Adrian Frater, News Editor

Western Bureau:

Mountain Villa FC emerged the toast of Thursday night's end of season presentation ceremony for the 2005-06 St. James Football Association/Sandals Division One Football Competition as they walked away with four of the seven trophies that were on offer.

In the ceremony held at the Sandals Montego Bay Hotel, Mountain Villa collected the main award, the coveted Sandals Trophy and the winners' cheque of $70,000. All members of the winning team were presented with gold medals.

In addition to the main trophy and the cash prize, Mountain Villa also copped the awards for Most Disciplined Team, Top Coach - Michael 'Bunny' Marshall and the Most Valuable Player (MVP) - Everald Dyer.

"It was another wonderful season and congratulations are definitely in order for all the teams that contested the competition as the quality of play was quite high and the competition was incident-free," said St. James FA president Lennox Wallace, in his presidential address. "I am particularly pleased that the sponsors got value for their money."

While painting a fairly pleasing picture of St. James' football, Wallace expressed displeasure at the apparent act of deception that was used to get the Jarrett Park Management Committee (JPMC) to turn over that facility for practice games leading up to the 2007 ICC world, a factor which seems poised to leave the parish NPL teams - Wadadah and Seba United - without a home venue come December 31, 2006.

Dire consequences

"I want the Government to keep its promise to upgrade the Catherine Hall Stadium by the end of the year so that the teams will have a place to play," said Mr. Wallace. "A failure to have the facility ready could have dire consequences so I am hoping that whatever needs to be done will be done quickly so that the facility will be ready in time for use by the teams."

In addition to the Mountain Villa team, New John's, which won the Gordon 'Butch' Stewart Knockout Trophy, also walked away with a fair share of the awards. They pocketed $20,000 for their knockout victory and all the members of the team received gold medals.

They also took the awards for the first hat-trick of the season - Shanoy Anderson, and the leading goalscorer - Shanoy Anderson (13 goals).

Veteran St. James referee Alva 'Second' Gordon and former parish player Bunny Stern were both honoured by the FA for their contribution to the parish's football, and were the special guests of honour at the ceremony.

In expressing appreciation for the mileage they got from the competitions as sponsors, acting general manager of Sandals Montego Bay, Simon Azan, said his company was pleased to be associated with the St. James FA in staging the competition, and they were looking forward to a continuation of their long-lasting relationship with the parish's football.