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GUYANA CHRONICLE Wednesday October 23, 2013
Vatican to field cricket team, take on Anglican Church
… Vatican launches St Peter’s Cricket Club. Teams will come from Rome’s seminaries, religious colleges; Best players will be selected for Vatican XI By Philip Pullella
Keona Simmonds of Jamaica moves away from Suriname’s Kallacy Stoke during the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s Under-20 Finals at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex, yesterday. Simmonds scores in Jamaica’s 5-0 win. (Photo by Marc Stamp)
Jamaica and DR join Cuba and T&T in CFU semis KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) - Jamaica and Dominican Republic (DR) have joined Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago in the semifinals of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s Under-20 Finals. Jamaica sealed their spot by whipping Suriname 5-0 while Dominican Republic cemented their place with a 5-1 win over St Kitts-Nevis in a double-header at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex in Trench Town Monday night. Yaqueisi Soriano netted a brace, while Gabreila Romero, Anajaiira Burgos and Winibian Perez also scored for Dominican Republic. Leranja Williamson scored the lone goal for St Kitts-Nevis. Jamaica were frustrated in the early part of the match by Suriname and opened the scoresheet when Kayla Gray shot past goalkeeper Caneisha Barrow in the 32nd minute. Then three minutes later, Oshay Lawes made it 2-0. Gray completed her hat-trick with goals in the 47th and 86 minutes while Keona Simmonds also scored in the 72nd minute in an easy win for Jamaica. The semifinals are scheduled for Friday. The two finalists will qualify for the CONCACAF Championships and join hosts Cayman Islands as Caribbean representatives.
VATICAN CITY, Rome (Reuters) - The Vatican officially declared its intention to defeat the Church of England on Tuesday - not in a theological re-match nearly 500 years after they split, but on the cricket pitch. The challenge was launched at the baptism of the St Peter’s Cricket Club. Vatican officials said the league will be composed of teams of priests and seminarians from Catholic colleges and seminaries in Rome. The seminaries and religious colleges will play each other in a Twenty20 tournament, where games last about three hours. After that, the best players will form a Vatican team, which will be called the Vatican XI and challenge the Church of England to form its own team of Anglican priests and seminarians to play in London at Lord’s, the home of cricket. “The Vatican team will be able to play anybody in the world. We hope to see a Vatican
team playing at Lord’s,” said Alfonso Jayarajah, a Sri Lankan who was the first captain of the Italian national team and a board member of St Peter’s Cricket Club. “We hope to have ecumenical dialogue through cricket and play a Church of England side by September,” said Father Theodore Mascarenhas, an Indian official at the Vatican’s Council for Culture, who once played as an off-spin bowler. The idea for a Catholic cricket club was the brainchild of John McCarthy, Australia’s ambassador to the Vatican. He wanted to see something similar to the Clericus Cup, a soccer tournament among the religious colleges and seminaries of Rome. He enlisted the support of other diplomats and prelates from what he called “other cricket countries” - including Britain, South Africa and Pakistan - and found “anonymous sponsors from the cricketing world”. In response to a suggestion that cricketing terms and field positions might be translated into Latin or Italian, McCar-
ISTANBUL, (Reuters) World number one Serena Williams showed her determination to defend her WTA Championships title by sweeping to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Angelique Kerber at the season-ending event yesterday. The 32-year-old American broke early in each set and was too strong for the German, hitting 31 winners. Kerber, who qualified for the eight-strong tournament only because Maria Sharapova pulled out, had won just five games when she was beaten by Williams in her opening
match last year. “Angelique is a great player and right from the start I knew I had to play really well to be able to win this match,” Williams said. “I feel really good.” Williams has been drawn with Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova and Kerber in the red group at Istanbul’s Sinan Erdem dome. Second seed Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Sara Errani and Jelena Jankovic are in the white group. Belarussian Azarenka beat Errani 7-6, 6-2 in the tournament’s opening match with the defensively-minded Italian, who led 5-2 in the first set,
man. He still supports the San Lorenzo football club of his native Buenos Aires. But Mascarenhas, the Indian priest who is the chairman of the St Peter’s Cricket
The players of the Vatican Cricket Club practise in the nets. and their jackets will have the seal of the papacy, two crossed keys. By all accounts Pope Francis is not much of a cricket
Club said: “I am sure that cricket will be another thing that he accepts as part of his openness.”
Champions League
Messi earns Barca draw, Torres inspires Chelsea win
(REUTERS) - Lionel Messi marked his first start after injury with a goal as Barcelona drew 1-1 at AC Milan while a Fernando Torres double helped Chelsea beat Schalke and Atletico Madrid’s charge continued in the Champions League yesterday. Robert Lewandowski scored the 82nd-minute winner as Borussia Dortmund put the
brakes on Arsenal’s campaign with a 2-1 win in London that, along with Napoli’s 2-1 win at Olympique Marseille, put three teams on six points in a tight Group F. There is a clear leader in Group G, where Atletico made it three wins from three with a 3-0 victory at Austria Vienna that put them a point away from the 10 that are usually enough
Williams eases past Kerber in WTA Championships By Ece Toksabay
thy was firm: “English is the language of cricket and will remain the language of cricket.” The Vatican team will wear the official colours of the tiny city-state - yellow and white -
staying in contention until the tiebreak. Errani lost that 7-4 and looked to be in pain after suffering a calf injury midway the second set.
SERENA WILLIAMS
“I was a little rusty at the beginning,” Azarenka told reporters. “Overall it was important to take that first set. It was a big turnaround point.” Czech Kvitova battled to a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the last match of the day after breaking early in both sets. “I feel really happy - it was a tough match for the first round,” said Kvitova, who won the tournament two years ago. Today, Li Na takes on Italy’s Errani, Azarenka plays Jelena Jankovic and Williams faces Radwanska.
to send teams into the last 16 of Europe’s elite club competition. They are five points clear of second-placed Zenit St Petersburg, who made the most of the sixth-minute sending off of Porto’s Hector Herrera - the competition’s fastest-ever from two yellow cards - to beat their Portuguese hosts 1-0. In Group E, Chelsea moved level on six points with Schalke 04 at the top with a 3-0 win in Germany where Torres celebrated his 100th start for the club with the fifth-minute opener and another after 69 minutes before Eden Hazard added a late goal.
The top two are clear of thirdplaced Basel, who have four points ahead of Steaua Bucharest on one, after those two teams shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw in Romania. Celtic got their first points in Group H after a James Forrest penalty on the stroke of halftime and a deflected shot by Beram Kayal early in the second half helped them to a 2-1 win over Ajax Amsterdam, who got a consolation in added time. Barca are in charge of that group with seven points, while Milan - who had gone ahead through Robinho’s ninth-minute opener before Messi levelled after 23 minutes - have five points. Celtic are on three points with Ajax bottom on one.
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (C) challenges Sulley Muntari (R) and Kaka (L) of AC Milan during their Champions League soccer match at the San Siro stadium in Milan, yesterday. (REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo)