Madombidzha win Hollywoodbets Easter Sports Challenge

“We have just been crowned the champions of the Hollywoodbets Easter Sports Challenge 2019 and we are excited and happy that we have put our village on the map.”

Those were the words of the representative from Madombidzha Village soccer team, Mr Trinity Tshivhula, who won the Hollywoodbets Easter Sports Challenge 2019 during a final match that was played at Vhuilafuri Stadium on Sunday. They beat Zamenkomste Village 2-1 in the penalty shootout.

With 16 teams participating, the Hollywoodbets Easter Sports Challenge 2019 was a highly contested tournament during the Easter weekend in the area.

“We started preparing for the tournament a month before, and we had played some friendly games in preparation for the tournament,” he said. “The preparations were good, since we selected players from teams that are active in their soccer leagues. We gave our technical team a chance to practise the team a month before to get a good combination.”

Madombidzha Village won a R20 000 cash prize, a soccer kit, 30 gold medals, two trophies, and a floating trophy. Meanwhile, Zamenkomste received a R10 000 cash prize. Two losers in the semi-finals got R5000 each. Teams number 5-8 received R2500. All the other teams that participated in the tournament (number 9-16) got R750.

Madombidzha Village's goalkeeper, Leonard “Scara” Masala, was awarded both the Jerry Sikhosana Goal Post Award and the Player of the Tournament prize, which came with R1000. The top goal-scorer, Zamenkomste's Brendan Khakhu, received R1000 and a trophy.

The annual Hollywoodbets Easter Sports Challenge is hosted by Mamu Community Development, which is a not-for-profit organisation. The organisation's general secretary, Mr Jafter Mamugudubi, expressed their excitement after a successful event. “We thank all our sponsors for the continued support,” he said. “We congratulate Madombidzha Village for being the champions of Hollywoodbets Easter Sports Challenge.”

Hollywoodbets' iBranch operations consultant, Mr Wayde Dorkin, said that they were proud to be the title sponsors of this year's tournament. “The organisation has taken the tournament to great heights and we are excited to be supporting this grassroots initiative,” he said. "We promise to make this tournament more successful next year. Again, we thank Mamu Community Development for the good they are doing for the community.”

Date:25 April 2019

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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