SportGibraltar

2009-12-04T18:22:00.003+01:00

Gibraltar Dragons vs Malaga 17th Jan 09

2009-01-30T08:59:00.002+01:00

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Gibraltar dragons
V
Malaga.

It has been a very disappointing season for the S G Hambros under 13s and the Ibex under 11s and under 9s, with there league fixtures not taking place due to some poor planning by the federation. None of the teams in this section were willing to send their players to Murcia, for what would amount to an hour’s rugby per team. This situation will be resolved very quickly we hope. The concentration planned before Christmas was too close to Christmas and no transport was available with only Malaga able to attend.

However next week it all kicks off and although late in starting they will have a full season. Unfortunately though, due to a dramatic price increase from San Roque council, this season may see the teams having no home concentration. The reason for this is the fact that San Roque now insist on price per team instead of hiring the pitch for time, and at 150 Euros per team this has put the price at 450 Euros, on top of that the price of a coach for the boys, hosting the visiting teams and medical cover the cost would have risen to almost £800 for 40 minutes or rugby for the under 13s as they are only allowed a maximum of three games 7 minutes per half and less for the other boys. The Gibraltar government offered assistance by allowing the concentration in Gibraltar but “Federation” laws point out that all games must take place within Andalucía, a point highlighted when requested we play here. As we speak the committee are in talks to try and resolve this problem and come up with a solution for next season.

However back to the Rugby, which is the main thing, last week saw the VOLKER STEVINS under 17s and the ALL SPORTS BAR under 15s in action in Malaga. The Malaga squad has been strengthened by merging the university team with Club Rugby Malaga and are now trying to claim Marbella’s crown as the strongest club in the under 17s and under 15s section which has certainly made these age groups play harder.

First up was the ALL SPORTS BAR under 15s on the back of a good win against Marbella B last week, but from the start it was evident the boys were out of sorts, they weren’t chasing or harassing as they did against Marbella, a fact Malaga took advantage of by opening the scoring within minutes if the start, and for the first half this was the pattern of the game, unlike last week none of the boys stepped up to take command and lead from the front, however we must recognise its only the second year of rugby and people are still learning the game as well as the mental approach towards a hard physical game. The first quarter of the second half was the same as Malaga scored at will, until substitutions were made by Malaga when they put on some of there newer players, our boys then found gaps, especially Guy Dumas on his debut who shows great promise with his direct running. This lifted our boys who started finding more and more gaps with their direct running, forcing the Malaga boys back, however in their eagerness, the Dragons made mistakes and were unable to finish by crossing the line. The last quarter of the game gave the boys the finish they wanted, by taking the game to Malaga and showing themselves the difference between taking the game to the opposition or letting them run at them. The final score was
ALL SPORTS BAR under 15s 0 CR MALAGA 62
The Dragons were beaten by a better team but this is changing and the boys are learning from every game which is exactly what is required. On a very positive note, the under 15s section have now started a Andalucian selection to play other provinces in Spain and 9 players have been sent forward for the first training session in February, more will follow on this soon.

The squad who played Malaga were
J Farrell, R Cabral, P Perez, D Carey, J Spark Borja, N Pitto, R Whelan, L Rovegno, K Motegriffo, S Alexander, W Warwick O Canessa.

With Man of the Match going to D Carey.

VOLKER STEVIN under 17s were up next and unfortunately due to injuries and boys absent, they only had 12 players. Malaga, in the spirit of the game, also fielded 12 players which was a wonderful gesture. Malaga showed the strength they have become, with some good running rugby; however, same as last week, the VOLKER STEVINS under 17s do not bow to anyone. To say the game was feisty would be an understatement with our boys being physically dominated by Malaga but standing tall. The game was flowing from end to end on a very hard pitch but Malaga was breaking the line for tries. Injuries happened on a very hard pitch with two of the Dragons being taken off, Nick Seaborne with mild concussion and Sexto Parody with a shoulder injury and three Malaga players. The match was hard fought but in a good spirit but Malaga were always the stronger and tries were scored. It was good to see the guys fighting to the end, their heads never dropping till the final whistle with a final score 61-0 to Malaga.

THE VOLKER STEVIN SQUAD consists of
N Seaborne, B Blackburn. N Ponce de Leon, A Andrews, S Parody, M Belkavitz, R Green,
T Perera, M Tzunami, S Simmonds, P Reyes, J Farrel
With Bobby Blackburn being Man of the Match for the third game in row, and as the under 15s, a few of the boys will be attending the selection training weekend.

Unfortunately the games due to be played this week have been cancelled due to the conflict of the pitch and will be rescheduled.

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2009-01-19T23:09:00.006+01:00

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Gibraltar Dragons-Volker Stevins under 17's V San Roque

2009-01-12T17:02:00.005+01:00

VOLKER STEVINS UNDER 17S
V
San Roque

Saturday saw the start of the second half of the under 17s season with a home game against San Roque, also a new team to the under 17s league and it was a good day of rugby for all.

The day started with an under 10s game between San Roque, another new team like ourselves. It’s wonderful to see rugby being developed through the age groups and all the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. With some hard play, our boys had the edge slightly having played more rugby. Their awareness edged them the game, with some good running, wonderful tries and more importantly, the game played in a wonderful spirit by both teams,
Ibex Insurance under 11s consisted of Charlie Lowslley Williams, Jamie Ross, Bradley Hewitt, Kalib Falconer and the deadly duo of Jack and Sheigh Wilson with ‘Jack the Ripper’ living up to his nickname by scoring a brace of tries.

We then had the main game of the day with VOLKER STEVINS UNDER 17S playing against San Roque. Both sides seemed rusty from the start but the Dragons dominated the first half, playing well and scoring five tries, three of them being converted. The boys made some good runs and inroads and when needed, tackled well with a good defence.
Second half the boys came out on a high but San Roque had something to prove and for the first twenty minutes had the Dragons camped in their 22. All the hard work was rewarded with a try for the San Roque boys, however the Dragons replied straight away with a piercing run by Philip Reyes who also converted his try. This seemed to re-ignite the boys and they piled the pressure back onto the San Roque team who wilted slightly under the pressure and the boys went onto to score another try. Gibraltar could have scored more tries however the San Roque boys were exhausted and as often happens injuries started creeping in, making the final 15 minutes very disjointed and not allowing the running rugby we had earlier. The final score was a very creditable
VOLKER STEVINS UNDER 17S 45 V SAN ROQUE 5.

As we always say the most important thing is the team however some guys do stand out. Bobbie Blackburn’s defence play was judged to be outstanding by his coaches and was named man of the match. A special mention by the referee was for Liam Rovegno, who played his first game for the under17s and opened the scoring.

VOLKER STEVINS under 17s team consisted of
Nick Seabourn, Bobbie Blackburn, Jae Farrell, Alex Andrews, Tyrone Montegriffo,
Patrick Gill, Adam Golt, Moussa Tuznani, Jonathan Smith, Philip Reyes, Luke Welland,
Aslan Pervez, Daniel Conglaves, Liam Rovegno, Tim Hermida, James Spark Borja

Tries scored by
P Reyes 4, L Rovegno , D Conglaves, M Tuznani
Conversions
P Reyes 4, A Golt.

Next week the Volker Stevins under 17s, face Marbella B at Guadiarro with the All Sports Bar under 15s also facing Marbella B at the same pitch
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Mrs Rebbecca Fortunato has received an MBE in Queen's new years honours

2009-01-01T22:18:00.001+01:00

Mrs Rebecca Dawn Fortunato. President, Gibraltar Amateur Swimming Association, and vice president, Gibraltar Commonwealth Games Association was awarded an MBE for services to sport.

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England under 16 to visit Gibraltar for warm weather training

2008-12-27T19:27:00.003+01:00

England's under 16s boys and girls squad will be playing against Gibraltar selections from 2-5 Jan 2009. Gibraltar has hosted GB teams and other representative teams from the UK. This particular training camp is for hot weather although there hasn't been that much around in Gib recently. Let's keep our fingers crossed that things brighten up in early January.

Click here to see the players selected to represent England

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Commonwealth Games 50 year celebrations

2008-12-27T18:36:00.004+01:00

His Worship the Mayor, Solomon Levy MBE,ED,JP hosted an Official Reception on Wednesday 10 December 2008 at the City Hall, in honour of the 50th Anniversary of the Commonwealth Games Association.

The first Commonwealth Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada where 11 countries sent 400 athletes to take part in 6 sports and 59 events. Bobby Robinson, a major influence within athletics in Canada at....

the time, finally implemented the event that had been talked about amongst Commonwealth nations for over thirty years with the City of Hamilton providing $30,000 to help cover travelling costs of the participating nations.

Since then, the Games have been conducted every four years (except for 1942 and 1946 due to World War II) and the event has seen many changes, not least in its name. From 1930 to 1950 the Games were known as the British Empire Games, from 1954 until 1966 the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and from 1970 to 1974 they took on the title of British Commonwealth Games. It was the 1978 Games in Edmonton that saw this unique, world class, multi-sports event change its name to the Commonwealth Games.

Often referred to as the ‘Friendly Games’ only single competition sports had been on the programme from 1930 up to and including the 1994 Games in Victoria. The 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur saw the introduction of team sports with nations taking part in cricket (50 over game), hockey (men and women), netball (women) and rugby 7's (men). In Manchester in 2002 hockey, netball and rugby 7's graced the programme again and at the 2006 Games in Melbourne basketball accompanied hockey, netball and rugby 7's on the programme. In Delhi in 2010 hockey, netball and rugby 7’s will again feature.

The 2002 Games in Manchester also saw for the first time, indeed at any multi-sport event in the world, a limited number of full medal events for elite athletes with a disability (EAD) in a fully inclusive sports programme. This continued in Melbourne where EAD athletes took part in athletics, swimming, table tennis and powerlifting.

In the year 2000 the CGF took on the added responsibility of the Commonwealth Youth Games, open to athletes 18 years of age and under the Youth Games provide an excellent opportunity for aspiring young athletes from the Commonwealth with a taste of what the Commonwealth Games has in store for them in the future. The inaugural Games were in Edinburgh with the last edition being hosted in 2004 in Bendigo, Australia with Pune in India in 2008 hosting the 3rd edition. In such a short space of time the Youth Games has grown in stature and this is evidenced by award of the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games to the Isle of Man.

The story of the Games evolved yet again on the 9th November 2007 when Glasgow (Scotland) was awarded the right to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

http://www.thecgf.com/games/story.asp

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Christmas Cricket Festivals & AGM

2008-12-25T14:58:00.009+01:00

The last few weeks have seen four ‘houses’ from two Year Groups of St.Anne’s school take part in cricket festivals at Victoria Stadium. 12 teams of mixed boys and girls took part, playing games for the whole of their afternoon and putting into practice the skills that they have been learning this term. With the second astro given over to make three crick...

et pitches in the winter sunshine and Bayside playing on the main pitch you might have been forgiven for thinking that the season was still in mid-flow!
;
Many of the pupils have been watching cricket on TV and to answer the question ‘how fast do they really bowl?’ the event started with a demonstration of the bowling machine before each ‘house’ was divided up into three teams. Europa took on Carmel in Year Six and Lourdes took on Fatima in Year Seven, all on a League basis and the games were very competitive indeed!

With 8-a-side ‘pairs’ cricket everyone bowls, keeps wicket and bats so the game is fun, fast and no-one sits around for very long waiting for something to do. The improvement in the skill levels on show has been very impressive. All 96 pupils who took part have been working hard and to see the enjoyment each player got from the event was very rewarding.

Aside from the basic skills of the game, it was particularly pleasing to see that so many pupils were able to apply their skills tactically, looking to ‘gap’ the ball and hit into spaces. One or two leading candidates for future captaincy have been identified by taking charge and setting fields, displaying sound game awareness. Throughout, the ‘team spirit’ so essential to the game of cricket was very much in evidence and it is a tribute to the school that ‘Spirit of Cricket’ was foremost throughout both events.

Several of the players who took part will be invited into the ‘district’ system after showing a real aptitude for the game. This system is set above junior club level and is intended to allow those who show talent to have access to a more advanced coaching programme and take part in indoor games next term as well as a full schedule of outdoor 20 over games in the summer.

Thanks go to Mr.Cortez for allowing us to have the extra time for the festival. Also to Mssrs.Perez, Martinez, Felice, Miss Rodriguez and Mrs.Montegriffo for acting as Umpires and Scorers. The fact that so many teachers were willing and able to man the event is very pleasing and we hope to continue this process with the festivals in the coming terms.

Carmel ‘B’ in Year Six won two of their games and were the most successful team on Day One. Lourdes ‘B’ in Year Seven won all three of their games on Day Two. However, I’m sure that the other teams will be looking forward to gaining their revenge when they take part in the next festival!

This type of event is something that the Gibraltar Cricket Association will be looking to extend to the other schools in the area. Once we have more participation it isn’t beyond the imagination to expect a Summer ‘inter school’ competition where Year Group cricketers come together to establish a sustainable and meaningful tournament that will see the very best crowned ‘Gibraltar Schools Champions!’

Gibraltar Cricket Association Extraordinary General Meeting.

The Gibraltar Cricket Association duly held its Extraordinary General Meeting on Wednesday following the annual presentation of trophies at the Senior Citizens Club in Naval Hospital Road.

Hon. Secretary, Bob Lomax, introduced the first Motion, asking the membership to approve a change in the Association’s financial year from April to March to January to December to bring it line with ICC and ECC practice. The Motion was passed unanimously. Chairman, Tom Finlayson, then explained the practicalities of such a move, saying that the Association would be calling an AGM in January, 2009, at which a Financial Report would be tabled for the period April to December, 2008. At that same Meeting the membership would be asked whether it wished to elect a new Committee or sanction the continuance of the current Committee until January 2010. The general feeling favoured the latter proposal.

The second motion before the floor asked for the Committee to be given powers to investigate the possibilities of altering the Association’s status to that of a corporate entity. In answer to questions from the floor it was made clear that no final decision would be taken in this respect without the approval of the membership at the January 2009 AGM. The Committee were then given the go-ahead to proceed along these lines. The meeting closed with a brief presentation by Cricket Development Manager, Richard Askew, who reviewed the work of the past twelve months and appraised the membership of what lay in store in 2009.

Prior to this Meeting, the annual presentation of prizes was held. Mediterranean CC took the Wiggins/Benrimoj Shield, Calpe CC the Senior League, and GCC the Murto Cup. Trafalgar Pirates should have picked up the twenty overs league shield and Stan James CC the twenty overs cup but unfortunately representatives of these clubs did not attend.

The individual prizes went as follows:
Top Senior batsman: Mark Bacarese.
Top Senior bowler: Chris Phillips.
Top Junior batsman: Scott Chipolina.
Top Junior bowler: Karan Sadhwani.
Most improved young player [the Eddie Ellul Memorial Trophy): Julian Freyone.

Merry Christmas from Taekwondo Association

2008-12-23T19:11:00.002+01:00

The Gibraltar Taekwondo Association on behalf of it's instructors and members would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy & Prosperous New Year.

Please visit our website www.taekwondo.gi.

Kindest regards

Ernest & Edward GARCIA

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Darts: Turkey Shoot 2008

2008-12-23T12:55:00.003+01:00

With four scared turkeys up for grabs, the GDA hosted its annual Turkey Shoot Xmas
competition to mark the final event of 2008. All four finalists received a fattened up
turkey as the main prize.

This competition traditionally played in a blind pairs format (pair selection drawn at
random; so its luck of the draw) makes it both interesting and anybody’s game, which
bides well with the cheerful nature of the event.

To allow for more games it was played like in previous years with a winners’ and
losers bracket (yet another format successfully adopted by the GDA). We had a healthy 20 participants considering all the Xmas parties & work do’s so we congratulate all those who attended for making it such an enjoyable evening. Commiserations to the runners up: Harry Parody & Justin Stagno (pictured right) and congratulations to the winners: Adrian Monteverde & Dylan Duo
(pictured left).

The Gibraltar Darts Association wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year.

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New Shirts for Gibraltar Dragons U17's

2008-12-22T21:21:00.003+01:00

New shirts for under 17s

Alexandra Asquez is Andalucia's sub champion

2008-12-22T21:19:00.002+01:00

Saturday 20th December saw over 350 kayakers turn up in Seville for the last race of the year. It was bright and sunny but a little bit gusty making little wavelets on the otherwise flat calm river. Alexandra’s race was the last one of the day. Due to the wind pushing the participants forward across the starting line by the time the start was given she had been squeezed into a very tight spot and had to back paddle before going forward. Although this had initially put her at a disadvantage she paddled hard, and very quickly started overtaking her fellow paddlers. By the time they reached the bottom turn and with 750m to go, the field was pretty spread out and Alexandra was catching up with the leading pack. Now, with the wind against them you could see it was going to be hard work. Slowly but surely Alexandra caught the leading three and with less than ten metres to go, managed to claw herself into 2nd position yet again, finishing in a time of 9min 52 seconds.

At the end of the races she was also presented with a trophy for coming 2nd in the Andalucian Flat Water Racing Championship.

The GCA will be holding a number of flat water races in the new year, and hopefully be able to send a few more paddlers to the Andalucian Championship for next season. For further information please contact Arturo Asquez on 54025033.

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Gibraltar will partake in The Iberian Super League which kicks off in April 09

2008-12-20T19:13:00.005+01:00

Great news for rugby in Gibraltar as it is involved in the Iberian Peninsula's most adventurous project - to take rugby in this area to new heights.

It has only been a rumor thus far, but just two days ago, Fermín de la Calle confirms in his blog that the Liga Superiberica will kick off on 24 April, 2009.

The first professional rugby union tournament in the history of Spanish rugby union will have a franchise system similar to the American ones. There will be 5 Spanish teams, 4 Portuguese and 10th one from Gibraltar. It will run from 24 April to 28 June.

Many details are yet to be confirmed, but in any case, this is a quantum leap for the game in Gibraltar, Spain and Portugal.

The finer details fo the event have not been released yet but apparently a £4,000 capacity stadium will be required. It is supposed that at such short notice an option will be saught in Spain as Gibraltar has no grass facilities let alone a rugby stadium. It is hoped that with the rocketing popularity of the game in Gibraltar a pitch will be constructed for this purpose.

The article reads in Spanish as follows:

Ya hay fecha de arranque para la edición inaugural de la primera competición profesional de la historia del rugby español, la Superibérica, que sigue quemando etapas en los meses previos a su nacimiento. Arrancará el 24 de abril y la fecha prevista para la disputa de la final de la Superibérica 2009 es el 28 de junio.

En un post anterior os informaba sobre las jornadas de trabajo celebradas el pasado fin de semana por las franquicias en Madrid. En las mismas participaron El Salvador, CRC, Santboiana, Bera Bera y la de Sevilla, con Alejandro Aguilera a la cabeza. Además de Benfica y Os Belenenses en representación de las franquicias portuguesas y Charlie Cruz por Gibraltar. Y de estas jornadas salieron varias decisiones noticiables. La primera, las fechas de competición: el torneo arrancará el viernes 24 de abril, una semana después de acabar la División de Honor (el 19), mientras que está previsto que finalice el domingo 28 de junio. Con ello se cumple el compromiso adquirido por Robinson con el presidente de la Federación Española, Alfonso Mandado, para evitar el solapamiento de fechas de ambas competiciones. Sin embargo, el calendario de la Superibérica sí coincidirá con la disputa de la Copa del Rey, en la que siguen en liza cuatro de los clubes involucrados en la Superibérica (Cetransa, CRC, Santboiana y Bera Bera). Para evitar conflictos, se ha llegado a un acuerdo por el cual se flexibilizarán las fechas de las jornadas en las que haya Copa para que estos equipos no vean afectadas sus plantillas en la disputa de ésta última. Acuerdo que fue refrendado unánimamente por los interesados. La segunda noticia y no menos trascendental, es la decisión unánime de las franquicias de NO PARTICIPAR en la Taça Ibérica, competición que no reconocen como oficial. De hecho, en el calendario portugués, ni siquiera aparece.

Por tanto, el panorama comienza a tomar cuerpo. El rugby español tendrá un calendario de competición de nueves meses. Un primer y segundo trimestre dominados por la División de Honor y los partidos de la Selección, y un tercer trimestre del calendario protagonizado por la Superibérica y la Copa del Rey, ambas compatibles y necesarias para el desarrollo de nuestro rugby. Y después todos a disfrutar de los Seven. En las jornadas, posteriormente se habló de temas logísticos como estadios, número de jugadores en plantillas, obligación de un cupo de seleccionables, de Sub-23, infraestructura... La próxima reunión se producirá a principios de enero en Portugal y unas semanas más tarde se realizará la presentación. En estos momentos ya hay cerrados varios patrocinadores, además de un acuerdo con una cadena de televisión y se trabaja en la firma de otros acuerdos con empresas interesadas en estar involucradas en este proyecto. Las franquicias ya conocen los plazos de la Superibérica, el pasado fin de semana fueron informados de ellos. El 24 de abril arranca esto.
Clubs involved:
Teams
Countries
From

Agronomía Portugal Algarve

Benfica Portugal Lisboa

CRC-Real Madrid España Madrid

Direito Portugal Oporto

El Salvador España Valladolid

Hercules 009 Gibraltar Gibraltar

Os Belenenses Portugal Lisboa

País Vasco Bera Bera España San Sebastian

Santboi España Sant Boi de Llobregat

Tartessos España Sevilla

Teams	Countries	From
Agronomía	Portugal	Algarve
Benfica	Portugal	Lisboa
CRC-Real Madrid	España	Madrid
Direito	Portugal	Oporto
El Salvador	España	Valladolid
Hercules 009	Gibraltar	Gibraltar
Os Belenenses	Portugal	Lisboa
País Vasco Bera Bera	España	San Sebastian
Santboi	España	Sant Boi de Llobregat
Tartessos	España	Sevilla

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Amanda Carreras' recent results

2008-12-17T19:35:00.003+01:00

Amanda Carreras ranked (557) in the world. The Gibraltar born Carreras competed at the $10,000 event in Benicarlo, Spain and went into the event as the seventh seed. However, she fell at the first hurdle losing 6-2 6-4 to Ximena Hermoso of Mexico.

$10,000 Benicarlo, Dec 08, 2008, USD10,000 lost in the 1/16 Finals

Carreras, Amanda[7]	[GBR]
		Hermoso, Ximena
Hermoso, Ximena	[MEX]	62 64

$10,000 Vallduxo, Nov 24 2008, USD10,000 lost in the 1/16 Finals

Lopez-Blanco, Carmen(Q)	[ESP]
		Lopez-Blanco, Carmen(Q)
Carreras, Amanda	[GBR]	16 62 75

$10,000 Vinaros, Dec 01, 2008, USD10,000 won her first match:

Van Bennekom, Josanne(Q)	[NED]
		Carreras, Amanda
Carreras, Amanda	[GBR]	63 75

Amanda then went on to lose her following match in the 1/8 Finals

Carreras, Amanda	[GBR]
		Jani, Reka-Luca(Q)
Jani, Reka-Luca(Q)	[HUN]	64 76(3)

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End of year round for hockey in Gibraltar

2008-12-17T18:47:00.005+01:00

SG HAMBROS TROPHY
A very exciting finale to a great competition; thoroughly enjoyed by all teams. The men’s competition was in fact decided on the last match on the last day when Collegian Vets defeated a depleted Grammarian Oldies team by 8 – 4 and thus top the table. In the ladies final Eagle ladies completely demolished the Hawks Ladies by 5-0, quite a surprising result after earlier thrilling encounters in the group stages (see final table). The committee will shortly issue the new fixtures for the league & cup competitions to be held after the xmas festivities (see final table below)

BARCLAYS WEALTH JUNIOR HOCKEY
Our Youth Hockey programme still continues every Monday & Wednesday. Our last session of this term was held yesterday Monday 15th Dec & will commence on Monday 12th January 2009. During the month of January we will once again draft all juniors into teams and then start the ever popular junior leagues. (see above under 7’s photo) Our juniors will once again be travelling this Christmas. On the 29th December we will be fielding both an Under 10 & under 16 boys teams for the Seville Christmas Hockey Tournament. After Xmas our boys & girls teams will commence their travels to Cadiz , Malaga & Jaen . As mentioned in the past, the possibility of competing in a junior league with Andalucian teams now looking more of a possibility. Watch this space.

Another event that will soon feature (early February) is the new Under 16 leagues where each of the local first division sides will be asked to field a team (boys & girls) to compete under their club name and to be held mid-week.

SG HAMBROS LADIES / DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE
So as to further enhance competition both for our developing youngsters and our two surviving ladies teams the GHA is contemplating a competition which will feature 2 ladies & 2 youth teams in a four team competition which we hope will serve to (a) Give the ladies teams a chance to field their young girls, (b) ensure everyone plays at least one game every weekend and (c) The developing teams will now be further motivated as they will compete in an official capacity and be able to win the competition. The highest ranking ladies team will obviously decide which ladies team Represent’s us in Europe . Further ideas are currently being juggled with, including the running of a development scheme for umpires which will hopefully be run in conjunction with this competition and the boys under 16 league.
GHA MEN'S SENIOR SIDE
Preparation of the men’s national side for next year’s nation’s trophy in Slovakia is well under way. This past Sunday 14thsaw the final training camp of 2008. The squad were put through a gruelling session based both on physical preparation and tactical awareness, ending with a session for 3 of the 5 hopeful keepers who are competing for the 2 available goalkeeper slots.(see photo)

From the 2nd to the 6th January 2009 we will once again play host to the England training camp for their boys & girls Youth Squads. The GHA will use this opportunity to field two varied men’s squads and test some of under 21’s and other players hoping to make the final men’s selection. All of our top senior players will obviously not be fielded for these games. The following schedule has been prepared for them, in case anyone wants to pop down and see them :

Saturday 3rd Jan 2009
Training on Main pitch from 9.30 am to 2.30pm
2.30 pm : England Girls v GHA Ladies
4.00 pm : England Boys v GHA Men’s X1

Sunday 4th Jan 2009
Training on Main pitch from 9.30 am to 4.00pm
4.00 pm : England Boys v GHA Men’s X1

Monday 5th Jan 2009
Training on Main pitch (full size) - 9.30 am to 4.00 pm

Sg Hambros Trophy Final Standings:

	Mens	Pld	Win	Draw	Lost	G.F	G.A	G.D	Pnts
Collegians Vets.		6	4	1	1	26	19	7	13
Grams Yung Guns		6	4	0	2	20	11	9	12
Grams Oldies		6	4	0	2	21	15	6	12
Eagles Tangerine		6	3	1	2	16	16	0	10
Gib HT		6	3	0	3	13	10	3	9
Black Eagles		6	2	0	4	24	16	8	6
Pirates		6	0	0	6	5	25	-20	0

	Ladies	Pld	Win	Draw	Lost	G.F	G.A	G.D	Pnts
Eagles		4	3	1	0	10	4	6	10
Barclays Wealth		4	2	1	1	10	9	1	7
Lions Hawks		4	0	0	4	5	12	-7	0

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Charles Zammit wins Gold for Gibraltar in Special Olympics

2008-12-15T22:51:00.002+01:00

The Minister for Sport and Leisure, The Hon Edwin Reyes has sent a message to Charles Zammit from the Gibraltar Down’s Syndrome Support Group who won a gold medal in the 25 metre freestyle at the World Down’s Syndrome Swimming Championships held in Portugal last Saturday. The message read as follows :-
“I am extremely pleased to learn that you obtained “Gold” in the 25 metre freestyle at the World Down’s Syndrome Swimming Championships last Saturday. On behalf of everyone in Gibraltar I congratulate you for the sporting spirit in which you participated at the Games and, above all, rejoice in your achievement.

I take this opportunity to wish you all the very best in today’s challenge when you compete in the 25 metre breaststroke. I am certain everyone in Gibraltar will be cheering for you. You are proving yourself to be a fantastic ambassador for Gibraltar, keep up the good work.”

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Ladies football in Gibraltar

2008-12-13T23:06:00.005+01:00

The Juan Chipol 5 aside Ladies Tournament, For the past 4 years Manchester United Ladies (pictured) have been the winners of the 5 aside tournaments.

This tournament is played annually in respect of the late Mr Juan Chipol, who did more than what people can think of towards Ladies Football in Gibraltar. The tournament has been organised to take place on Saturday 3rd January at the New Tercentenary Sports Hall. Hopefully after this event the 11 aside league can commence.

Below are the results of last year's 11 a side league:

02-12-07 6.00pm Man Utd 2 v 2 Gib Utd
02-12-07 7.10pm Gib Yellow 0 v 5 St Josephs
09-12-07 6.00pm Man Utd 3 v 0 Gib Yellow
09-12-07 7.10pm St Josephs 1 v 1 Gib Utd
16-12-07 6.00pm Man Utd 2 v 0 St Josephs
16-12-07 7.10pm Gib Utd 3 v 1 Gib Yellow

13-01-08 6.00pm Gib Utd 1 v 2 Man Utd
13-01-08 7.10pm St Josephs 2 v 0 Gib Yellow
20-01-08 6.00pm Gib Yellow 0 v 1 Man Utd
20-01-08 7.10pm Gib Utd 1 v 1 St Josephs
27-01-08 6.00pm Mixed Team Training for Selection

03-02-08 6.00pm St Josephs 2 v 1 Man Utd
03-02-08 7.10pm Gib Yellow 2 v 3 Gib Utd
10-02-08 6.00pm Gib Utd 0 v 2 Man Utd
10-02-08 7.10pm Gib Yellow 2 v 3 St Josephs
17-02-08 6.00pm Man Utd cancelled Gib Yellow
17-02-08 7.10pm St Josephs cancelled Gib Utd
24-02-08 6.00pm Man Utd 1 v 0 St Josephs
24-02-08 7.10pm Gib Utd 3 v 1 Gib Yellow

02-03-08 6.00pm St Josephs 2 v 1 Man Utd
09-03-08 6.00pm Man Utd 4 v 0 Gib Utd
09-03-08 7.10pm St Josephs 5 v 0 Gib Yellow
16-03-08 6.00pm Gib Yellow 1 v 2 Man Utd
16-03-08 7.10pm Gib Utd 1 v 1 St Josephs
23-03-08 6.00pm Gib Yellow w/o v Gib Utd
30-03-08 6.00pm Man Utd 2 v 1 Gib Yellow (rescheduled)
30-03-08 7.10pm St Josephs 1 v 1 Gib Utd (rescheduled)

STANDINGS

1st - MANCHESTER UNITED
2nd - ST JOSEPHS
3rd - GIBRALTAR UNITED
4th - GIB YELLOW

The Gibraltar National Day 5 aside Ladies Tournament:
had been organised in previous years although the cup was lost and therefore was not held for several years. The Chairwoman of the Gibraltar Football Association (Ladies), Mrs Lesley Jackson, got it running again this year and hopefully it will continue as an annual event. A special mention of thanks to Mr Richard Manning and Lesley for refereeing the matches.

The 2008 tournament showed that after winning the Juan Chipol 5 aside tournament and the 2007-08 11 aside league the Manchester United Ladies were just as strong even though they had to be split up into 2 teams, by taking the 1st and 2nd position.

Winners 2008 - Manchester United (White)
Nicola Asquez, Christine Dean-Penfold, Claire Nunez, Sadie Fa, Olivia Sargent, Victoria Dominguez-Cantos, Gynaika Mena, Nadine Carreras

Runners Up 2008 - Manchester United (Red)
Joelle Moreno, Maximm Lopez, Leila Asquez, Sammy Machin, Lenise Danino, Nicole Lopez, Zoe Asquez, Megan Martinez

3rd - Gibraltar United
4th St Josephs
5th - Gibraltar Utd

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BAYSIDE RUGBY ”THREE OWLS” YEAR EIGHT SEVENS TOURNAMENT.

2008-12-13T22:43:00.002+01:00

Over 100 hundred yr 8 pupils gathered on Wednesday to contest the first ever Three Owls Sevens trophy. Two leagues of five teams competed playing four matches each. The top four teams played a crossover set of games to determine the final placing from first to eighth place. The bottom team in each league were placed equal ninth. After an hour and a half of continuous play Red X emerged victorious over the other league winners Blue Y by two tries to nil. Both winning tries scored by Jamie Horne. The boys enjoyed immensely their first experience of rugby and word has it that they want another tournament in the New Year. Four boys from year 10 and 11 plus the ever youthful Allan Sparks refereed with enthusiasm and also indicated their desire to have another go at officiating.

Results

1st Red X

2nd Blue Y

3rd Yellow X(A)

4th Yellow Y

5th Green Y

6th Blue X

7th Green X

8th Red Y(A)

9th Red Y(B)

9th Yellow X(B)

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Gibraltar's Pillars Of Hercules Rugby 7s tour New York City

2008-12-08T18:10:00.005+01:00

P.O.H travelled across the globe to compete in the 50th Anniversary New York Sevens in the club level competition representing Gibraltar in the international field. In an unbelievable tournament featuring 106 teams in total P.O.H were grouped with Sherbrooke Abenakis 1st’s of Canada, White Plains, the New York state champions, and Brantford Harlequins, the winners from 2007 and a team that included two Canada A players. P.O.H were victorious against Sherbrooke 35-7 with some open and expansive sevens which involved little contact against a physically bigger side. In the second game against White Plains P.O.H turned up the intensity on a much narrower pitch and came away 54-7 winners the quote of the game being from the opposition captain who told us that our kit was so amazing we should be on a catwalk and not a rugby pitch....key. The final group game was the decider against Brantford who had beaten the other two teams by similar scores to P.O.H. Needing a win to progress to the cup competition the stakes were high but the tone was set early on by Mark piston Garcia who scored a great solo try, fending off both Brantford and P.O.H players in the process. The intensity was kept to the maximum for the full 14 mins and the Brantford team were unable to deal with the pressure. P.O.H went on the win the game 24-7 and progress. It should be noted that Sherbrooke went on to win the Bowl, and Brantford to win the plate so P.O.H had faired extremely well to come through such a strong group, and well prepared for the next few crunch games.With only the group winners going through to the Cup, P.O.H went straight into the semi final slot and came up against another strong team from Long Island who we had identified earlier as one of the better pure sevens teams in the competition. Another high intensity games and two very good tries from captain Joey Garcia started the ball rolling well for P.O.H who characteristically got off to a strong start. P.O.H were 12 -5 up at half time but two late tries secured the victory and a place in the Cup final. In the final which took place on the main stadium pitch under floodlights P.O.H were faced with very strong opposition from Baltimore in the shape of the ‘Flagrant Fouls.’ A team made up of fully professional players from the US. From the outset it was clear that this would be a hard fought game with some huge tackles from Steve Ebbett and Charlie Lamb in particular. Good work and a nice inside ball from Jakey Coates set Mark Garcia away to score and take an early 7-0 lead. A long period of intense defence then followed and the drills from coach supreme Luke Stack clearly paid off. One moment in particular had the Flagrant Foul captain racing away to score before a final lunging tap tackle from Focker brought him down, followed by some unbelievable scramble defence. Eventually the pressure told and FF went through to score the equaliser bringing the score to 7-7 at the end of normal time.

Sudden death ensued and high pressure defence kept P.O.H in the game on multiple occasions. FF had one kick at goal in the first half of sudden death to win the match but the kick went thankfully wide and P.O.H continued to slog it out. In the second half of sudden death the P.O.H confidence started to come back and various breaks and could have produced winning scores. FF also had breaks of their own and the game was in a fine balance. With minutes to go, Rob Cottrell who had come on to replace his injured brother Gooch offered himself to the bench for some fresh legs in the way of Mark Breen, the babyfaced assasin. A kick from FF which could have ended the game (on the last play of the match before a coin toss) was caught by Jakey Coates who put Breen away on the wing from within his 22. Mark was tackled well, and in desperation threw the ball back to keep the play alive. The ball travelled through various sets of hands before Mark Garcia picked out his brother Joey Garcia who was drifting off the larger FF player in the middle of the field. Joey was away and with only a sweeper to beat stepped both ways before taking an inside line past the defender and running towards the posts. With nothing in the tank and while tackled by the scrambling defenders Joey found Mark Breen, aka Ole Gunner Breen on his inside and Ole was able to race away from the defenders and score a brilliant winning try. madness and tears followed the famous moment which will never be forgotten by all the players involved on that day. Well done everyone. A famous famous victory which meant P.O.H breaking it’s duck in the best way possible. YES WE CAN

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Pool: Fosters Cup Final held in Calpe Rowing Club

2008-12-07T12:26:00.005+01:00

Charlie Bear with Winners FEC Stars (5-4)

FEC Stars V's Hound Dogs

In this photo: Sean Rumbado, Francis

Last Tuesday night saw the Fosters Cup final being held at the Calpe Rowing Club between the Hound Dogs, league champions two years ago, and last year’s double winners, the FEC Stars. The match was a very tight affair with first one team then the other gaining the upper hand. The FEC S tars finally emerging victorious by 5 frames to 3.The Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank Alf Ferrer for organising the tournament, he did a great job in what was his first time organizing an event of this nature; the Calpe Rowing Club and all their staff for providing an excellent venue, Saccone and Speed for their continued support in sponsoring this tournament and finally the players and referee for a great match and at all times playing with an excellent sporting attitude. Well done everybody.
Frame 1: Jonathan Collado v Michael Jones
With Jonathan winning the lag, he quickly established an early lead and with him covering both top pockets with his colours, he was a clear favourite for the frame. This situation gave him a chance to clear which he did, before missing a hard black to the top right corner. This left Michael to pot the five remaining yellows and black to snatch the frame. Unfortunately he could not do this and Jonathan potted a very easy black to make it 1 – 0 to the Stars.
Frame 2: Justin Collado v Gerry Kelly
When Gerry broke and did not pot a ball, Justin saw his chance and started potting yellow after yellow, unfortunately in doing so, he left himself no shot on the black and had to ‘play safe’, or so he thought as Gerry raced through his colours before potting a great black down the rail under extreme pressure to make it all square again, 1- 1.
Frame 3: Kevin Dalli v Gary Chant
With Kevin fouling off the break, Gary potted a number of yellows before coming a cropper in the end and missing a relatively easy black in the top right corner. Kevin then seized his chance by potting all his colours and the black. What a clearance! 2 – 1 to the Stars.
Frame 4: Jonathan Victory v Jimmy Rudder
While the first three frames were all out attack, this frame was a scrappier affair with Jonathan in particular missing a couple of shots to the middle pockets. This last miss gave Jimmy the chance to snooker Jonathan and although he managed to clip his red, this left Jimmy a clearance which he managed to complete with a straight black to the bottom right corner. All Square again, 2 – 2.
Frame 5: Francis Becerra v Allan Browne
This frame again proved to be a scrappy affair with both players missing shots, including one from Francis where he tried to screw back too much and only managed to chip the white ball for a foul. A one in a million shot, which unfortunately proved fatal as Allan cleared his remaining colours before potting a simple black to the left middle. 3 – 2 to the Hound Dogs.
Frame 6: Ernest Clinton v Maggie Rudder
With Maggie breaking and not potting, the play took on a very tactical affair. Just when Maggie thought she had got the better of Ernest, she missed a fairly easy black to the top left corner which would have made it 4 – 2 to the Hound Dogs. This turned out to be the turning point of the entire match as Ernest first snookered Maggie, and when she just missed the black, Ernest cleared to make it 3 – 3.
Frame 7: Jonathan Collado/Justin Collado v Gary Chant/Allan Browne
The pressure started to show for both teams, as they both missed a number of shots of varying degrees of difficulty. The frame and the match finally swung in the Stars favour when Justin snookered Gary and he in turn could not ‘get out’ of the snooker. This left a routine clearance for Jonathan which he duly completed to make it 4 – 3 to the Stars.
Frame 8: Francis Becerra/Jonathan Victory v Gerry Kelly/Maggie Rudder
A must win game for the Dogs; unfortunately it was not to be. They got off to a great start but could not bring it home and this gave Jonathan the chance to snooker Maggie. She managed to hit her yellow only to then see the white go ‘in-off’. Francis proceeded to pot his colours with aplomb before inexplicably missing an easy black to give the Stars the win. This left Gerry with a longish yellow to save the game, unfortunately he just missed and Jonathan, who incidentally potted the winning black last year, made no mistake again to hand the FEC Stars their second consecutive Fosters Cup.

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Video on MEP Watson defending Gibraltar's right to join UEFA

2008-12-05T23:28:00.002+01:00

ALDE Members against Gibraltar Football Association

Liberal and Democrat (ALDE) Members of the European Parliament played a football match against a team representing the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) at the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar on Thursday 13th November 2008. The aim of the match was to drive home the point that the MEPs are more than happy to play against the GFA even though Europe's governing body of football UEFA continues to ban Gibraltar's participation in European competition.

Interview: Watson, MEP for Gibraltar and the South West.

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The GFA and their international aspirations get written about in a book on Outcasts

2008-12-05T23:21:00.003+01:00

Gibraltar applied to join FIFA in the late 1990s only for Spain to threaten to pull its national and club teams out of every international competition.

UEFA could not let that happen so they changed their entry criteria so that all new members had to be in the United Nations.

FIFA found a different reason and cited the 3,000 capacity Victoria Stadium, which is situated on an isthmus of land between the British colony and the Spanish border town of La Linea.

That isthmus also accommodates the territory’s airport, which opened to international flights from Spain for the first time in 2007. FIFA though, claim the stadium cannot host international football because the ownership has never been decided.

The pitch at the stadium is the only one in Gibraltar and used all-day long by schoolchildren then the local leagues so the Gibraltar Football Association laid an artificial surface years ago. Bizarrely, that third generation pitch is a FIFA approved playing surface.

This was done years ago through the English FA as the GFA was an affiliate until falling out with the motherland as the row with FIFA and UEFA over membership progressed.

At least Gibraltar has a stadium as many of the lands that FIFA has forgotten cannot even play at home.

In Monaco, the amateur national side is not allowed to play in the 20,000 capacity Stade Louis II stadium, which is home to the only club in Monaco, ASM.

ASM compete in the French league and the government is concerned that if the Fédération Monégasque de Football joined UEFA then ASM may have to leave the French league so the FMF are tacitly accepted but officially unrecognized.

And if Monaco’s national team did play a match at the Stade Louis II stadium against the likes of Northern Cyprus, then ASM could face sanctions from FIFA.

In 2006, the TRNC journeyed to southern France to take on a side representing speakers of the ancient language of Occitània in a run-down council stadium in Vendargues as this was the only ground that could host the tie without FIFA sanctions.

That is also why the 5,000 capacity Vanlose Stadium in Denmark hosted Tibet’s first match in 2001.

A team of exiled players from the Himalayan kingdom, which was invaded by China in 1950, journeyed to Copenhagen to take on Greenland but no clubs would host the game for fear of FIFA sanctions.

The Greenlanders have even more problems playing as the season in their Arctic island is just three months long and all the pitches are sand. As a result, all Greenland’s international matches are away games but the Greenlandic FA are aiming to change that situation.

Rejected by FIFA in the late 1990s, Greenland hope to lay an artificial surface and host a four-team tournament as part of a campaign to encourage tourists to the island.

Greenland is semi-autonomous from Denmark but the cost of laying the pitch would be four times more than in Western Europe with only one air route between Copenhagen and Nuuk.

Despite this, the Greenlanders are confident of laying the surface to host a four-team event in three to four years time then adding stands later on. Greenland want to show that being forgotten by FIFA is no obstacle to playing international football.

"Outcasts!", which was shortlisted for the National Sporting Club football book of the year award in 2008 and is published by Know The Score Books.

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Mini Basketball Tournament sponsored by Government's Anti Drug Strategy

2008-12-05T23:09:00.002+01:00

The Gibraltar Amateur Basketball Association will be organising a mini basketball tournament on Saturday 7th December at the Bayside Sports Centre. Approximately 120 children and young persons will be participating. As part of its objective to foster healthier lifestyles for the young, the Government’s Drug Strategy will sponsor the event.

The Drug Strategy Co-ordinator and members of the Crime Prevention and Reduction Unit of the RGP will be operating a stand where literature and information on the risks of drugs will be available. The tournament will commence at 9 am and will conclude at approximately 12.30pm.

This event comes at the end of a particularly busy week for the Drug Strategy, having delivered drugs awareness workshops to approximately 600 students at Bayside Comprehensive School. The Drug Strategy Co-ordinator wishes to thank all those who participated in these sessions, especially the invited speakers. Already, the feedback received from pupils, teachers and parents has been extremely positive.

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Youth cricket update

2008-12-04T20:22:00.002+01:00

Although the adult cricket season may have finished in early October there has been an enormous amount of youth activity over the last few months. As well as making senior cricket more accessible for our Twenty20 cricketers and those unable to commit to regular Saturday games, it has been clearly identified that increasing the numbers of young players is a key objective in developing Gibraltar cricket.

Many of our schools have already taken advantage of a rolling program of six week cricket sessions that have enabled pupils to try the sport, increase their skills and take part in competitive games. Other schools will be coming onboard in the New Year and it is anticipated that hundreds of young people will have tried cricket by the time the summer comes around.

In the week before Christmas Bayside School will be holding their Christmas Cricket festival for those Year 8 boys that have been training and playing this term. With 8 teams taking part for a whole afternoon and their classmates cheering on from the sidelines this promises to be great entertainment and we hope that it will carry through to other Year groups next term. There is also interest in inter-house leagues throughout the year groups next term.

Similarly, St.Anne’s School will hold a festival for teams from both Years 6 and 7 who have been playing this term. Again, around 8 teams will be taking part and we intend to repeat the competition in the Spring term with the extra classes who will start their cricket next year.

Bayside’s cricket nets on Friday lunchtimes have proved popular, so much so that we may have to split the players into several groups and hold these practices over three sessions! The fact that so many boys are adapting to the challenges of the hard ball game is very promising in terms of the selections to be made for the Under 15 Championships, to be held in Italy in 2009.

This year we will also have district cricket for the first time. The system is designed to allow the more enthusiastic and talented players from their junior club sides to play indoor league games and then progress to an outdoor league at Under 11, 13 and 15 age groups.

The district set-up is intended to accelerate players into representative junior cricket at an earlier age and into adult cricket when they are ready and feel comfortable to do so. Players taking part in the training program have tackled basic skills and drills before moving into applying those skills in game situations. They are currently adapting to the hard ball they will be using in the league and the improvements they are making are very impressive indeed.

In the New Year we will be restarting our Girl’s cricket program with curriculum sessions in Westside School and the after-school club as last year. Running along similar lines to the Bayside scheme we will be looking to establish inter-house leagues and get girls ready for a summer league program of hard ball cricket.

This is one of the most exciting aspects of Gibraltar’s development program as the opportunities for girls and their coaches to take part in European cricket has never been better and the groundwork that we put in now to build on the enthusiasm shown last year will be crucial to allow them to play to the best of their abilities.

All-in-all, these have been a very busy few months and, with the extra schools joining in next year, the workload will only increase. Cricket is a fantastic sport for offering anyone taking part some kind of satisfaction and a great deal of enjoyment, whatever their level of ability or skill.

It may seem to those passing the Victoria Stadium grounds that on any given day during daylight hours there is a game of cricket going on. When you consider the other schools involved this is very definitely true and it often carries on into the evening with the indoor practices for district squads! By harnessing natural athleticism and a competitive nature to a sound development program, many young people are improving as players and having great fun all at the same time.

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Inititative to allow pupils to visit the 2012 Olympics launched

2008-12-03T14:56:00.003+01:00

A new initiative sponsored by Bassadone Automotive Group was launched yesterday at Bayside Comprehensive School. The Group will be working in partnership with the Bayside Comprehensive School Sports Department to give two young people and one teacher the opportunity to win the prize of attending the 2012 Olympics for a full week, experiencing the games, watching the competitions and being part of the atmosphere.

Young People from year 8 (academic year 2008/2009) and all teachers at Bayside School will be invited to register for the ‘Gibraltar Olympic Inspiration 2012’ at a series of introductory sessions that are being organised to take place in January 2009. Bayside students from years 8 and teachers will be invited to take part in the competition which will run for a three and a half year period from January 2009 to Easter 2012.The initiative is the brain child of Head of PE, Graham Hawkins, whose intention is to motivate students to get involved in sports at whatever level.

Bayside headmaster Albert Danino explained the project will run until 2012 and will involve the current year eights students who started at Bayside in September 2008. Mr Hawkins approached him with the idea and then contacted Ken Jones at Bassadone Motors to seek the funding. The aim of Gibraltar Olympics Inspiration is to encourage young people not only to compete in sport inside and outside of school, but also to support the organisation, leadership, refereeing and officiating of junior sport in Gibraltar. The teacher’s competition has similar aims and will reward commitment to developing sport in school and the community.

GIBRALTAR OLYMPIC INSPIRATION 2012 COMPETITION CRITERIA
Section one: Entrants to record sporting participation in the school environment. This section will involve entrants recording all of their extra curricular sporting participation including representing their house in competitions and attending extra curricular sporting activities on an ongoing basis.Section Two: Entrants to record their participation in out of school sport – Recording community sports, whereby youngsters train at least 2 hours per week and participate in competition at least once a month.Section Three: Officiating, refereeing and leading sporting activities.

Bayside School – Supporting inter house, interclass or extra curricular competitions as a referee, scorer, timekeeper or recognised official.

Link schools – Supporting Playground games, International Fun & Team Athletics and or Middle/First school sports days. When entrants reach years 10 and 11 they will continue to record the above but will also have the opportunity to take part in the following initiative that will be credited towards the overall competition.Section four: Supporting and recording link school sporting initiatives, either during lunchtimes or after school. These could include the following: Leading, refereeing, and officiating. Playground Games initiatives. International Fun & Team Athletics. Bayside School after school sports clubs. Middle school after school sports clubs. Bayside, Middle and or first school sports days. GibSports Athletics sports day. Summer Sports & Leisure Programme.Section five: Leadership & officiating education. Taking part and completing all elements of the British Sport Trusts ‘Junior Sports Leadership Award’. Taking part and completing certificated umpiring and officiating awards. Section Six: Community based voluntary work supporting junior activities and the organisation of events.

The criteria for teachers will be based on the following: Supporting extra curricular sporting activities. Refereeing/officiating at inter house, interclass leagues and competitions held in lunchtimes and after school. Supporting the organisation, officiating and or refereeing of middle school competitions after school. Supporting Community sports development. Coaching, refereeing and or recognised officiating. Taking part in coach education activities in own time.For further information on ‘Gibraltar Olympic Inspiration’ contact Graham Hawkins, Head of PE at Bayside School on ghawkeye@gibtelecom.net

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Football clubs call for EGM

2008-12-03T14:50:00.002+01:00

The twenty- one clubs in dispute with the Gibraltar Football Association have issued a statement; the principal demand of which is that the GFA call an EGM for no later than Friday 12th. December 2008.

The 21 clubs in dispute with the GFA have issued the following Press Release, at 4.00pm yesterday:Press release.

The 21 clubs registered with the Gibraltar Football Association for the season 2008/09 note with regret the comments that the GFA Council have included in their Press Release issued on Wednesday 25th November 2008 regarding the current dispute. Since the publication of the GFA Press Release the twenty one clubs have met on two occasions in order to reach a consensus on the contents of this Press Release.The clubs unanimously reject the GFA Council's comments which call into question the true intentions of the clubs in the current dispute.The clubs feel obliged to respond as follows:

1) Not only seven clubs have refused to play in official scheduled matches as was stated in the GFA Press Release. ALL twenty one clubs registered with the GFA have refused to play in scheduled matches, and will continue to do so.

2) The clubs have always been aware of rule 30.1 in its entirety. However, the recent suspensions of players under this rule highlight the fact that the rule is open to poor interpretation. The clubs therefore feel that for the betterment of football in Gibraltar, the rule should be removed from the GFA's statutes at the earliest opportunity (hence our call for the EGM). The Clubs and its members have always, and will always feel it is the highest honour to represent Gibraltar in any match played locally or abroad.

3) During a demonstration supported and attended by more than 200 Club Members on Saturday 15th November 2008, the Clubs delivered a letter by hand to the GFA President Mr. Joey Nuñez, clearly outlining their grievances and requesting an urgent EGM in order to address Rule 30.1. The Clubs strongly reject the statement made by the GFA President that the Clubs' request for an EGM did not follow the correct procedure as per the GFA rules, as the letter was signed by delegates of more than 15 Club members, thus being in full compliance with GFA rules.

4) Rule 30.1 of the GFA Rules states that "Any player member selected to attend any international or other match arranged by the council or to tour abroad with any of the national &/or a representative and (without good and sufficient cause) refusing to comply with the arrangements of the council for playing the match or failing to attend that match maybe adjudged by the council to have been guilty of misconduct". The GFA Council's interpretation of the phrase "good and sufficient cause" has given rise to this dispute. The twenty one clubs feel that the GFA Council's poor interpretation has led to wholly unreasonable and unfair disciplinary measures taken against a number of players. As an example, a 17 year old player who withdrew from the National Team's preparations for a particular tournament so as to focus on his education, was found guilty of misconduct by the GFA Council, as in their opinion, this reason did not satisfy their version of "good and sufficient cause". The Clubs' feel that suspending a player in such circumstances is disgraceful and excessive. We are amateurs and we pay to play the game.

5) Similarly the Clubs' felt that the other four suspended players had, "good and sufficient cause" to withdraw from the friendly tournament. All the suspended players gave ample notice of their intentions to the GFA Council, so for the GFA Council to state that they would suffer financial loss is as farcical as it is absurd. To further accuse that the suspended players were "encouraged /pressurized by other players and Clubs not to represent Gibraltar" is an insult to the integrity of all the clubs, members and players whom the GFA Council are supposed to represent.

6) Over fifty members representing the twenty one Clubs have met four times over the past ten days in order to attempt to find a speedy and amicable solution to the current dispute. It is therefore ridiculous for the GFA Council (which is comprised of less than ten members) to suggest that they have had insufficient time to organize an EGM. Instead of prioritizing the much needed EGM, the GFA Council has distracted itself by issuing Clubs with fines and threats of suspension for not fulfilling fixtures. It is the Clubs' opinion that this is an underhand tactic used by the Council to delay the EGM, which is only adding unwanted turmoil to the current dispute, as the Council's 'stubborn' mentality is threatening the Clubs' intention to settle the dispute amicably. It is clear that they do not have the best interests of all the members of the GFA at heart. All Club officials and players also give up their free time to play and be involved in the sport that we love.

7) The Clubs' therefore call upon the GFA Council to hold the EGM by no later than Friday 12th December 2008. Historical rivalry amongst local football clubs is well known. The fact that all twenty one clubs have willingly set aside this rivalry to unite for a common cause, is a measure of the seriousness and importance of this current dispute.The boycotting of matches by all twenty one clubs registered with the GFA will continue until the EGM has been held.

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Gibraltar Veterans 1, Royal Gibraltar Regiment 0

2008-12-02T23:42:00.002+01:00

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SG Hambros latest results and standings

2008-12-01T21:45:00.004+01:00

Results and forthcoming fixtures:

22&23 Nov
13.45 hrs	Collegians Vets.	3	vs	2	GIB HT
15.00 hrs	Grams Oldies	7	vs	0	Lions Pirates
16.40 hrs	Eagles Tangrine	3	vs	2	Grams Yng Guns
11.00 hrs	Lions Hawks	2	vs	4	Barclays Wealth
29&30 Nov
13.45 hrs	Eagles	1	vs	0	Lions Hawks
15.00 hrs	GIB HT	2	vs	3	Grams Yng Guns
16.40 hrs	Eagles Tangrine	3	vs	2	Lions Pirates
11.00 hrs	Collegians Vets.	4	vs	3	Black Eagles
6&7 December
13.45 hrs	Collegians Vets.		vs		Grams Yng Guns
15.00 hrs	Grammns Oldies		vs		GIB HT
16.40 hrs	Eagles Tangrine		vs		Black Eagles
11.00 hrs	Eagles		vs		Barclays Wealth

Tables:

	Mens	Playd		Win		Draw		Lost		G.F		G.A		G.D		Points
Eagles Tangerine			5		3		1		1		14		13		1		10
Collegians Vets.		4		3		1		0		17		11		6		10
Black Eagles		4		1		0		3		12		6		6		3
Grams Oldies		4		4		0		0		16		4		12		12
Gib HT		4		1		0		3		7		9		-2		3
Gram Yng Gns		4		2		0		2		11		10		1		6
Pirates		5		0		0		5		5		22		-17		0
	Ladies	Played		Win		Draw		Lost		G.F		G.A		G.D		Points
Eagles		3		2		1		0		####		###		###		7
Lions Hawks		4		0		0		4		####		###		###		0
Barclys Wealth		3		2		1		0		####		###		###		7

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Junior Football results

2008-12-01T21:25:00.004+01:00

BARCLAYS WEALTH JUNIOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Under 11
Lincoln Sort/Barwill	5	v	1	Lions Music Corner
Manchester Utd Fenmar	1	v	1	Glacis Utd
Chelsea SC	2	v	11	Gib Utd JBS
Lincoln FC	1	v	12	Gib Utd Form A Co
St Josephs FC Go Go Cards	5	v	0	Lions R&J Refrigeration
Reamad	0	v	3	Manchester Utd Hassans
Lincoln Volkswagen	8	v	0	Gibraltar Utd Stan James

Under 15
Gib Utd Portman	3	v	2	St Joseph's
Gib Utd Portman	8	v	0	Lincoln FC
St Joseph's	0	v	5	Lions Angling Centre
Glacis Utd	0	v	1	Manchester Utd MBS

Click here to view some excellent pictures taken by the editor of What's on Around Gibraltar

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Gilbert Licudi to question Government on flloodlighting

2008-12-01T21:17:00.003+01:00

In relation to his responsibility as Shadow Minister for Sport will ask the Government to say when they will replace the defective floodlights at the Victoria Stadium and whether floodlights will be installed on the small pitch adjacent to the main one.

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GFA outline junior rules and code of conduct

2008-11-30T21:41:00.003+01:00

The junior committee would like to draw to your attention of a few matters which we feel that managers are not complying with the rules of the Junior League.

All teams should have signed the minimum required number of players for the team to be eligible to start the season.

Games are not starting on time this is due to managers keeping their team on the benches once the game has finished it would be appreciated that once your game has finished could you please make your way behind the benches so the other game can start as soon as possible.

Could referees please keep to the rules, we feel that the boys at junior level should be taught the rules in the correct manner throw-ins is the most visible thing that we have noticed, players are getting away with foul throws lets try any show the player the right way.

The state of the pitch has again been raised by the stadium authorities bins are provided so please lets use them. The committee will be monitoring the situation after every game.

Only those nominated by each team will be allowed to enter the field of play may I remind you that only three officials are allowed per team.

All players shirts are to be numbered, at this present time there are a couple of teams without numbers, this becomes a headache for the time keeper when it comes to make substitutions. Please can these teams have numbers before their next game.

The committee will not tolerate any abuse from parents towards any official I must remind you that your club is responsible for both parents and supporters. I would be grateful if you could convey this to them to be on their best behavior at all times.

Could clubs please inform parents that once their son /daughters game has finished they can collect their child from the changing room and not from the pitch, as parents seem to wandering in on to pitch.

The committee will at any time do random checks on teams for both registration and over age players please don’t get offended when approached.

Both Time keepers and referees are being kept as appointed with a few exceptions the committee have informed them and have been given a warning.

First non appearance £10 Second non appearance £20 Third non appearance £30 and referred to disciplinary committee.

Please find below rules for the field of play

1. All free kicks except for a back pass are direct
2. 7 paces (3 meters) for a wall to be placed from the ball when taking foul.
3. All back passes must be whistled
4. Substitutions must go through the time keeper and must be made in a dead ball situation so that the referee is made aware of the substitution.
5. All players must play in both the first half and second half of the game.
6. No players from both the under 7 and under 9’s are not permitted to play in an older age group, players from the under 11 & 13 & 15 can only play a maximum of 5 games
7. In an event of a cup game, in a case of a draw 3 penalties will be taken, only if draw persists sudden death then will occur this only applies to under 7,9,11 under 13 & 15 as senior cup rules.
8. A team must start with a minimum of seven players if this is not applied walk over will be given to other team.

Should for any reason you are unable to attend your given appointment you must make alternative arrangements within your club and not with the committee.

Should you have any queries of the above please do not hesitate to contact me.
Richard Manning
Junior Secretary
RManning@gibc.edu.gi

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WINMAU WORLD MASTERS, WORLD PRO PLAYOFFS

2008-11-30T21:32:00.004+01:00

Amos Bosano, Dyson Parody, Justin Broton, Danny Peach, Alexander Nuñes (Youth),
Dylan Duo (bottom left).

Who would have envisaged just 5 years ago that Gibraltar would be represented at both the
Professional PDC & WDF World championship events!

The GDA is being well represented this year at the 35th Winmau World Masters, which will be
held between the 4th – 7th December in UK (Bridlington).

Apart from the prestigious World Masters singles event, they are also participating in the World Professional Playoffs (qualifiers) to contend against the best from the World Darts Federation circuit. Also we have Dylan Duo (professional) at the Ladbrokes.com World Qualifiers. So keep your eyes pealed on Sky & BBC as its only a matter of time before we start appearing on TV.

Sponsorships are very important and the recent massive increase in exposure from the GDA
is proving to be pivotal with sponsors starting to realise that involvement in darts is the correct
move. Apart from several silent sponsors, we have to give thanks to Kronenbourg 1664, the
Gibraltar Government, Esalda’s Jewellers, Pussers Landing, Sports & Leisure, Leeds
Transport & Choden Fashion.

Lets wish them all the very best of success!

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Rugby: 3 Owls Bayside Tournament for year 7 & 8

2008-11-30T21:27:00.002+01:00

After the success of the year 9 7s tournament, this Wednesday the 3rd of December from 3.30pm on the main pitch of Victoria stadium sees the year 8s getting involved in the

3 OWLS
YEAR 8
7s TOURNAMENT.

This is the first taste of rugby for a lot of new boys and the Dragons hope to find some new recruits for the growing band of rugby players here on the rock. Some of these boys could also make the backbone of a Bayside schools side for the two visiting UK teams who have already booked and confirmed to come out early April and May of next year with under 14s sides, exciting times indeed for the Gibraltar Dragons junior rugby club and indeed Bayside school.

Everyone is invited to come along and see some exciting 7s rugby on the Rock of Gibraltar.

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GFA defends its decision

2008-11-27T12:07:00.001+01:00

‘PLAYING BY THE RULES’The Gibraltar Football Association has issued a Press release regarding the current dispute in which twenty- one registered Clubs are refusing to complete fixtures – until their demand for an EGM is met.

From the Release - ‘As reported in the media, seven clubs have refused to play any official scheduled matches since 15th. November 2008. The reason given for such action, entered into without any discussion with the GFA Council, is supposedly against a Rule in the GFA statutes which has existed since 1932 which requires players selected for Gibraltar to play/ train in an international competition for which they have been selected. The GFA adds, it takes many months preparation and hard work and thousands of pounds to organise and attend international competitions such as that recently attended in Jersey. The GFA cannot leave itself exposed to players suddenly, and for no good reason, to decide not to represent Gibraltar. Unfortunately, in Gibraltar, the pool of players who are good enough to represent Gibraltar at international level is restricted and, consequently, if players are allowed to drop out from an international match/ competition without good reason the squad will be considerably depleted.

This is not good for the image which the GFA is endeavouring to portray abroad.
Whilst it is difficult to understand why there are persons and clubs who fail to support and, indeed, seek to undermine the Association’s efforts to require from persons selected to represent Gibraltar a serious commitment and discipline necessary to proudly wear and do justice to the national shirt, the fact is that is the reality of the situation. Disciplinary proceedings were commenced against more than the five suspended players in question. All players were given the opportunity to put in writing their reasons for not accepting to train and/ or play for Gibraltar. The majority, but not all, availed themselves of this opportunity. The five players suspended were found by the Council not to have good and sufficient cause for their respective decisions not to train/play for the selection. The others did and no action was taken against them.The Council finds it difficult to understand the rationale for the Clubs deciding to boycott matches simply because they do not now, suddenly, like a rule which they voted to accept as recently as January 2007. Moreover, even if they did not like the rule and wished to change it, why is it necessary boycott matches pending the holding of any EGM? There are mechanisms in place for the Clubs to have requested an EGM or to have otherwise aired their grievances without the need to deprive their own players of playing matches.

The Clubs in compliance with the GFA Rules finally asked for an EGM as provided for under the said Rules on Friday 21st. November 2008 – a full six days after beginning their boycott of matches. The request received complies with the Rules of the GFA, notwithstanding that two of the persons who signed the request were not authorised to sign on behalf of their clubs – and that certain clubs have reportedly claimed that what was handed into the GFA last Friday was not what they had all agreed to. The GFA will, in due course, be calling an EGM.Due to the steps that need to be taken to organise such an event, and due to the commitments of Council members – who give up their free time, such a meeting will be held some weeks away.

In the meantime, the Council has warned clubs of the consequences of breaching the GFA’s rules on non-appearance at scheduled fixtures. Any breach of said Rules will be actioned, implementing the usual disciplinary procedure. The Council, 25. 11.08.Speaking to the Chronicle, in answer to the question ‘The Way Ahead ? ’, GFA President Mr. Nuñez said -“ The GFA would adhere to the Rules of the Association and enforce them’.“It was up to the Clubs to consider their ‘duty and obligations’ to, and the best interests of, their members and let them play.“ If the Clubs continued to fail to fulfil fixtures, this would invoke further disciplinary action, covered by the Rules, and affect their rights to participate in any future EGM.”

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GFA Suspended player speaks out about suspension

2008-11-24T22:02:00.005+01:00

I speak as a suspended player myself, the reason which i gave for not being able to play for the GFA was ignored. I had just started a new job when i was called up for the GFA, this job consisted of shift works, therefore i simply could not commit myself 100% as requested from the GFA manager. Apart from that i was not entitled to enough leave in order to travel abroad with the GFA. If this is not a valid reason im afraid there is no valid reason for the GFA, i have not even been asked to produce a letter from my employer to prove this, which i can do so.

Players which have to PAY to PLAY like us, should not be treated in this manner, as even proffesionals reject being selected to represent there country, even for the simple reason of not being happy with the manager, team etc. I think the GFA have gone a bit to far this time and honestly they have been making decisions such as these for many years now.

It is time to finally put a stop to this, and if it takes a whole year without football let it be, anyway the league this year would have started a week ago and would have ended sometime march, due to GFA selection training yet another wrong decision.

I hope Gibraltar realises what we footballers have to put up with!

Jordan Perez
(pictured above)

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GHA prepare to take Gibraltar back into Europe's top 16 hockey nations

2008-11-24T21:52:00.005+01:00

This season the GHA will see the start of a 5 year plan for its Men’s Senior Side, as we aim to mirror our efforts shown with the work with our youth programme, which now sees a steady flow of youngsters feeding our senior sides. The aim of this plan is to hopefully see Gibraltar return to the top 16 teams in Europe.

The GHA has made plans for the first 3 years which shall include euro competitions, training camps in foreign countries, local tests against visiting sides, fitness assessments, technical & tactical assessments, etc. After this period, we will review the results of these 3 years before moving forward.

In order to ensure that these plans, and the GHA squad, are led by the most competent individuals available, we are delighted to say that we think we have secured the services of a very strong and experienced 5 man management team.

The team will be composed as follows:

Team Manager Stephen Valarino
Team Coach Steven Soussi
Team Consultant Karl Stagno
Head of Delegation Peter Pizarro
Team Secretary Brian Buckley

Last Sunday saw the first training session, which was open to all senior male members (over the age of 16). There was a very good turn out, with representatives from all 3 first division clubs (even those players who are currently injured turned up to see the new project in full flow). The session included a fitness assessment as well as some basic drills. The general feed back from all players was very positive and they are all looking forward to being part of the future plans of the GHA.

The GHA next meet on the 14th December for another training session. We also plan to meet at the beginning of January where they will hold 2 training sessions & plan to have games against the visiting Great Britain Youth squad.

Further updates to follow.

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Cricket in Gibraltar is on the up

2008-11-23T20:24:00.002+01:00

The last few weeks have seen an expectant Gibraltar Cricket Association (GCA) patiently waiting for good news from the International Cricket Council (ICC) executives.

Whilst at the European Championships in Guernsey in August we had heard that the World Cricket League (WCL) system was going to be expanded and that national teams around the world that were performing well could be included in the set-up. The World Cricket League has been created to allow non-Test playing teams to experience fully international style games and to find their level away from parochial regional tournaments, with the white ball and coloured clothing too.

As reported by the Chronicle and as a result of our performances in Guernsey, Gibraltar are delighted to have been accepted into WCL Division 7 and we will look forward to playing against teams from Guernsey, Japan, Surinam, Nigeria and Bahrain. This marks a massive change in emphasis from competing with our established friends and colleagues from Germany, France, Croatia and the like and gives us a Worldwide opportunity never had before. The ultimate in promotion through the division we have been added to could see us in competition for the ICC World Cup in 2015!

Gibraltar Cricket has been going through a somewhat radical overhaul over the last 12 months or so. We have introduced the game into the school curriculum to 1350 pupils at many of our schools and, since September, we have put some 130 youngsters through an advanced coaching program at Under 11, 13 and 15 age groups, both boys and girls. These players have been part of a ‘district’ program that will accelerate their development and give them the skills required to advance into higher level competition, our junior national squads and eventually into adult cricket when it is appropriate for them to do so.

Training sessions have taken place at St.Anne’s and St.Joseph’s Schools in their indoor halls, as well as at the Old Sports Hall at Bayside and Westside School. Timings are between 6 and 8pm and further details can be obtained for any of the schools cricketers interested by calling 58009210.

Additionally, away from the playing side of things, we have enjoyed the challenge that ICC have given us to produce a comprehensive and cohesive ‘National Operational Plan and Budget Report’ that ties in our key objectives with ICC policy to benefit our sport and improve all areas of the game. These developments will be presented to interested cricketers attending an EGM in December and provide a radical change from the established practices that have gone on up until now.

In keeping with our new international competition it has been agreed that we need to cast the net wider in terms of cricketers ready to take part in the WCL. There are strict criteria that ICC apply to players in their tournaments such that GCA cannot play tourists or those without a commitment to the country – and rightly so. More details of the eligibility criteria can be found at:

http://www.cricketeurope2.net/docs/ECC/TSOP2008/ANNEXURES/E10.pdf

However, so long as you have been born in the country, have represented Gibraltar before or have spent four or more continuous years living and playing here you may well be eligible to represent the country in international tournaments. Gibraltar has a proud history of only playing indigenous players in it’s teams and this will not change, we will not accept overseas players however good they may be!

The initial training program for the WCL will begin in January and it is anticipated that eligible players will commit to training from that month and the pre-competition games in April and tour to Surrey in May. In order to identify those players of a suitable standard who wish to represent their country in this prestigious event, we will be holding initial trials to select the training squad on Sunday 21st December in the outdoor nets at Victoria Stadium starting at 11AM.

No previous experience at international level is required, only cricket ability and the commitment to train for five months before the event. As with the TV program, those possessing the ability to progress will be invited back to further ‘auditions’ and can eventually hope to be involved in the eventual WCL squad! We are quite happy to see triallists from age group cricket as well as those of more mature years. As with the TV program the judge’s decision is final and, in the wish to remain neutral, we will employ county qualified coaches from the UK in finalising the squad.

The WCL is a massive opportunity for Gibraltar and we hope to share it with as many people as we can. The final squad for the competition may only be 14 strong but we trust we will carry the hopes and full support of the nation on our backs when we play in the Channel Islands next year.

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Gibraltar Rugby Club vs San Jeronimo

2008-11-22T22:48:00.003+01:00

Gibraltar Rugby Club vs. San Jeronimo It was a crisp clear day sun shining bright with a cool wind blowing across the Guadiaro pitch in Pueblo Nuevo that saw the two teams at the top of the league square off against each other. Suspense was high in the two teams as they warmed up as there were no doubts that the match to follow would be an extremely physical one.

From the kick off San Jeronimo dominated the possession keeping the Gibraltar team in their own half of the field for majority of the half. Gibraltar took the pressure well and defended the sanctity of their try line like Spartans. The Gibraltar forwards held back wave after wave of attack from those of San Jeronimo and maintained pressure at the rucks turning over any slow ball and in turn attacking the San Jeronimo line brutally. The Gibraltar backline did an amazing job of shutting down any moves attempted by their opposing numbers and centre combination of Joey Garcia, with his characteristically surgical running, and Ross Eatwell, and his nifty boot, gave the supporters something to shout about in reply.

After 20 minutes, the brutality of the match became evident with John Bassadone picking up a foot injury and Joey Holiday gaining a stomping to the back of his head. With a bit of tape John soldiered on but Joey Holiday had to spend some time in the blood bin. 5 minutes later the San Jeronimo team put a man through on the wing and crossed the line for a try. However this was disallowed, the match referee’s keen eye picking up that the touch judge had surprisingly missed the San Jeronimo player stepping in to touch.

Despite a sterling effort in defence which was not aided by playing into the wind hampering the ability to clear the ball the John Smiths Gibraltar rugby team sponsored by Peninsula Petroleum were unable to keep San Jeronimo out of the try area and a Peter o’File did manage to put some point up for San Jeronimo in the form of a converted try in the 35th minute. The Gibraltar team did not let this get them down though and replied with the forwards smashing the ball into oppositions half straight from the kick off. Some tricky hands from the backline saw Chris Gillighan at fullback out pace the San Jeronimo backs to dot the ball down in the corner. With a difficult kick into the wind the conversion attempt sailed wide concluding the first half with a score of 7-5 to the visiting team.

The second half saw the tables turn with the home team holding more possession and playing with the wind which aided in keeping the ball in oppositions half. Soon into the half the educated boot of Chris Gillighan put the john Smiths Gibraltar rugby club sponsored by Peninsula Petroleum ahead with a penalty bringing the score 8-7. Despite the defensive efforts of the San Jeronimo team the Gibraltar team found themselves on the opposing teams try line driving hard for a try. In a spectacular American football style move Ross Eatwell super manned over the defence to get over the try line. Sadly, and contradictory to the rumour that Africans have sticky fingers, the ball was lost forward in his nose dive landing.

With the half drawing to a close the San Jeronimo team tried to hit back and came close to drawing ahead however a penalty in Gib’s half saw the Gibraltar team run the ball up the field. Winger Julian Leigh doing most of the work up the right side of the field, chipping it ahead just outside the try line he was held back by a San Jeronimo defender, the ref however allowed play to continue giving the john Smiths Gibraltar team sponsored by Peninsula Petroleum the advantage needed for John Dibb to get the try in the corner. Chris converted the try and the win went to Gibraltar with a final score of 15-7.

This brutal game saw some brilliant scrumming from the Gibraltar team with the wily hooking of Kevin Boulton (no relation to Michael) often stealing the ball from the opposing hooker. A strong front row of Rob Uphill, Kevin Boulton and Nick Ramagge also enabled the Gibraltar pack to shove the opposition pack right off the ball when the San Jeronimo hooker did manage to keep the ball. Precision jumping by locks John Bassadone and Joey Holiday also allowed the Gibraltar team to dominate in the lineout’s. The loose forwards Chris Lyons, Gary Evans, Owain Richards and Chad Thomson did a fantastic job in defence making some skull rattling tackles, getting to the breakdowns early and smashing the ball up in attack with the gusto that they so often show.

Despite ball that was at times very difficult James Russo did a solid job at scrum half providing Paul Howard at fly half with the ball he needed to bring the backline into play. Despite pressure which was not altogether legal at the best of times Paul kept his head and set up a number of backline moves that had the opposition on their back foot.

Gibraltar RFC did a stand up job of keeping their heads in a physical match against an opposition of reasonable skill and sadly a propensity for dangerous and violent play. In spite of this we hold our heads high in victory.

On Sunday 23rd of November sees John Smiths Gibraltar Rugby Club sponsored by Peninsula Petroleum play Marbella Rugby Club away in Marbella.

And on Thursday 27th November sees players from Gibraltar rugby club playing for Pillars of Hercules. Which will be traveling to New York to participate in their 50th Annual New York 7’s on the 29th November.

John Smiths Gibraltar squad sponsored Peninsula Petroleum: Rob Uphill, Kevin Boulton, Nick Ramagge, Chad Thomson, Joey Holiday, John Bassadone, Gary Evans, Chris Lyons, Owain Richards, James Russo, Paul Howard, Julian Leigh, Joey Garcia, John Dibb, Nick Muller, Ross Eatwell, Chris Gillighan,

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College Cosmos team retain title for a 4th consecutive year

2008-11-21T15:14:00.003+01:00

Pictured on left (left to right – winners “College Cosmos”)Amos Bosano, Dylan Duo, Christian Tosso, Justin Broton, Henry Zapatapictured on right (left to right – runners up “St Josephs A”)Dayle Ramirez, Carl Thomas, Jadrian Pecino, Danny Peach, Dyson Parody.

A jam packed 9 teams making up a total of 43 players were present for this years Friendship Cup. The blind draw was made and from the offset favoured St. Joseph’s ‘A’ as favourites as 2 of the other favourites College Cosmos and R&J Varyl Begg were drawn against each other in the 2nd round.

All games contested were rather one sided up until the final itself. Christian Tosso (College Cosmos) lost 1-2 against Jadrian Pecino (St Josephs) and Dyson Parody (St Josephs) also saw off Amos Bosano (College Cosmos) in a close 2-1 game. This meant that St. Joseph’s were 2-0 up and the title was in their line of sight (only needing 1 win out of the 3 remaining games).
However Dylan Duo (College Cosmos) had a fantastic game to beat young Carl Thomas (St Josephs) who played his heart out and Henry Zapata’s (College Cosmos) game against Dayle Ramirez (St Josephs) was seen by some as the critical game as they favoured Justin Broton (College Cosmos) to win the last game but Henry Zapata held his nerve and levelled the score 2 – 2.

The last game was played between Justin Broton (College Cosmos) vs Danny Peach (St Joseph’s). Both players had not played an official match the whole evening and it must have felt for both of them that they had been thrown into the frying pan. It went to the last leg but Justin managed to play a good last leg to secure the win for the College Cosmos by 3 –2.

Well done to the winners, College Cosmos, in retaining the title for a 4th consecutive year and to all the players that turned up for making it a very entertaining evening in support of one of our oldest team competitions.

http://www.gibraltardarts.com/

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More Gibraltarian kayakers to go international in 2009

2008-11-20T18:48:00.005+01:00

As part of the 2008 / 2009 season, Alexandra Asquez’ next race will be held in Sevilla on the 20th of December. She will also be collecting her runner’s up trophy for last season’s championship.

The GCA wishes to announce that they will be holding a number of junior races and heats starting in January 2009, and depending on how well the children do, the Association we will be entering them into the Andalucian Championships, and those who qualify will hopefully be competing at UK National Finals in June.
Finally, this year’s AGM will be held on the 8th December at 1830 hrs at the Victoria Stadium Meeting Hall, where the Committee hopes to announce an exciting series of events, and confirm some long awaited developments which will further aid the development of the sport for local paddlers at all levels, both junior and senior alike.

For further information, please contact the undersigned, or G.C.A. Secretary, Mr Arturo Asquez, on 54025033 / 55076, or turiontherock@hotmail.com

ROBERT MATTO
On behalf of the Gibraltar Canoeing Association
31 Knigtsbridge Close
Montagu Crescent
Gibraltar
Tel. 54009256
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Round 2 for Gibraltar Dragons Rugby Juniors

2008-11-19T19:49:00.003+01:00

Another weekend of Rugby in week 2 of the Andalucian league, had over fifty boys of all ages from Gibraltar and Spain playing rugby at Guadiaro for the Gibraltar Dragons.

The day started with a training session for the S G HAMBROS under 13s, unfortunately Malaga CR couldn’t bring there under 13s, so we had to train and play amongst themselves. As always this made the competition a little more edgy as both teams tried to overcome the other in a hard fought competition, however the boys were disappointed not to have another team to play. This will change soon when the under 13s begin there league of which the home game is at Guadiaro on the 14th of DEC.

Next up we had the IBEX under 11s who played the San Roque under 11s, though we say under 11s Bradley Hewitt and Sheigh Wilson actually play under 9s, though this didn’t stop them getting stuck in. The San Roque team is new this year and is building, but it’s good to see a team locally who we can arrange more games against and maybe build a mini league by getting schools in Gibraltar and the Campo area involved which would bring local rugby on leaps and bounds. The IBEX Under 11s won but the score wasn’t important in this landmark game for San Roque and Gibraltar Dragons who are working so hard to develop junior rugby.

This brought up the first league game of the day when the ALL SPORTS BAR Under 15s played Malaga CR, Malaga have recently amalgamated two teams, the CR team and the University, giving them a much stronger squad however we were confident.

A good start from Malaga, who took no time to switch on, saw them scoring a try in the first two minutes and rocking the confidence of the Dragons this wasn’t helped when Malaga scored again ten minutes later, the signs were ominous. Malaga were throwing the ball round well and out boys seemed shell shocked, however we started clawing our way back into the game through the forwards but still we weren’t working as a unit and Malaga capitalized on our indecision and scored a third try.

Some good rucking and mauling from our guys who finally seemed to be gelling resulted in a try from Jeremy King able converted by Daniel Carey, we went into half time 3 tries to 1 confident that the second half would be a different story.

Due to injury a couple of main players had to be changed and the balance of the team was disrupted which compounded Gibraltar Dragons further and Malaga began to take total control, Gibraltar Dragons lacked direction or focus and they were exploited with Malaga running riot and our boys couldn’t find there way back, a disappointment after last weeks sterling performance and the score finally finished Gibraltar Dragons 7 Malaga CR 61 and the result was a fair reflection of the days game. The Dragons were outplayed by a better team but from this the boys will move forward and pick themselves up and show what there made off. Next week they are away to Marbella A which will be another stiff test, but lets not forget this is only the boys second season and they are developing and learning on the hoof and hopefully this minor set back will be put behind them and they will step off from here.

Man of the Match was Daniel Carey who led from the front, tackling hard supporting well.

Final Game of the Day was VOLKER STEVIN Under 17s in only there second match, and what these guys lack in technique they make up for in enthusiasm and commitment with some of the hardest tackling I have ever seen, but Malaga CR have a strong under 17s team who have played together for awhile and again it showed with some slick passing and support play, our guys are still at the level where they take the ball two steps too many, this isn’t a criticism but part of the learning process and when they pick this up the speed we have will really start to show. The forwards had a hard time in the scrum but again this is only a learning curve and technique which they will learn quickly in this hard league, but there defence, tackling and heart leaves nothing to be desired as that is all there and the skills will come with it. There was some fine individual runs from the Volker Stevin boys and some try saving tackles as well as stoic defence of the try line, but under all the pressure the Malaga players slowly started finding holes and inevitably the tries came with a final score of

VOLKER STEVIN Gibraltar Dragons 0 Malaga CR 61.
It will be interesting to see how these teams fair in there next meeting, I for one don’t think the score will be as dramatic as this looks and Malaga certainly left here knowing they had been in a game. A very worthy man of the Match was Mousa Tzunani.

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Graham Hawkins continues to promote rugby in Gibraltar

2008-11-19T19:41:00.004+01:00

From 12 youngsters turning up to the first training session at Westside school, to tag rugby at St Anne’s, to RFU level 1 coaching course to Gibraltar Dragons playing in the Spanish league, and now the first ever 7s tournament at Bayside school.

Rugby has climbed mountains in the last two years and all thanks to local dedicated people and a sports teacher who has vision.

Graham Hawkins recently appointed head of sports at Bayside has long been a supporter of rugby, realizing that not only was it a sport but also a life skill, rugby is a sport that has to be played by a TEAM and you have to have discipline and today was a fulfillment of something that has been dreamed of for a long time here in Gibraltar.

Bayside school has not only put rugby on the curriculum but has also held its first 7s inter house tournament, over 40 year 9 boys played an action packed hour of non stop, full on rugby, with ever facet of the game covered. Rucks ,maul, tackling, knock ons and the most important thing tries were in abundance.

Tempers were lost, tiredness was evident, but no one gave up. Over 300 points were scored and non stop running rugby ensued, organized chaos comes to mind, able overseen by Gibraltar Dragons coaches in the shape of Neil Wilson, Steve Bailey and Terry Blackburn, but as in all things there has to be a winner and there was only one winner and it was rugby.

However that’s not the full story with the 4 houses of Bayside all putting teams into the tournament, and although there were some no shows the ideal was achieved to introduce the sport to many, and make sure they enjoy.

After a hard session which the boys enjoyed there was the awarding of the 3 Owls year 9 7s trophy graciously sponsored by the 3 Owls of Irish Town which will become a annual event within the school, leading into year 8, and already year 10 and 11 are desperate to begin.

All thanks to Mr Hawkins, but as in all tournaments there has to be winners and the results were as follows.

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Volker Stevin makes further commitment to Gibraltar Rugby

2008-11-19T19:32:00.004+01:00

Gibraltar Dragons received another major boost from Volker Stevin today but not only for the under 17s.

Volker Stevin have sponsored the Dragons polo shirts for the season and what a wonderful gesture, we all know how hard it is for companies here in Gibraltar to be bombarded for sponsorship but for one company to commit itself so much to local rugby and assist in this way has given this new and up and coming sport a major lifeline.Since rugby isn’t played within Gibraltar, costs are a major problem, home games costing almost £500 with the hire of pitch, coaches for the kids, medical cover and hosting, raising funds is a major headache.

To put it into perspective, Gibraltar Dragons have been chosen to host the first concentration of under SG Hambros 13s, Ibex Insurance under 11s and under 9s on the 14th of Dec, we will be hosting almost a hundred kids plus coaches and parents, in excess of 150 people who we have to feed and water, which other sport has this opportunity to show how good Gibraltarian hospitality can be and we thank Volker Stevin for helping Gibraltar Dragons fly the flag for Gibraltar Rugby, this cost of this weekend could be in excess of £700 but by donating the polo shirts we can achieve this aim and move on.Our picture shows Kees Wendrich of VOLKER STEVIN with the VOLKER STEVIN Gibraltar Dragons under 17s team

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Netball results, scores and forthcoming fixtures in Gibraltar

2008-11-19T19:16:00.007+01:00

Lightning Cups

					Score			Score
10/11/08	B3	Attias & Levy	15	V	Victor Chandl	17	Natwest/ Fball Mania	Baker Tilly/ Capurro
	C1	PWC		V	BYE
	C2	Natwest	5	V	Footbll Mania	3	Attias/ VCI	Baker Tilly/ Capurro

	D1	Smilies		V			Bye
	D4	Celebs		V			Bye

12/11/08	D2	ABC	20	V	Hassan	9	Manch x 2	Black birds/Marb
	C3	Marbella	35	V	Manch Girls	7	ABC/Netgear	D & H/ Moira
	D3	BMW Chics	15	V	Netgea	6	Marbella x 2	D & H/ Moira
	C4	BMI		V	BYE

	B1	Marble Arc		V	BYE
13/11/08	B2	BFG	11	V	Black Birds	13	Elite x2	Elite/ Moira
	A1	Bullock	32	V	Elite	24	BFG/B Tilly	Rose/Fruits
	A2	Baker Tilly	42	V	Fruit Shoots	13	Bullock x2	Rose/Bullock

17/11/08	A3	Capurro		V	Portman		Sundial/ D & H	B Tilly / Fruitshoots
	A4	Sundial		V	D & H Ceramics		Capurro / Portman	Capro/BTilly

19/11/08	B4	Lek Bankok		V	The Look		Bullock x2	Sundial/Rose
19/11/08	A5	Win A1 Bullock		V	Win A2 Baker Til		Lek BMar Arc	Rose /Moira
	B5	Win B1 Mar Arc		V	Win B2 Black bird		Baker Tilly x2	Moira/Bulock

20/11/08	C5	Win C1 PWC		V	Win C2 Natwest		Smilies/ABC	Bry/Moira
	D5	Win D1 Smilies		V	Win D2 ABC		PWC/Natwest	Bry/Fruits
				V

24/11/08	A6	Winner A3		V	Winner A4		Vict Ch/Win B4
	B6	Win B3 Victor C		V	Winner B4		Win A3/Win A4

26/11/08	C6	Win C3 Marbela		V	Win C4 BMI		BMW/Celes
	D6	Win D3 BMW		V	Win D4 Celebs		Marbella/BMI

27/11/08	B7	Winner B5		V	Winner B6		Win A5/Win A5
	A7	Winner A5		V	Winner A6		Win B5/Win B6

01/12/08	D7	Winner D5		V	Winner D6		Win C5/Win C6
	C7	Winner C5		V	Winner C6		WinD5/Win D6

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SG Hambros Results and Fixtures

2008-11-19T19:05:00.002+01:00

WK	DATE
1	25 October 2008	Black Eagles	1	vs	2	Grams Oldies
		Grams Yng Guns	4	vs	1	Lions Pirates
		Eagles Tangerine	5	vs	5	Collegians Vets.
	26 October 2008	Lions Hawks	2	vs	3	Barclays Wealth
	26 October 2008
2	08 November 2008	Collegians Vets.	5	vs	1	Lions Pirates
		Eagles	4	vs	1	Lions Hawks
		Eagles Tangerine	1	vs	3	Grams Oldies
	09 November 2008	Black Eagles	1	vs	2	Gib HT
	09 November 2008
3	15 November 2008	Eagles Tangerine	2	vs	1	Gib HT
		Gramms Oldies	4	vs	2	Grams Yung Guns
		Black Eagles	3	vs	1	Lions Pirates
	16 November 2008	Eagles	3	vs	3	Barclays Wealth
	16 November 2008
4	22 November 2008	Collegians Vets.		vs		GIB HT
		Grams Oldies		vs		Lions Pirates
		Eagles Tangerine		vs		Grams Yung Guns
	23 November 2008	Lions Hawks		vs		Barclays Wealth
	23 November 2008

Standings

	Team:	Played	Win	Draw	Lost	G.F	G.A	G.D	Pnts
Eagles Tangerine		3	1	1	1	8	9	-1	4
Collegians Vets.		2	1	1	0	10	6	4	4
Black Eagles		3	1	0	2	5	1	4	3
Grams Oldies		3	3	0	0	9	4	5	9
Gib HT		2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3
Grams Yung Guns		2	1	0	1	6	5	1	3
Pirates		3	0	0	3	3	12	-9	0

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Local footballers say they have the right not to play for the Gibraltar team

2008-11-18T14:25:00.004+01:00

A major row has erupted between clubs and players as to whether players are entitled not to play for the GFA selection.

Letters have been sent by the GFA Council suspending various players for non-participation in the GFA selection.

Sixteen clubs have come out in support of the players.
The clubs are Chelsea, Lincoln, Manchester United, Wanderers, College Cosmos, Pegasus, Glacis United, Laguna, Shamrock 101, South United, Sporting Club, Gibraltar United, Lions, St Joseph's, Lynx and Moroccan United.

The clubs say they support the right of all their players to choose not to train/play for the GFA selection. They reject the suspension of various players by the GFA Council for choosing not to train/play for the GFA selection and call for a lifting of the suspensions of all affected players with immediate effect.

The clubs also call for an immediate extra-ordinary general meeting of the GFA.
Further, Chelsea, Laguna, Glacis United, Manchester United, Gibraltar United, Lincoln, Shamrock 101, Lions and St Joseph's, and their reserve teams, say they will not be fulfilling their fixtures until such time as an extra-ordinanry general meeting takes place.

What do you think? Vote on this topic on the right.

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Guernsey to play host to Gibraltar's cricket team in WCL event

2008-11-18T13:01:00.008+01:00

The ICC Development Committee has approved in principle that the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 7 (WCL Div. 7) tournament will be held in May/June 2009 in Guernsey and that the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 6 (WCL Div. 6) tournament will be held in September in Singapore.

European nations Gibraltar, Guernsey and Norway have been named among the 10 teams that will compete across the two divisions. Gibraltar will travel to the Channel Islands to join Guernsey in Division 7, whilst Norway will journey to Singapore to take part in Division 6.

The decisions were made as the committee gathered in Spain for one of its biannual meetings, which concluded on Sunday, and the choice of venues are now subject to appropriate finalisation of arrangements.

In arriving at the determination of which teams would participate in each tournament, the Development Committee considered the relative strength of each region given the results of the WCL Div. 5 event in Jersey earlier this year as well as the most recent regional results and the desire to recognise all five regions of the Pepsi ICC Development Programme.

The Development Committee allocated the 10 positions across the two divisions by region assigning three teams from Asia (two for WCL Div. 6 and one for WCL Div. 7), three teams from Europe (one for WCL Div. 6 and two for WCL Div. 7), two teams from Africa (one for each division), one team from the Americas (for WCL Div. 7) and one team from East Asia-Pacific (also for WCL Div. 7).

In line with current ICC regional rankings, the make-up of the two tournaments will be as follows:

Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 7, May 2009 (Guernsey): Guernsey, Nigeria, Japan, Suriname, Bahrain and Gibraltar

Pepsi ICC World Cricket League Division 6, September 2009 (Singapore): Singapore, Botswana, Norway, Malaysia and top two teams qualifying from WCL Div. 7

Further information will be released on both tournaments in due course.

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Graham Watson's article about the Gibraltars Football Association's UEFA application

2008-11-18T12:24:00.003+01:00

Graham Watson
guardian.co.uk, Monday November 17 2008 08.00 GMT
Article history

In Jules Verne's satirical novel Gil Braltar, a Spanish general incites a troop of monkeys to attack Gibraltar's British fortress. For a time, the outcome hangs in the balance, but the most awesome military power that the world had ever known does eventually triumph. On Thursday, with that story in mind, I led a team of Liberal Democrat MEPs from across the European Union in a game of football against the Gibraltar national side. I'm not suggesting that the Rock's squad is the equivalent of the British Army, any more than I'm comparing my side to man's nearest cousin – but suffice to say we lost.

Where we did score, however, was in drawing attention to the shabby treatment that has been meted out to the Gibraltar Football Association. Gibraltar's team first applied for membership of Uefa – European football's controlling body – back in the 1990s. The Faroe islands, a Danish province with a population of less than 50,000, was admitted in 1990 and have since been free to participate in European competitions. Given that precedent, it seems only fair that the Gibraltar, a British province with a population of around 30,000, should have its team granted membership too. But it hasn't.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has twice ruled that Uefa must consider the GFA application under the rules governing membership at the time of application, that Gibraltar qualifies for membership under those rules, and that Uefa has not acted in accordance with the Court's rulings in dealing with the GFA's application. Despite this, the Uefa Congress rejected the GFA bid in January of last year. This boils down to politics.

The Spanish government is loth to see Gibraltar develop any aspect of independent identity, for fear that it will undermine Spain's long-standing and hopeless wish to rejoin the island with the mainland. They also live in fear that a Gibraltar national football team playing European matches will inspire the Basque country and Catalonia to develop their own sporting ambitions. So it's little wonder that the Spanish FA has led the shrill voices opposing Gibraltar's application and, in foot-stamping form, has even threatened to pull its team out of competitions if Gibraltar becomes a Uefa member. Spanish football has cash and clout: Gibraltar football does not. Go figure.

Ultimately, it's Gibraltar's citizens who pay the price. For a little promontory, it has a burgeoning sporting life, with well over a hundred registered football teams alone. Its sporting potential should be developed, not sidelined.

Since 2004 Gibraltar has had a voice in the European parliament, and I have been proud to represent it. It should have a presence in European football too.

Click here to view comments about the above article

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Gibraltar's young rugby stars get their first outings of 2008

2008-11-16T15:57:00.015+01:00

ALL SPORTS BAR UNDER 15s

For some the season has started for others a warm up game was the order of the day.

The Ibex under 13s started the day and what a day it was, we were hopeful that our young boys would show the way however they were overpowered by some good Marbella play, we entered two teams into this friendly match and both teams failed to realize there potential, as is always the case our boys who train and play so hard lose sight of the fact of how good they are, Craig and Patrick also new to coaching, learned how different training and playing are and it was a learning curve day for all, and boy did we learn, however what did show through is that both coaches are committed and the boys back them and themselves 100 per cent and it wont be long before we start seeing some seriously good rugby from these young boys, but to give Marbella credit they out classed us at this level at the weekend and we look forward to returning the compliment which we have confidence our boys will do.

VOLKER STEVIN UNDER 17s

On a major positive side our boys tackled well, and finally realized what they could do and showed Marbella they aren’t just making up numbers, as always we choose a man of the match, and two boys led by example and team A was Killian, while Dylan, captain of team B showed why he had been chosen by leading from the front.

All Sports Bar Gibraltar Dragons under 15s where up next how did they start
There opening five minutes where awesome, but lack of experience, the new ELVs and
Other influences meant the guys struggled, but never shirked, we have moved on so much since last year and it showed, the one thing we struggle on which was so evident was space. All sports Bar under 15s train and play in an area 12 mts by 30 mts a rugby pitch is 70 X 100 and Marbella used very part of it yet our boys never lost sight of them an awesome achievement. They scored two tries and nearly scored more, our defence held out. We look beaten and defeated then we fought back and did we fight back, awesome tackling from 1 to 12 with pieces of brilliance from some who encouraged the rest, faults there where many, basic things to work on and remedy, but as a guy who has played rugby, watched rugby and been part of rugby for various teams at Marbella for over ten years, I have never felt the hairs on my neck rise so much as when we scored our first try. Scott Alexander picked the ball up and ran to score a try and the under 13s, under 17s and parents erupted, I have never seen that before and it filled me with pride and the support from the guys lifted the under 15s to score again with a try from Nicky Bourne and a fine conversion by Daniel Carey who narrowly missed the first. Final score was 12-12 and what a day and what made it so special was the way the boys were cheered by there own club mates who lifted weary bodies to play so well.

As always we pick a man of the Match and as always it’s a difficult task with many boys being eligible but this weekend the accolade goes to Scott Alexander for some fine play.

Next came the first league match for the VOLKER STEVIN UNDER 17S.
A team formed by the boys themselves that we have the pleasure of training and again the boys showed they weren’t there to make numbers. Hard tackling made Marbella think twice when running lines. However again indiscipline, naivety and the new ELVs and other factors caused frustration with the captain Philip Reyes being red carded early in the game leaving our boys a man short, but the rest of the guys stepped up.

SG HAMBROS UNDER 13s

It was a hard fought game with no quarter asked or given and a game we showed we are coming of age as a rugby club, Marbella scored, pressurized tried to cower, but we stood tall and a wonderful run away try by Jonathan Smith put us on the scoreboard, the final score was 24-5 to Marbella but they will be more disappointed than us because they expected to walk all over VOLKER STEVINS under 15s and they didn’t and when guys step up like ours, the future looks brilliant, with a man of the match performance by Adam Golt giving a good days rugby for Gibraltar Dragons.

This weekend saw the second game for
VOLKER STEVINS Gibraltar Dragons under 17s and
ALL SPORTS BAR Gibraltar Dragons under 15s
with their first home game at Guadiaro against CR Malaga on saturday 15th Nov
Follow their scores on our Rugby Results/Standings section on the right.

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Gibraltarian in Ten Pin Bowling World Cup in Mexico

2008-11-16T15:41:00.005+01:00

Charlie De La rosa recently attended the QubicaAMF World Cup in Mexico - below is how he faired & is now on his way home.

Unfortunately he didn`t have the best of starts & was sitting last out of the 82 countries that took part with a 168av.But for all those that know Charlie Del la Rosa he stuck at it & bowled a 1103 & 1153 over the last two sets of qualifiers. Overall he bowled 24 games over four days scoring 4288 179av with seven games over 200 his best being 231. It`s a same as Charlie left Gibraltar with the highest score any has left here before so we had high hopes for him.I am sure once he is back he will be able to let us know what went wrong to start with. He will only be back a short while before he heads of the to Ireland to bowl in the commonwealth games along with Tony Galea, Julie Jackson & Kelly Turnbull.

Still to show the best form for Gibraltar is Graham Coles who only last year finished 43rd out of 84 countries with a 198av

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Mr Watson reiterates commitment to Gibraltar's entry into UEFA

2008-11-16T15:21:00.004+01:00

Speaking at the conclusion of a three day international liberal conference hosted by the local Liberal Party, Mr Watson reiterated his commitment to Gibraltar and confirmed he would be seeking re-election to his England South-West constituency seat, to which the Rock is attached, next time round.

Mr Watson declared that the highlight of the European Liberal Democrat visit had been the football match with Gibraltar veterans at Victoria Stadium on Thursday.

He said this had been an opportunity to draw attention to “the atrocious behaviour of UEFA” in ignoring legal rulings by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, that were favourable to the Rock’s membership.

“San Marino and the Faroe Islands are members, and there is no good reasons why Gibraltar should not be allowed to take part,” said Mr Watson who recalled his Scottish origin as another example to back his argument.

In answer to questions Mr Watson said his role in Parliament included defending Gibraltar’s interests when these were “under attack by Spain or others.”

“Every visit to Gibraltar makes me even more proud to represent Gibraltar in Europe,” he declared.

He said Partido Popular MEP’s were trying to use the European Parliament “as a platform” in this respect, and pointed to mischievous allegations from that quarter blaming the New Flame for pollution that affected Spanish beaches when “this had originated from the Sierra Nava.”
Asked to comment on recent remarks by the GFA that it was considering the appointment of a Spaniard to the post of Gibraltar Football Development Officer, Mr Watson expressed surprise, but agreed that in a market economy environment such as ours, “Gibraltar had to appoint the best man for the job.”

“This shows the kind of tolerance that Gibraltarian society has developed over the years. One of the great things is the level of community cohesion which exists here.”

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Gibraltar Football selection play host to MEPs

2008-11-13T18:30:00.004+01:00

Liberal and Democrat (ALDE) Members of the European Parliament will be playing football Thursday against a team representing the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) at the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar.

The aim of the match is to drive home the point that the MEPs are more than happy to play against the GFA even though Europe’s governing body of football UEFA continues to ban Gibraltar’s participation in European competition.

It will be recalled that on instructions from the Spanish Government, the Spanish Football Federation has opposed the GFA’s application to join UEFA. Moreover, UEFA rules were changed after the GFA applied to join to ensure that only sovereign independent states could be admitted as members.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has already ruled in two separate cases that the GFA’s application must be considered in the context of what UEFA rules were at the time the application was made, that under the said rules the GFA is entitled to membership of UEFA and that the Executive Committee of UEFA had not acted in accordance with its rules in dealing with the GFA’s application.

Graham Watson MEP, the Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), has made strong representations to UEFA urging them to accept the GFA as members. Mr Watson is a UK Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar and is leading the delegation of 14 MEPs from 13 different countries that will be in Gibraltar.

The MEPs have had football kits printed specially for the event.

See what some Europeans had to say about this event.

Visit the Online Petition

Related Articles click here

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Gibraltar Darts Celebrate 50th

2008-11-12T18:56:00.006+01:00

For those that might not know me, my name is Justin Broton, I am the
presiding GDA President.

I would like to say a few words to commemorate this special year of over 50
years of darts on the Rock.

I will try to do this very briefly, I hope, and go over a summary of our
milestones, our achievements of our rich darting history.
So, what has happened in Gibraltar in 50 plus years!

We have had the introduction of all sorts of competitions for the development
of the sport, such as singles, pairs, trebles & mixed, friendship cup, GDA cup,
league, super league, teams of 4 etc etc those who are active members know
how busy we are.

Lots of UK Regional Organisations have come to Gibraltar to challenge & play
against us, including teams from the West of England, Leicestershire &
Oxfordshire.

We have seen darts inside the Rock at St. Michaels Cave, which I am sure
some of you will have fond memories of.

Top Pro’s have attended Gibraltar for our annual presentation night & for
exhibitions, these include the likes of Phil Taylor, Cliff Lazarenko, Jockey
Wilson, Eric Bristow, Dennis Priestly & Mike Gregory and believe you me not
a lot of countries can attest to that.

We have even seen our 1st 9 darter at our recent Gibraltar Open, which 20
years ago no one would have ever thought that would have happened on our
Rock.

Now, How has all this happened? Well, because of critical points in time.
For example:
In 1952 a true Gentleman by the name of Joe Goldwin started it all off by
creating competitions of which I have evidence as I have a trophy from a
singles competition dating back to 1953.

1n 1956/1958 we saw the amalgamation of the Civilian darts league with the
servicemen, military, MOD and their was an increase from 11 league teams to
around 24 teams.

In 1974 we became affiliated to the BDO – British Darts Organisation, the
same year they were established and attended the world singles
championships, the 1st ever world championships as we now know as the
Winmau World Masters and not a lot of countries can attest to that, we were
one of the 11 countries to take part.

In 1977 we became affiliated to the WDF – World Darts Federation, the same
year they were established and again attended the 1st ever World Cup.
In 1980 we attended the European Cup, possibly not the 1st but that must
have been due to financial reasons.

In 1998 through the hard efforts of certain committee members we officially
became a sport in Gibraltar, even before leading countries like the USA,
Netherlands and most recently the UK who I believe became a sport in 2004
and yet again not a lot of countries can attest to that. We were not the 1st as
countries such as New Zealand did a sneaky on us way back in 1978, but
nonetheless a great achievement thanks to the efforts of a few we have been
benefiting from the financial assistance that we now still get from the
Government of Gibraltar.

In 1999 we were involved in the inception of the Mediterranean Cup thanks
again to the efforts of previous committee members, in fact I believe we even
designed the logo.

In 2003/04 We had the introduction of our 1st major international event, the
Gibraltar Open.

In 2006/07 we added WDF Ranking points to the Gibraltar Open to attract
further international participation.

In that same year we get the Pro’s in Gibraltar for a competition from 80 to 89
and this year 112 Professionals were on our Rock including 13 World
Champions and yet again how many countries can attest to that.
In 2008 Gibraltar see its 1st Professional darts player by the name of Dylan
Duo who unfortunately could not be here today as he is attending a
competition abroad and we wish him and others such as Dyson Parody soon
to follow, here present, the best of luck for the future which I have no doubt
they will do great. So best of luck Dyson.

Now, has all this hard work paid off! The answer is yes!
In 2004 George Federico won our 1st international event in Malta. In 2006
Gibraltar gets a team silver, a pairs gold by Francis Taylor & George Federico
and the great George Federico also wins the Greek Open, I was present and
it was pleasure to see the master at work, he played exceptionally well. In
2007 we again won the pairs, myself & Dylan Duo at the BDO Torremolinos
Open and the singles won by Dylan Duo against compatriot Dyson Parody.
One of the only few words I will say in Spanish ”El no se puede” attitude which
has lingered Gibraltar for so long and I am positive that guys like Dylan &
Dyson will have a few words to say about that.

Just to end, how has all this been possible! Well because of 4 factors really.
Firstly, our sponsor Saccone & Speed on behalf of Kronenbourg 1664 whom
without their support a lot of things would not have been possible and we
thank them for that. We have a representative here Dyson Parody.

Secondly we have to thank the Government of Gibraltar who have not only
been supportive since 1998 when we became a sport as we have records to
show that they have been answering the needs of the GDA since the 1970’s.
Thirdly we must thank the continued strength of the players themselves for
never giving up.

Lastly and most importantly I believe we must thank our x presidents & x
committees. Whom without their input, their courage in the interests of the
development of the sport of darts in Gibraltar, none of this would have been
possible.

For that reason I ask you to put your hands together and give them a well
deserved cheer.
Thank you.

NOTE:
I would like to personally apologise and correct the following, which
were over looked in the speech.

I would like to mention that George Ramos, Justin Broton, Francis
Taylor, George Federico were the members part of the team that
achieved the Overall Team Silver at the Mediterranean Cup (Greece)
2006.

I would also like to correct that the 1st Med Cup was in Greece in the
year 2000 and not as stated in Bulgaria 1999.
I also wish to extend apologies for lost invites especially GBC and the
Gibraltar Chronicle who continually have given full support to the GDA
and for which I am very disappointed that we overlooked them. The
menus were sent to the media but no official invites.

Also note that my speech was followed by a few words from the Sports
Minister Hon. Edwin Reyes & lastly by 1st president, Dave Obee.

Pictured: "50 years On..." Dave Obee, Gibraltars 1st Darts President having a few throws to reminiss on the good old days.

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Pool: National Squad qualifiers for World Championships on Monday

2008-11-10T21:09:00.006+01:00

Hi all the pool tournaments have started to get a national squad so get yourself down the Cueball on Devil's Tower Road for this event.

Please remember you have to be a registered Gibraltar Pool ssociation pool player interested in going to the World Championships.

This event costs £5

Time and Place
Start Time:	Monday, November 17, 2008 at 6:00pm
End Time:	Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 12:00am
Location:	Cue Ball

Contact Info

Phone:

00350 56199000

Charlie Bear

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Madeira’s golden boys Gibraltar's wooden spoons

2008-11-10T20:43:00.005+01:00

MADEIRA’S young talents deservedly won the inaugural triangular Jersey FA International Trophy at Springfield yesterday.

The team (pictured) beat Jersey 2-0, the same scoreline they recorded over Gibraltar on Friday. And as in the first match, only poor finishing kept the scoreline against Jersey to two, although to their credit the home side, who seemed stunned by the ferocity of Madeira’s attacking flair, pace and force in the first ten minutes, recovered well and had a ‘goal’ of their own disallowed just before half-time.

With a more attacking line-up in the second half, following the introduction of Craig Russell and Paul Aitken, they also made enough chances to make this an entertaining and open game with thrills – and misses – in those last 45 minutes for both sides.

The crowd, too, approaching 1,000 (including many of the Island’s Portuguese community), were also enthralled by the standard of play, and afterwards Ricky Weir, president of the Jersey Football Association said: ‘At least half of the spectators seemed pleased by the result! But this was a well organised, successful tournament which ticked all the right boxes.’

On Friday, in their first match, Jersey beat Island Games champions Gibraltar 2-1, the winning goal being scored by Barry Beatson in stoppage time.

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SG Hambros hockey results and fixtures

2008-11-10T20:31:00.003+01:00

25 October 2008	Black Eagles	1	vs	2	Gramms Oldies
	Gramms Yng Guns	4	vs	1	Lions Pirates
	Eagles Tangerine	5	vs	5	Collegians Vets.
26 October 2008	Lions Hawks	2	vs	3	Barclays Wealth
26 October 2008

08 November 2008	Collegians Vets.	5	vs	1	Lions Pirates
	Eagles	4	vs	1	Lions Hawks
	Eagles Tangerine	1	vs	3	Gramms Oldies
09 November 2008	Black Eagles	1	vs	2	Gib HT
09 November 2008

15 November 2008	Eagles Tangerine		vs		Gib HT
	Grammarians Oldies		vs		Gramms Yng Guns
	Black Eagles		vs		Lions Pirates
16 November 2008	Eagles		vs		Barclays Wealth
16 November 2008

	Standings	Played	Win	Draw	Lost	G.F	G.A	G.D	Points
Eagles Tang.		2	0	1	1	6	8	-2	1
Collegians Vets.		2	1	1	0	10	6	4	4
Black Eagles		1	0	0	2	5	1	4	0
Gramms Oldies		1	2	0	0	5	2	3	6
Gib HT		1	1	0	0	2	1	1	3
Grams Yng Guns		1	1	0	0	4	1	3	3
Pirates		2	0	0	2	2	9	-7	0

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Madeira beat Gibraltar in Jersey

2008-11-09T14:00:00.004+01:00

THE inaugural JFA International Football Tournament was opened with some style at a cold Springfield (Jersey) last night as Madeira warmed their fans with an excellent 2-0 victory over Gibraltar.

But forget the 2-0 scoreline if you want an accurate indication of the play. Island Games champions Gibraltar, even taking into account their being reduced to ten men early in the second half, were extremely fortunate to get off with a 2-0 defeat in which clever striker Mario Fernanadez scored both goals.

Madeira’s Rodrigues missed the penalty that resulted from the red card handling offence of Jansen Moreno, but the second of Mario Fernandez’s two goals, 20 minutes from time, sealed a deserved victory.

Gibraltar now play Jersey today, with the deciding match tomorrow against Madeira, both games at Springfield.

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Amanda Carreras Gibraltar's Tennis sensation reaches final of Menzah Tournament

2008-11-09T12:50:00.009+01:00

Amanda narrowly lost in the final of one of Africa's most prestigious tennis events El Menzah 2008 which was held in Tunisia on the 3rd November 08. This takes her WTF losses to 15 and 29 wins which is a fantastic record.

Read more about Amanda's profile here

Menzah Semifinal
Amanda CARRERAS (GBR) (4) defeated Valentine CONFALONIERI (ITA) (6) 7-6(5) 2-6 7-6(5)

Menzah Final

Federica GRAZIOSO (ITA) defeated Amanda CARRERAS (GBR) (4) 2-6 7-6(5) 6-4
Amanda now plays on the WTA tour

Follow Amanda's progress here.

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13 Man Gibraltar Rugby Club work wonders against Mairena

2008-11-08T16:45:00.002+01:00

Saturday morning started badly when star full back Chris Gillighan had to withdraw with a groin strain. The remaining 13 players travelled up to Sevilla in buoyant mood still confident of obtaining a result against a team rooted to the bottom of the table. Unfortunately due to some contradictory directions the team ended up spread all over Sevilla district and at one stage it looked like they were going to have to start the game with 9 players! Fortunately the referee was very understanding and he allowed time for the remaining 4 players to arrive.

From the kick off John Smiths Campo Gibraltar sponsored Peninsula Petroleum started brightly, the size of the pitch assisting the numbers mismatch slightly, the centre pairing of Dibb and Couper were punching holes whenever they received the ball and the forwards were performing marvellously well with a 2 man difference in the scrums. It was from one of these scrums that Gibraltar gained possession and smashed into the Mairena backline, unfortunately the ball was turned over and they began a counterattack down the left flank, things were looking ominous for Gibraltar in their own 22 but down to some manic defence they managed to regain the ball, what followed definitely altered the game.

Couper had the ball and was tackled under a mound of players and during this action he tragically ruptured his medial ligaments and was helped from the field, this was closely followed by an unfortunate incident which resulted in a light concussion for George Russo, who had started very brightly. This dropped the numbers to just 11 players against 15 and eventually the inevitable happened, Mairena managed to get the ball wide and a lack of numbers allowed them to score down the right side. Slightly disconcerted by this Gibraltar again turned over stupid possession and again allowed Mairena to burst through the middle and score under the posts.

There followed a period of hard rugby, neither side giving an inch, the scrums were being won by the 6 man John Smiths Campo Gibraltar pack, even against the head, and the tackling from Owain Richards and the Skipper, Chad Thomson was Herculean, especially from the restarts. This was to no avail however as Mairena again stretched the defence to cross for a try.

Even though Mairena appeared to be coasting at this point they insisted on playing on a disciplinary knife edge, numerous punches were thrown and to Gibraltar’s credit retaliation was slight, or unnoticed by the Referee, but in the 37th minute Nick Ramagge and the tight head of Mairena were yellow carded for punching. Luckily for John Smiths Campo Gibraltar, George Russo was by now back on the field albeit slightly groggy, and he managed to evade several tackles and sprint across the line to score as the half drew to a close, Mairena 21 Gibraltar 7.

The half time team talk had obviously stoked the John Smiths Campo Gibraltar fires as they came out blazing, the running was strong and hard, tacklers were smashed aside like matchsticks and the tackling moved up a gear, the Mairena big men were targeted and Thomson, Richards and Lyons were like bowling balls smashing through the skittles creating huge gaps in the defence for the swift footed Leigh, the South African Muller and the Zimbabwean Eatwell.

Mairena were teetering on the edge now and John Smiths Campo Gibraltar sponsored by Peninsula Petroleum sensed it, firstly after some superb handling in the backline Richards crashed over for a Gibraltar try. There now followed a period of 14 minutes of pure Gibraltar pressure, constant attacks were somehow being repelled by Mairena, time after time defenders were smashed aside only for some unlucky handling errors to creep in, until finally it clicked, a series of monster runs from Richards and Thomson, offloading to Muller who carved a line through the defence to offload to Leigh who sidestepped and shimmied to offload to Ramagge who, like a raging bull bulldozed more defenders aside to set up quick ruck ball for Eatwell to slip the ball to Uphill who galloped up the touch line and fed Blackburn who in turn passed out to Lyons…… who knocked it on..

At this point Gibraltar could smell blood, and again after some great running from both Lyons and Uphill the ball was in the opponents 22, we had possession but it was robbed by some Mairena foul play and the Referee awarded Gibraltar a penalty square in front of the posts. A pressure kick which was easily converted by Dibb to bring the scores to 21-15 to Mairena.

After this passage of play it was obvious play would slow to allow all the players on the park to get their breath, unfortunately this allowed Mairena to further stretch their lead with a penalty kick converted from the 10 metre line, making it now a very tense 24-15. Even though Gibraltar looked beaten they rallied themselves for the final 15 minutes and stepped on the gas once again, with time running out Gibraltar scored, Thomson caught a clearance kick on his own 10 metre line, smashed through 4 players like they were non existent, offloaded to Richards, he managed to squirm his body through a mass of defenders and offload to Gary Evans who scored with aplomb, unfortunately the kick was wide.

John Smiths Campo Gibraltar sponsored by Peninsula Petroleum battered at the door of Mairena for the final 9 minutes but could not find the pass or the luck to pierce their defence.

The game ended with the score 27-20 to Mairena, a win which lifts them from the bottom of the table, and keeps Gibraltar second by 1 point from San Jeronimo.

At the final whistle the Gibraltar players sunk to their knees in exhaustion knowing they had given their all for the team, and obtained a priceless bonus point, the crowd cheered and gave a standing ovation to both teams for an excellent match, one which will live in the memory of every player who gave blood, sweat and tears on that cool November evening.

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Profile: Tom Gladdis Gibraltar's most successful racing driver.

2008-11-06T23:41:00.004+01:00

Born: Feb. 24, 1991 in Isle of Wight, England.
Resides: Gibraltar (a British territory).
Occupation: Student; training to be a professional race car driver.
Education: Attended Bayside Boys School in Gibraltar.

Racing Highlights:

Started racing at 15 years of age

Tested a Radical SR3 1500 for a day at Donnington park and went very well and was offered to go to Valencia for a shoot out for 1 of the 5 scholarship for the British Formula BMW.

Went to Valencia for the 2 days to have a bit of fun and was invited back out of 82 drivers so late September me and 20 other drivers went back for the final shoot out and was one of the 5 to get selected to drive as a scholarship driver for the 2007 formula bmw championship in Britain.

Name drivers such as Henry Surtees the son of F1 driver john Surtees , Anthony comas son of Ex F1 driver Eric Comas were in the championship.

From there had a very hard but exciting year in England “learning the ropes” of how everything worked as I had no experience in Racing and finished 6th in the rookie championship.

Late 2007- Decided to try a bigger car: the Pro Star Mazda.

Went very well on the first day of testing with JDC Motorsports after looking and phoning around we found Andersen Racing close to home in the USA.

Discussed with Andersen Racing to have a test. Lucky enough that week there was a 2 day test at Sebring with Charles Hall.

Both days testing went very well and come away quickest and was a very good learning experience at the end of day 2 test.

After the test Dan Andersen owner of Andersen Racing asked to sign me and we signed the day of leaving the States to head back to England.

We managed to get in 4 tested days before the championship started.

As the session is coming to an end we have managed to always be in the top ten having one 8th three 5th one 3rd one 2nd one 1st and two poles + 3 fastest laps and have finished every race we entered apart from Watkins Glen considering I was to young I was the only driver that wasnʼt aloud to participate in the event.

We are currently 4th in the championship only 9 points of the championship lead with 4 races to go in the session.

2008: Competing in his rookie season in the Star Mazda championship with Andersen Racing.
2007: Finished sixth-best among the rookies. . Tested a Star Mazda car for the first time over the Christmas holiday.
Earned 1 of the 5 scholarships at the Formula BMW scholarship shootout in Valencia, Spain.

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Jersey Football Association host International tournament this coming weekend

2008-11-04T23:06:00.004+01:00

Gibraltar, the current Island Games champions and Madeira will go to Jersey and play two games each in a round robin format. The first match on Friday evening 8 November will be played between Madeira and Gibraltar KO likely 6pm (tbc) followed by Jersey vs Gibraltar on Saturday 9th November at 3pm and Jersey vs Madeira on Sunday at 3pm, all matches taking place at Springfield Stadium. Both visiting FA’s will fly in on Thursday evening 7th November with Gibraltar leaving on Monday 11th and Madeira leaving on Tuesday 12th November.

This initiative has been in the pipeline for almost 2 years and emanated initially from a visit by Jersey FA President, Ricky Weir to meet Gibraltar FA President Joey Nunez in October 2006. Further dialogue was built at last year’s Island Games in Rhodes where Jersey were drawn in the same group as Gibraltar and were only 6 minutes from knocking them out when a stunning free kick from Gibraltar levelled the match. Gibraltar eventually qualified as winners by virtue of having scored more goals than Jersey and went on to win the tournament.

Earlier this year Jersey FA President, Ricky Weir also arranged to meet with Madeira F.A. President Mr Rui Marote and officials during a visit to Madeira to invite them to participate and in the past 6-7 months continued correspondence and a further meeting in mid July confirmed their commitment. Madeira of course have strong and historic links with the island and their visit this year will coincide not only with their 500th anniversary celebrations but also the 10th anniversary of the twinning of Funchal and St Helier.

As Jersey continue to pursue a meaningful and competitive games fixture calendar this tournament is seen as a stepping stone along that pathway and it is hoped can draw the attention of football’s governing bodies the FA, UEFA and FIFA in some shape or form. During a meeting between Jersey FA working party chairman Steve Meilklejohn and the then FA Chairman Mr Geoff Thompson, who currently remains as a FIFA and UEFA vice President it was suggested that Jersey take the initiative to create a ‘small nation’ tournament.

Tremendous thanks must go to our main sponsor Michael Wilde through the Wilde Family Office Limited, without who’s support this tournament would simply not be happening. Furthermore I would like to thanks and acknowledge the important part played by Elizabeth at Estrela Travel for her assistance and persistence in finalizing the Madeira flights and to a similar degree my Vice President Iain MacKenzie for his part in securing the Gibraltar flights as well as the Ambassadeur and Mayfair Hotels for their beneficial accommodation rates.

Jersey FA President, Ricky Weir said “This is an exciting opportunity and fantastic platform for us to promote ourselves in the international arena against two other proud and passionate small football territories. Gibraltar of course similar to Jersey seek international recognition and already have gained a high profile in their ongoing dispute with UEFA. As current Island Games champions they will also give Jersey the chance to demonstrate how misleading our final position was at last year’s Island Games. Madeira of course comprises a huge section of Jersey Island life and I am sure the large and vociferous local Madeiran residents will turn out in force to support the first ever visit by a Madeiran national side to the island. I hope we will also get great support for our own Jersey national side. On the back of the up and coming international against an England amateur XI we see this tournament as an important milestone as part of the bigger picture in raising our profile and gaining wider international recognition for small nation territories such as ourselves, Gibraltar and Madeira and who knows to where it could lead. We do however need to demonstrate not only on the field, but also off the field through everyone involved in local football, plus you the media and our politicians, what a passion and determination exists on the island to develop our game towards further international competition.”

Senator Mike Vibert Minister for Education Sport and Culture added: “I congratulate the Jersey FA on arranging this small nations tournament and very much look forward to seeing how Jersey gets on, in what should be, very interesting fixtures. There has been much debate about finding an appropriate games programme for our 'national' football team and this is yet another good example of how Jersey FA officials have worked very hard to provide these opportunities. I hope that the whole weekend is very successful and that this is the first of such tournaments between small nations across Europe which may lead to more formal competitions with the support of FIFA and UEFA.”

Gibrlatar FA President, Joey Nunez comments “The failure of UEFA to develop, support and assist football in all corners of Europe means that tournaments such as those organised by the Jersey FA are the only means for long established independent amateur associations such as that of Jersey, Guernsey, Greenland and Gibraltar to be able to compete at national level and give their members the stimulus required to progress and develop. The importance which such tournaments have for the development of the game in the particular jurisdiction cannot be over emphasised and the Gibraltar FA whole heartedly supports and encourages the efforts of the Jersey FA through the hosting of such tournament to bring to the notice of the powers that be that amateur and grassroots football in such places as Jersey and Gibraltar should not be forgotten and indeed incorporated within the European governing bodies fold.”

Jersey Island Team Manager, Dave Kennedy said of the tournament “At present, our only competitive fixtures are the Muratti and the Island Games so the tournament is a perfect opportunity for our players to compete against attractive opposition who are pitched at our level. We were five minutes away from beating Gibraltar in Rhodes last summer so we will certainly look forward to meeting them again whereas our game against Madeira should attract a healthy crowd'. 'All our lads are proud to represent Jersey so to have the opportunity to win a tournament on home soil is excellent”

Unfortunately the Gibraltar squad will be severely weakened as many players have work commitments. Let's just hope Madeira don't field their famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

Click here to find hear about the fixtures and other statistics.

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Minister wishes Gibraltar's Special Olympics Football team every success in Cyprus

2008-11-04T20:53:00.003+01:00

The Minister for Sport and Leisure sent the following message of support to the Gibraltar Special Olympics Football Team.

“On behalf of everyone in Gibraltar it is my pleasure to wish the Gibraltar Special Olympics Football Team every success in your participation in the Special Olympics Small Nations Football Tournament being held in Cyprus.

Your commitment in training is an example to many other sports and I trust this will assist you in achieving the results you aim for and deserve.

I hope that you have pleasant and safe journey and enjoy your stay in Cyprus. Wishing you all the best.”

Pictured: Nicholas Danino of Special Olympics Gibraltar battles Dave Broad of Special Olympics Canada during a match at the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

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Season gets underway for Gibraltar Dragons junior rugby

2008-11-03T21:05:00.009+01:00

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The new season has started with the fixtures of the under 17s and under 15s being sent out and commencing on the weekend of the 9th of November with both teams playing at Marbella.

This is the first season for the VOLKER STEVIN UNDER 17S who had a friendly last week against CR Seville Mairena - their first game together as a team. They gave a good account of themselves, against an established team and with a final score of 15-3 they certainly showed they are here to compete. They are pitted in the league against Marbella A and B Club Rugby Malaga and San Roque who are also fielding there first under 17s team, a good sign for local campo rugby.

The SPORTS BAR UNDER 15s also played at Seville and were unlucky not to win the game, it ended in a 5-5 draw, they showed they could do well this season and we look forward to watching the progress of both teams.

Also at Seville were the SG HAMBROS UNDER 13S boys who lost by 1 try to nil. Sadly they had no time to warm up and were thrown into the deep end and didn’t have time to gel, but they showed some excellent skill levels and hopes are high for a good season for the boys. However, we are still waiting for the boys' fixture lists as well as the Ibex under 11s and 9s, we will publish these as soon as they are available.

Gibraltar Dragons are looking for new players at under 11s and under 9s and everyone is welcome, girls are also eligible to play at this age and we would like to see some coming along.

For further information tel: Allan Sparks on 54275000 or visit their website.

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Some of the Gibraltar Dragons in previous games

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Nicky Correa takes first - ever International title for a G.P.A. player

2008-11-02T16:11:00.002+01:00

2008 will always be remembered in the history of the Gibraltar Pool Association, for being the first time ever that a lady wins an Open Pool tournament for Gibraltar. Nicky Correa (second from right in image) is the II I.B.A. Ladies Individual Champion in Rosyth 2008.

Find out how the team events for the men and ladies went:

IBA Championships 2008 from CJ's, Hustlers Pool Hall in Rosyth.Tables & Results.
LADIES TEAM EVENT: View Finals Tables
MEN'S TEAM EVENT: View Finals Table
LADIES INDIVIDUALS : View Table
MEN'S INDIVIDUALS : View Table

Find out more about the event from the IBA website lots of interesting facts about Gibraltar and some great team photos.

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IAU 100 km World Cup 2010 has been allocated to Gibraltar

2008-11-02T15:11:00.006+01:00

During its recent meeting in Seoul, Korea, the IAU Executive Council assigned the organisation of the 2010 edition of the IAU 100 km World Cup (including 100 km European Championships) to Gibraltar. The short-distance track and field events will be held in Doha, Qatar.

Local businessman Albert Parody gave the IAU delegation a tour of Gibraltar followed by an official dinner. This seemed to have sweetened the visiting delegates' mood towards Gibraltar's application to become an IOC member. As part of the agreement, the I.A.U. President (Dirk Strumane) has promised to start lobbying the IOC President, Jacques Rogge in the hope of gaining Gibraltar's historic entry into the Olympics. This is a real coup for athletics and sport in Gibraltar on the whole. It is hoped that this influential man will press hard for our rightful entry into the world's most prestigious sporting event.

The Gibraltar Amateur Athletic Association is now a member of the IAAF and recently affiliated to the IAU.

The race will take place on November 6th, 2010.

Anyone wishing to make further enquiries should contact Mr Alfred Chappory on tel: 00 350 200 70949

"The IAU Family is gradually expanding. Recently we could welcome Gibraltar as our 46th member. Gibraltar is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, located in southwesters Europe adjoining the southern coast of Spain.

The Gibraltar Amateur Athletic Association is a member of the IAAF and recently also affiliated to the IAU.

Our new dynamic member is already working on a plan to stage a 100 km World Cup event in the future so we will definitely hear more interesting news from them in the next months."

Dirk Strumane

IAU President

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RAF battle back in return fixture against a weakened Gibraltar Cricket Selection

2008-11-02T14:50:00.006+01:00

RAF St.Athan’s touring cricketers returned to Europa Point to close their stay with a return 40 over fixture against a Gibraltar XI.

Fielding an even more youthful side that the previous week Gibraltar elected to bat first and Scott Chipolina and Julian Freyone took to the crease. St.Athan had thoughtfully changed their bowling attack and, with Sean Morris proving difficult to get away, Glover prospered by clean bowling Freyone for 7 and having Matt Hunter adjudged lbw for 0.

Whilst Chipolina looked to provide the anchor role, Steve Gonzalez (4) fell trying to force the pace. Iain Latin (36) then built a useful partnership with Chipolina to take the side to the drinks break. However, the introduction of St.Athan’s Gary Binns (3 for 12) in the 21st over changed things as Chipolina was out lbw for a steady 45.

Ian Farrell fell to a good yorker soon afterwards without scoring and it was left to Latin to marshall the tail – a role that sometimes restricts this talented batsman’s free scoring style. Jeremy Perez battled manfully against the unaccustomed pace of Binns and hit a glorious cover drive before being caught and bowled by Stainer.

Once Latin had fallen, again to Binns, Andrew Reyes took on the senior batsman role and added 25 runs with debutant Dylan Casciaro. However, once Casciaro had gone the remaining wickets tumbled and Gibraltar were all out for 176 in just 32.2 overs. One of the ‘golden rules’ of limited over cricket is to make sure you bat for your full allocation and 176 looked light when 200 would have proved a score more easily defendable.

With a required rate on just over 4 runs per over RAF St.Athan were under far less pressure than in the previous game. Openers Guest (11) and Glover (20) tickled along and along with Morris (21) put together a solid base to allow Binns to carry on with the bat where he had left off with the ball.
Gonzalez and Freyone had been inconsistent with the ball and Latin was introduced to stifle the runs. Aided by some good work by Luke Collado behind the stumps he took 3 for 24 in his allocation. However, bowlers need to operate in pairs and, with Hunter twisting an ankle and having to leave the field after two economical overs, it was left to Reyes to provide some back up.
Binns had remained patient throughout this phase of the game and, once Gonzalez had been forced to return to the seamers, upped the gears and struck some powerful shots to bring the rate to below four an over. Gibraltar’s bowlers stuck to their task and continued to chip away at the other batsmen. Binns continued to strike the ball well but, with Farrell taking three wickets with his occasional medium pacers, it looked as though he might well run out of partners.

Despite his taking singles off the first ball of many overs and exposing number 10 Pollard to the bowling, RAF St.Athan continued to nudge and nurdle the ball – with the occasional ‘biff’ to keep things interesting. With overs remaining not an issue, St.Athan eventually squeezed the winning runs with just two wickets in hand and Binns had completed his excellent game with 67 not out.
So, ‘honours even’ with a game apiece. However, this was a very close game and played in good spirit once more. With only four players over the age of 16 in their side, Gibraltar had to battle all the way and can learn much in terms of batting through their overs and building partnerships. These lessons will be invaluable to the players who go on to representative cricket in the future.

Particularly pleasing was the fact that three of the team were part of the new Under 15 program and did not look at all out of place. Several have taken part in adult league games but this was their first chance at having a role in the team that placed a responsibility on them to play a full part with bat or ball.

Rather than seeing this as a loss (exciting though it was!) the learning environment that we are trying to encourage in our youngsters should reflect that this has been a success in having ‘blooded’ so many of our new youth players and providing an opportunity for the seniors taking part to have to think about the game from other players’ perspectives for a change.

Similarly, the RAF St.Athan team have enjoyed their week and learnt about the game too. Having resoundly beaten Stan James’ Twenty20 team in the week (and despite having their game against the Commander’s XI rained off) they are planning to return next summer and give us another chance to accelerate the development of our young Gibraltarian cricketers.

Click here for the previous game's report.

Click here for end of season report

Some great cricket action:

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Netball Tour by 10 Army Girls

2008-10-31T17:56:00.002+01:00

10 members of the Army Physical Training Corps Netball team will be visiting Gibraltar from 3 to 8 November 2008. Whilst they are here they will play fixtures against Bullock, Baker Tilly, Elite Travel and the British Forces Gibraltar team.

The Corps aims to use the visit to foster team spirit, promote team cohesion. It will also be a useful preparation for their participation in the Army's Inter-Corps Netball Championships which take place in Aldershot on 14 November.

APTC	BFG		Elite	Bullock	Baker Tilly

Wednesday 5 November at Victoria Stadium Sports Hall

7.00pm	APTC	V	BFG
7.30pm	Baker Tilly	V	Elite
8.00pm	Bullock	V	BFG
8.30pm	APTC	V	Baker Tilly
9.00pm	Elite	V	Bullock

Thursday 6 November at Tercentenary Sports Hall

7.30pm	Elite	V	BFG
8.00pm	APTC	V	Bullock
8.30pm	Baker Tilly	V	BFG
9.00pm	APTC	V	Elite
9.30pm	Baker Tilly	V	Bullock

Note:
1. Round robin competition
2. Matches will consist of 2 x 10 minute halves
3. 2 Minutes at half time and 5 minutes change over.
4. Bibs and Balls will be available if needed
5. The GNA will also provide umpires and scorers.

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Gibraltar Basketball Academy almost ready for its roll out

2008-10-30T20:26:00.007+01:00

The Gibraltar Basketball Academy has been put together by both FECC Participants Coach Jason McMahon and Coach Albert Tellez under the Gibraltar Amateur Basketball Association. Our goal is to help popularise basketball within Gibraltar at all Youth levels. Within the academy we will be focusing on 3 aspects of the game, which are: Fundamentals, Co-ordination and Base game. Our teaching methodology is inspired by our FECC (FIBA Europe Coaching Certificate) Mentor Svetislav Pesic, FIBA Europe Coaching Co-ordinator Michael Schwarz and Coaching instructors Lucien Legrand, Pablo Laso, Nihat Izic, Duncan French and Gordon Herbert.

Our teaching methods are the implementation of correction and repetition, taking care of small details whilst not forgetting the important element of the “FUN” factor on young kids.

Our intention is to take a more individual aproach to the improvement of every member of our Academy. With this work ethic we will inspire the core foundation of future Gibraltar Basketball Teams. The most significant change we offer at the Academy when compared to any basketball club or team is the non existance of “The Winning Factor”,for most Club/team coaches over emphasis competitive play and mostly ignores developmental recreational periods.

At our Academy we will adopt a more personal approach, working on both the importance of psychological and physiological development stages that each child passes through during childhood. At first it’s important to attract a child offering an environment which is fun and friendly motivated and only then can we would guarantee the children will enjoy playing basketball.

The Academy’s initial work will involve the Micro Basket (Boys & Girls, born 2001 – 2002) and Pre Mini Basketball (Boys & Girls, born 1999 - 2000) age groups.Our Coaching approach in these introductory age groups to be more instructional and is not competitive. Kids will be practicing twice a week, will play with a small youth ball and the baskets are at a height of 2.60m.. The goal is for each child to learn a little bit about basketball and have fun at every practice. The venue for the Academy is the Garrison Gymnasium. At present it is being refurbished in order to offer all its members the adequate facilities providing the optimum enjoyment of basketball and at the same time enhancing human kinetics.

We will be targeting to recruit up to 100 members. It is our intention to increase the number of participants pending on both the recruitment and adequate teaching of additional Monitors/Coaches. Once we have the desired man power we will be able to increase the participating numbers on the following categories; Micro Basketball (born 2001 - 2002), Pre Mini Basket (born 1999 -2000), Mini Basket (born 1997-1998) and Passerelle.(born 1995-1996).

The Gibraltar Amateur Basketball Association nominated us to participate in FECC (FIBA Europe Coaching Certificate), a three year course which started in 2007. We fervently desire that our participation will have a beneficial spin-off effect in the development of basketball in Gibraltar. Brainstorming sessions with both the lecturers and participants at the second FECC clinic in Greece this past summers created the idea of setting up the idea of the Academy. Many ideas conceived at the sessions will now be implemented in the fields of philosophy, methodolog and routine.o

Click here to apply on line, Closing date 31st October 2008.

Click here to visit the Gibraltar Academy Website
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Gibraltar 6-a-side tournament a success and start of SG Hambros Cup

2008-10-30T11:54:00.006+01:00

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6 A-side The GHA would like to thank all participating teams and supporters that made the 6-a-side tournament a success. We would also like to congratulate the winning teams (Mens – Sloggers HC, Ladies – Eagles Black) and thank Hon. Edwin Reyes, Minister for Sport, for kindly presenting the winners with their trophies. A special mention for those goal keepers who took part in the tournament (some even playing over 10 games) and for spending most of the day helping various teams out.

SG Hambros Cup reults and forthcoming fixtures

TIME	25-26 October Results
13.45 hrs	Black Eagles	1	vs	2	Grammarians Oldies
15.00 hrs	Grammarians Young Guns	4	vs	1	Lions Pirates
16.40 hrs	Eagles Tangerine	5	vs	5	Collegians Vets.
11.00hrs	Lions Hawks	2	vs	3	Barclays Wealth

	8-9 November Fixtures
13.45 hrs	Collegians Vets.		vs		Lions Pirates
15.00 hrs	Eagles		vs		Lions Hawks
16.40 hrs	Eagles Tangerine		vs		Grammarians Oldies
11.00hrs	Black Eagles		vs		Gib HT

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