​To­day, I re­flect on a col­umn pub­lished some ten years ago (Ju­ly 6, 2015) that ap­pealed for the up­grad­ing of Gilbert Park, Cal­i­for­nia, in­to a mul­ti-pur­pose fa­cil­i­ty to serve both sport and so­cial ac­tiv­i­ties. As I pass by the fa­cil­i­ty every day, I share the very same thoughts as of 10 years ago.

​Je­lani Val­ley and Ja­son Fri­day com­bined to help South­side Elite be crowned the cham­pi­on of the South Zone Bas­ket­ball League, de­feat­ing Po­lice 75-70 in a nail-bit­ing game three of the best-of-three Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion se­ries fi­nal.

For Trinidad and To­ba­go, Thurs­day night’s en­counter with Ja­maica is more than a match; it’s a call to arms. It’s about stand­ing tall as a foot­balling na­tion, prov­ing that be­lief still lives here, and that our colours still com­mand re­spect.

There is a say­ing, ‘If at first you don’t suc­ceed, try and try again’. That is ex­act­ly what the Scotchie’s Spar­tans have been do­ing and af­ter sev­en rounds of be­ing on the wrong end of Na­tion­al Pool League (NPL) Pre­mier di­vi­sion re­sults, they record­ed their first win of the eight-ball cam­paign.

A day af­ter Prison Ser­vice FC made the de­ci­sion to with­draw from Tier 1 of the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League (TTPFL), the club at­tend­ed a meet­ing with the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) Board of Di­rec­tors and am­i­ca­bly agreed to re­turn.

Na­tion­al coach Dwight Yorke made an ear­li­er than usu­al start to his prepa­ra­tions ahead of the com­ing World Cup Qual­i­fy­ing match­es against Ja­maica and Bermu­da at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo on No­vem­ber 13 and 18, with a prac­tice match against a lo­cal T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League All Star XI against the T&T team, which end­ed 2-2.

KINGSTON, Ja­maica – The high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed Hori­zon Vi­tal­i­ty Se­ries be­tween Ja­maica and Eng­land is in dan­ger of be­ing can­celled as the Caribbean is­land con­tin­ues to pick up the pieces left be­hind by Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

Af­ter my last col­umn re­gard­ing the West In­dies tour of Bangladesh, my email in­box de­liv­ered a scream­er—not from a fast bowler, but from a thor­ough­ly fed-up West In­dies fan/fel­low writer. This was a fan hang­ing up his spec­ta­tor's and writer’s hat, not with a sigh, but with a mighty fling. His note, while not copied in full (and per­haps mer­ci­ful­ly so), con­firmed my sus­pi­cion: af­ter years of rid­ing the West In­dies crick­et emo­tion­al roller­coast­er, many are sim­ply get­ting off the ride.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s all-time lead­ing goalscor­er, Stern John has called for Dwight Yorke to re­main as head coach of the na­tion­al side even if he fails to qual­i­fy for the 2026 FI­FA World Cup.

AUCK­LAND, New Zealand – Mark Chap­man blud­geoned a half cen­tu­ry, while cap­tain Mitchell San­ter and Ish Sod­hi came good with the ball, as New Zealand record­ed a nail-bit­ing three run win over the West In­dies in the sec­ond T20I on Thurs­day.

AUCK­LAND – The West In­dies drew first blood in their five-match T20I se­ries against New Zealand, de­fend­ing a mod­est to­tal of 164 to claim a nail-bit­ing sev­en-run vic­to­ry at Eden Park in New Zealand on Wednes­day.

“I feel as though I am back in the ring again,” said new Box­ing Board chair­man Kirt Sin­nette, mere mo­ments af­ter he re­ceived his in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment at a sim­ple cer­e­mo­ny at the of­fice of the Min­istry of Sports and Youth Af­fairs, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.