It was the perfect climax to a history making competition that restored much needed life to the sport of football in the Bauxite Mining Town of Linden.

Twenty20 has always been associated with cricket, but Dr. JOF Haynes in collaboration with the major sponsors Continental Group of agencies through its Sunburst Juice brand and the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) Cellink brought off what can be described a highly successful twenty20 football tournament for the first time in Guyana and the world.

Tournament MVP Mark Liddell (centre) collets his trophy from Parliamentary Secretary Steve Ninvalle (left) and Mrs. Haynes.

The exciting knock-out tournament which featured eight (8) of the clubs affiliated to the Upper Demerara Football Association, ended on Saturday evening last at the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground with Blueberry Hill United needling the Ituni based Peacemakers in a pulsating finale.

The win for the inaugural champions was also their first competition for many years.

The third-place game saw Amelia’s Ward United clipping Eagles United 2-0 compliments of goals from Kevern Plowell in the 7th minute and Matthew White in the 27th. Amelia’s Ward collected the 3rd place cash prize of $100,000 compliments of GT&T Cellink.

In two exhibition games, Bakewell Topp XX defeated El Dorado 2-1 in an Under-17 clash while Top Class prevailed over their life-long rivals Mini Bus Crew by a similar margin.

It was however, the championship game that had the fans, many of whom have returned for the Linden Town Week celebrations, at the edges of their seats as the teams went after each other in quick and furious fashion, real twenty20 style.

Peacemakers, one of the most exciting teams in the competition went about business their usual way with the attacks led by the strike duo of the Adrian brothers Novel and Delon along with Bertland Scotland.

Peacemakers, who had the backing of dozens of supporters, held the upper hand against the Blueberry Hill side but the latter never allowed the Ituni boys to have it all their way as they gave as good as they got in return.

It was clear that neither team took the other for granted with tight defending the order of the night.

Lapses of the slightest kind would have been capitalized on and that was exactly how Blueberry Hill took the lead and eventually the top prize of $300,000 compliments of Sunburst Orange Juice.

Liddell received a neat right side cross from Malvin Benn and with a calm left foot shot he guided the ball past Peacemakers custodian Strisand Murphy in the 27th minute. No more goals were recorded despite desperate efforts by the two teams especially the losers. Liddell was also named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and received a trophy compliment’s of Steve Ninvalle, Parliamentary Secretary within the Ministry of Sport.

While they were disappointed by the loss, Peacemakers, who took away the $200,000 second prize, along with Blueberry Hill and Amelia’s Ward have booked places in the National competition which will see the top teams from the Associations where tournaments will be held meeting in a National playoffs.