Team BNECL delivered a commanding performance on home turf, cruising to a 5-1 victory over Barbados Light and Power Company Limited in a friendly football encounter at the BNECL Field in Woodbourne, Christ Church, last Thursday.
The highly anticipated match, billed as a rematch of last year’s contest, attracted a sizeable crowd of employees, family members and supporters who braved intermittent showers to cheer on their teams.
Leading the charge for Team BNECL was Renaldo Niles, who claimed the Most Goals Award after netting two goals. Darren Gale-Forde earned the Most Valuable Player title for his outstanding all-round performance, while Gabriel Layne was recognised as Best Goalkeeper and Trevor Scott took home the Best Defender Award.
Human Resources Business partner with Barbados Light and Power Sonia Haynes-Collymore, says following the success of last year’s event, the two companies decided to move forward with similar plans this year. “It had been a while since we had an event such as that and actually it was even bigger in the past where we used to have more than two teams, but we thought that it was best to resume with just the two teams. “They beat us last year but we thought it would be good to come back again because we’re celebrating 115 years, so we’re having an anniversary week of activities at Light and Power. We thought it would be good to have a rematch, with both companies being in the utility business,” Haynes-Collymore explained.
Marketing and Public Relations Officer with BNECL Samantha Hazlewood-Ermay, noted that the game was well received by both sets of players. “It was very exciting and thrilling. Last year we were not BNECL, we were still NPC and BNOCL, but now we’re one company. It’s also a team building exercise for our guys to merge together,” she revealed. Hazlewood-Ermay believes the good team chemistry on both squads was a key factor in the event being a success. “What we noticed is that most of our team members play football, so obviously they would know the guys from Light and Power and whatnot, so it’s familiar territory and it’s all fun and games for us,” she added.
(KH)