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| Sports |
| Dam punishes stunned Chesterfield |
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by
Leonard Sharra, 06 October 2004
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20:02:40
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Darts Association of Malawi (Dam) has banned Lilongwe’s newcomers on the darts scene Chesterfield from participating in the weekend Carlsberg national darts finals and next year’s edition of the Abdul Gaffar Memorial Trophy after the team walked out of the national finals of the latter staged at Country Club Limbe on Saturday and Sunday.
Chesterfield, who a couple of weeks ago won the Royale Chemicals Trophy, looked poised to take away the Gaffar Trophy from defending champions MA Motors, when tournament organisers slapped them with the ban and a K1,000 fine for coming late.
Apart from the fine, Dam also ruled that the team go into a game against Mafco with two goals down. The game, which was crucial in deciding one of the finalists, ended 10-2 in favour of the soldiers. The heavy loss prompted Chesterfield to withdraw from the race.
“We were demoralised after the punishment. In fact the boys wanted to boycott the game against Mafco after our opponents were offered the two goals but I had to reason with them as captain. We were late by only two minutes and we didn’t like the decision to give our friends two goals after we had paid the fine.
“We had beaten everybody in our group including Mafco on the first day and were poised to grab the trophy but with such hostile treatment, the boys were totally put off,” said Chesterfield captain Morgan Jiya.
Dam tournament director Mario Antoine defended the organisers’ move, saying it was in the competition’s rules that any team coming late would start its next game with two goals down. Following the team’s behaviour, Antoine said the team had been banned from the Carlsberg national finals slated for Mzuzu and next year’s Abdul Gaffar tournament.
Asked whether his team has accepted the punishment, Jiya said: “We are meeting tonight to analyse the punishment. If we feel that we have been treated unfairly, we may seek a court injunction so that we participate in the Carlsberg finals. We are against time and the courts might be the only remedy for us to participate in Mzuzu.”
Meanwhile, the once mighty MA Motors continued surrendering the titles they have won in the past three years, when they went down 7-5 against Mafco in the final game. This means the Lilongwe-based motor dealers are only remaining with the Carlsberg Trophy on the national scene, having surrendered the Royale Chemicals Trophy to Chesterfield a couple of weeks ago.
The Salima soldiers drove back to their base K25,000 richer for winning the Gaffar Trophy. Runners-up MA Motors got K15,000 with third placed Agason CCL pocketing K10,000.
For the past three years or so, the game has seen Lilongwe teams sharing all the silverware amongst themselves.
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