adminSenior Sports Reporter
MTSHEDE Primary School are the winners of the Ingwebu Breweries National Association of Primary School Heads (Naph) inter-district soccer finals for Bulawayo. The provincial finals were held at Induba Primary School on Monday and it means Mtshede Primary School and losing finalists Lozikeyi Primary School, who lost 1-0, will now represent Bulawayo in the regional finals set for White City Stadium next term.
For their efforts, the winners pocketed $1 200 and a shield while Lozikeyi got $1 000 courtesy of the sponsors, Ingwebu Breweries.
Five district representatives took part in the tournament that was almost spoiled by Naph officials’ poor administration.
Mtshede Primary represented Mzilikazi District and Lozikeyi emerged winners in their Bulawayo Central finals.
Other district representatives were Mzilikazi Primary School (Reigate), Mganwini Primary School (Mbizo) and Mafakela Primary School who represented Khami.
The schools played in a round robin format before officials took an unreasonable decision to have the top two sides clashing in the final.
On their way to the final, Mtshede drew 0-0 with Mafakela, beat Mganwini 1-0 before a 2-0 win over Mzilikazi to set up a duel with Lozikeyi who opened their day’s account with a 1-0 defeat of Mafakela followed by a 0-0 draw with Mzilikazi and beating Mganwini 2-0.
The two teams were then tied on seven points each and had already qualified for the regional finals next term. The logical thing to do was to turn the two schools’ last round robin clash into a final instead of letting the pupils play two games in succession against each other. They had also spent the day without eating, save for snacks in the morning.
In their round robin game, Lozikeyi emerged 2-1 winners and topped the group with 10 points before losing the arranged final 1-0 to hand Mtshede the shield and $1 200 cash prize.
Mzilikazi Primary School came third and received $800, Mafakela went home with $650 for their fourth position while Mganwini got $300.
Former Highlanders player and now the club’s juniors coach Gift Lunga (Jnr) graced the occasion and chose Lozikeyi’s Richard Mhlanga as the Player of the Tournament while the duo of Brian Musume of Mtshede and Tinashe Nechironga from Mzilikazi were the joint top goalscorers with two goals each.
For his efforts, Mhlanga received $50 and the golden boot winners shared a similar amount.
Ingwebu Breweries general manager Nkosana Ndlovu told teachers that the individual prize money was for the players and not the school.
“What we also want as Ingwebu Breweries is to see the money that you have received today as a team being used to develop sport at your schools,” said Ndlovu.
Mtshede and Lozikeyi Primary Schools will be joined by Nkankezi Primary School from Matabeleland South and another school from Matabeleland North in the finals at White City Stadium.
Ingwebu Breweries this year poured $35 000 into the tournament with the overall winners set to get $2 500.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo