Big teams maintain the trend

In yesterday’s three-match pro-gramme, Sliema McDonald’s, San Ġiljan Giuseppe’s and Sirens Ritter Sport kept up the winning trend of the big teams in the National League preliminary round against less-fancied op-ponents when they secured vic-tories at the expense of Ta’ Xbiex Amigos, Otters Nivea and Marsa-scala Mor€, respectively.

In the opening match, Sliema went through the motions of dismissing Mario Zammit’s Ta’ Xbiex as ruthlessly as the final scoreline suggests.

The Blues’ chief goal-getter was Jerome Gabaretta. He scored six times in a list of ten players who netted Sliema’s goals.

The Saints of Balluta Bay put their sloppy display against Exiles behind them when easing their way to a 15-4 win against Otters, a match which had Karl Galea and Boris Letica netting four goals each.

Also among the scorers for San Giljan was Bogdan Rath, who rep-laced Nikola Sutic for this match.

In the last match of the day, the northerners of Sirens overcame the gallant Marsascala who tried to keep within reasonable range of their otherwise more effective opponents.

Marsascala were again well-served by the potent Joseph Kayes.

The Samoan helped himself to seven goals with three coming from Judashz Szolt who netted a hat-trick before being again fouled out to-wards the end of the third session.

Sirens were a better lot col-lectively with Arpad Babay scoring four goals, followed by Jurgen Borg, Claudio Spiteri de Barro and Charlie Zammit who each netted a hat-trick.

Summaries

Sliema 29
Ta’ Xbiex 7
(6-0, 10-3, 6-2, 7-2)

Sliema: I. Gergely, J. Gabaretta 6, N. Lubrano 2, P. Privitera 2, M. Meli 1, J. Soler 3, D. Paolella 3, J. Brownrigg 3, C. Debono, F. Salamon 3, M. Rizzo 3, M. Spiteri Staines 3, R. Coleiro.

Ta’ Xbiex: L. Borg, J. Cremona, T. Botond 2, A. Galea, C. Bugeja, K. Galea, N. Bonello Ghio, C. Saliba, R. Attard 1, A. Zammit, J. Szeles 4.

Refs: P. Giordano, M. Angilleri.

Otters 4
San Ġiljan 15
(0-3, 1-4, 1-6, 2-2)

Otters: A. Cachia, G. Attard, G. Zammit, Z. Radocz 1, S. Dimech, M. Balatoni 2, J. Paris, A. Cachia, K. Scicluna, K. Debattista, C. Martin 1, E. Farrugia, K. Grima Scott.

San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, J.C. Cutajar 1, K. Galea 4, B. Plumpton, R. Mock, B. Letica 4, A. Bianchi 1, K. Mock, C. Gialanze 1, P. Fava, B. Rath 1, M. Pisani 3.

Refs: P. Balzan, S. Licari.

Sirens 19
Marsascala 14
(5-2, 4-2, 5-5, 5-5)

Sirens: A. Grech, A. Attard 1, L. Caruana, P. Micallef, A. Babay 4, C. Kiss 2, J. Borg 3, D. Cutajar 1, A. Zarb Cousin, C. Zammit 3, C. Spiteri de Barro 3, D. Zammit 2, N. Grixti.

Marsascala: K. Schembri, K. Navarro, M. Pace, B. Muscat, J. Kayes 7, L. Grixti 2, J. Licari, J. Cremona, S. Micallef 1, R. Scerri 1, D. Cassar, M. Fenech, J. Szolt 3.

Refs: M. Dalli, I. Sciriha.