After the temporary suspension of the senior league competitions following a series of incidents in recent weeks, the programme was resumed yesterday with two Premier League matches which were due to have been played last Saturday.

The most significant result was San Ġiljan’s 14-10 win over Valletta McDonald’s, which helped the Balluta Bay team reduce their points’ deficit from league leaders Neptunes.

This was preceded by the 10-10 sharing of spoils between Sirens Ritter Sport and Exiles Ferretti.

A stronger San Ġiljan did not have to break much sweat to beat an otherwise battling Valletta team.

Their edge was particularly evident in the offensive phase where four-goal Kai Dowling stood out with some clinical conversions.

Dowling was followed by Aleksander Radovic who netted a hat-trick.

The Saints were also more efficient on blocking skills in front of a safe Dean Camilleri who pulled off some fine reflex saves.

After a close first session, San Ġiljan, yesterday without their centre Karl Galea, started showing more variety in their set play and eventually obtained a three-goal buffer on 10-7 by the end of the third quarter.

In the last session, San Ġiljan, extended that lead by another goal despite the efforts of their opponents for whom veteran Charlie Zammit, Djorde Filipovic and Michael Rizzo each struck a hat-trick.

In the previous match, Sirens’ failure to take maximum points effectively extinguished their very slim hopes of finishing third and a resultant berth in the Championship Pool.

The result did justice to both teams, given their endeavours.

Sirens’ initial ascendancy was countered by Exiles’ comeback resulting in a 9-7 advantage at the end of the penultimate session as David Pace Lupi and Gergely Katonas each scored three goals.

By that time the northerners had squandered two penalty throws out of three, with Christian Presciutti, scorer of four goals, converting the second.

Sirens’ chances of saving the game seemed very thin until Andrew Sammut popped up with two quick conversions to level the scores.

Summaries

Valletta 10
San Ġiljan 14

(4-5, 0-2, 3-3, 3-4)

Valletta McDonald’s: R. Sciortino, R. Mock, M. Spiteri Staines, M. Korolija, N. Bonello Ghio, D. Abela, D. Paolella, C. Zammit 3, C. Debono 1, R. Scerri, M. Cordina, D. Filipovic 3, M. Rizzo 3.

San Ġiljan: D. Camilleri, C. Spiteri De Barro 1, A. Galea, B. Plumpton, K. Dowling 4, M. Zammit 1, A. Radovic 3, A. Bianchi 1, Keith Galea, Z Kovacic 1, P. Fava 1, D. Zammit 2, J. Sammut.

Referees: P. Balzan, F. Ricciotti.

Sirens 10
Exiles 10

(3-1, 3-5, 1-3, 3-1)

Sirens Ritter Sport: N. Sciberras, Z. Mizzi, C. Presciutti 4, G. Pace, M. Grech, C. Kiss 2, D. Cutajar 2, J. Napier, E. Aquilina, L. Caruana, A. Sammut 2, M. Pisani.

Exiles Ferretti: I. Bugeja, J. Rizzo Naudi 1, S. Vassallo, D. Pace Lupi 3, G. Katonas 3, D. Borg, M. Spiteri Staines 1, K. Grixti, L. Sekulic 1, P. Borg 1, B. Lanzon, N. Paris, K. Lanzon.

Referees: M. Dalli, L. Castagnola.

Premier League

First Division