Sliema land President's Cup after bad-tempered match

Neptunes 9
Sliema 12
(2-1, 3-3, 2-3, 2-5)

San Giljan 9
Sirens 10
(4-1, 2-4, 3-2, 0-3)

In an extremely hot duel, which turned abrasive and eventually bad-tempered towards the end, Sliema McDonald's managed to atone for their defeat against Neptunes Vodafone last week when they emerged winners against the Balluta Bay team to land the President's Cup after a 12-9 victory.

The contest was lively and balanced until the last minutes. Neptunes took an early 5-2 lead as they looked to have the measure of their opponents. But that was only a momentary blip for Sliema as the Blues delved deep into their combative spirit to equalise and then kept nosing in front.

Neptunes, without their influential player Steve Camilleri who is suffering from a back injury, kept battling as they turned into the last session on an even scoreline, 7-7.

However, tempers frayed and the referees seemed to have lost control when a couple of punches were traded by some players from both sides. Edward Aquilina and Mark Meli were dismissed with substitutions during the last interval after they showed dissent to the referees.

It was then an anti-climax with the Blues giving a last fling to score the goals that mattered. At the end of the match, Tony DeBono, in charge of the sports section at the Community Chest Fund, presented the cup to Sliema captain Josie Cachia.

In the first fixture of the day, valid for the Sportswriters Cup, Sirens won the prize at stake when they got the better of San Ġiljan 10-9 in a match which saw the Saints in the lead almost throughout, only for the St Paul's Bay side to go in front for the first time almost at the death.

San Ġiljan relied too much on the prowess of their chief scorer Matthew Zammit, who, in fact, helped himself to six conversions. But, after twice failing to capitalise on a four-goal lead in the second session, the Saints ran out of steam and ideas as Sirens gradually staged a remarkable recovery.

That comeback was owed much to their fighting spirit and opportunistic goals mainly from Clint Mercieca and David Cutajar.

At the end of the match, Mario Meli, Sportswriters Association official, presented the cup to Sirens captain Paul Privitera.

Unfortunately, team lists for both matches are not being published since they never reached the Press Area as is normally done.

The National Championship gets underway next weekend with the first matches from the Preliminary Round.