them.
“They were our hosts when we went to St Kitts and Nevis, so they are coming up to Antigua next week, Friday the 16th and what we have done is that we are going to re-launch the Warriors Cup to host them.
“Initially, we thought about having four teams in the competition because that’s the format we played in St Kitts and Nevis when we went over on the Easter weekend, where it was three matches back to back over three days. They like that format and we don’t have a problem with it, but we’ve had a request from at least one club that wants to take part and I dare say that now the announcement has been made, we may get a few more requests from one or two other clubs,” he said.
The Warriors Cup, which is slated for September 16, 17 and 18, will be the first instalment in almost four years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and James is excited to see the return of the tournament.
“We couldn’t do it in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid, so the last tournament was held in [2018] at McPond and ended around early December. We played it over a three-week period because there was a break in the Premier Division around that time because I think the national team was travelling.
“So we were able to play it during the heart of the season and Sea View Farm are the defending champions,” James said.
Several clubs from the across the region to include Trinidad’s Caledonia FC have featured in past instalments of the Warriors Cup. Sea View Farm defeated All Saints 5-4 on penalties in October of 2018 to lift the title.