Home Sweepers lift the Bilisi Festival trophy

Maramanzhi Home Sweepers were crowned the 2019 MS Quality Bilisi Sport Festival champions at the Tshenzhelani grounds last Sunday.

Home Sweepers were declared the champions after their final game against Gumbu Peace Makers ended abruptly, two minutes before the end of regulation time, after the referee had given the keeper of Gumbu his marching orders.

That prompted the fans of Gumbu to throw various objects onto the pitch before invading it. The organizers were forced to call the game off and declared Home Sweepers the champions. The score was 1-1 at that stage.

Home Sweepers were presented with R3 500, a floating trophy, soccer balls and gold medals during a ceremony at the grounds shortly after the final game.

Gumbu Peace Makers took home R1 500, soccer balls and silver medals.

Home Sweepers’ way to the final went via Tshenzhelani Diiteleni, whom they beat 3-1 in their quarter-final match. They beat Tuwani FC 4-2 in their semi-final match.

Gumbu Peace Makes beat Rangani 7-6 in their opening match on Saturday. The winner was determined through penalty shootout. They went on to beat Mutele FC 2-0 in the semi-final stage.

The teams that were booted out of the tournament in the semi-final stage, Mutele FC and Tuwani FC, each received R1 000.

It was the third time for Maramanzhi Home Sweepers to win the tournament since its inception in 2011.

Eight teams, Gumbu Peace Makers, Rangani FC, Dovho FC, Tuwani FC, Sigonde FC, Mutele FC, Tshenzhelani Diiteleni and Maramanzhi Home Sweepers, took part in this year’s tournament. MS Quality and Hollywood Bets sponsored the tournament.

Just like in the previous years, the tournament was preceded by a 10 km fun run. A resident of Gumbu village, Zwivhuya Temu Munyai, won the fun run in the male category, while another resident of Gumbu village, Ms Proceed Mukununde, was the winner in the female category.

Date:05 July 2019

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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