MARIGOT—St. Martin Veterans Football Team won all four of their games at the recently held football tournament in Tortola, BVI, to defend the title they won last year. The tournament is part of the annual exchange between St. Martin Veterans and the BVI Masters. Tortola’s Old Madrid Football Club hosted the tournament.
It was an emphatic clean sweep of the tournament for St. Martin which included winning MVP, Romual Benjamin, Best goal keeper, Charles Brooks, Best goal getter, Thierry Bryan, the main tournament cup, and more. The St. Martin team played against three teams from Tortola and one from Virgin Gorda, winning each game.
Anguilla, St. Croix and St. Maarten were unfortunately not able to send teams for the tournament.
St. Martin Veterans Football Association was formed in 1983. With most of the current team in their 40s, the team counts age, skill and experience as key to their winning ways, as coach and Territorial Councillor Jean-Raymond Richardson also attests to: “In the last ten years, we’ve had a 90 per cent success rate in tournaments,” he says.
Association President Hector Richardson, the Vice-President for the past ten years, noted the association hosts a fund-raising tournament on the Dutch side every year. Next year will be the tenth anniversary on July 10 and 11.
“We try to recruit new members as much as possible to keep the team going and to replace older players who don’t want to play any more or cannot play for various reasons,” Richardson explained. “Most of the team are in their 40s or over, and I’m the oldest member.”
Next up for the veterans is a tournament in Guadeloupe on December 7-9.
