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Monday, March 28, 2011

THEY'LL BE DANCING IN THE STREETS OF GABORONE..

Not only will a large percentage of the local population have been dancing on Gaborone's streets this past evening, but many more will doubtless come tumbling out of cupboards around the country during the course of this coming week after Botswana's national side, known as the Zebras, confirmed their qualification for next year's Africa Cup of Nations with a 1:0 win away to Chad.

Jerome Ramatlhakwane earned his place in Botswanan football history by scoring the 50th minute winner, and his fifth in the Zebras' qualification camapign in total, at N'Djamena's Stade Nationale. Botswana, managed by Stanley Tshosane, have not been prolific goalscorers in their group, netting just seven goals in their six games so far (the other two coming from Oteng Mongala and Joel Mogorosi), though they remain unbeaten and have won five games so far.

Their total of 16 points includes surprisingly defeating Tunisia twice (by 1:0 home and away) and the double against Chad, alongside defeating Togo in Gaborone and drawing away against Malawi. There are those who may put Tunisia's defeats down to the current turbulent political situation in the country, but seeing as the Zebras won in Tunis last July, that argument surely holds no ground. The fact that both Tunisia and Togo competed in the 2006 World Cup and have been regularly competing in the most recent editions of the African Cup of Nations only serves to make the Botswanan national side's achievement that more impressive.

The Zebras are sitting pretty with 16 points at the top of Group K, an unassailable seven points clear of their nearest challengers Malawi with only two games to go, at home to Malawi in June with the final group game away to Togo in September. Malawi currently sit second in the group, and it may well go down to the wire between themselves and Tunisia (currently on 7 points) with Togo and Chad now seemingly all but elliminated.

It will be their first appearance at a major tournament, having previously been eliminated in either the preliminary round or group stages of all previous World Cup and African Cup of Nations tournaments in which they have taken part since their first attempt in 1994. They declined to participate in the qualifying stages for the 1998 World Cup.

The 2012 African Cup of Nations will be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, with the tournament's opening match taking place in the Equatorial Guinean coastal city of Bata on 21/1/12.

Most of the national squad play in domestic football, apart from goalkeeper Modiri Marumo,defender Mogogi Gabonamong, Ramathlhakwane, and Botswana's most popular player and current top-scorer in the Botswanan national side, Dioketogo ("Dipsy") Selolwane, who all play in South Africa.

The top local side is Township Rollers, who celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, with 10 domestic titles to their name, and who seem a good bet to duplicate last season's championship-winning perfomance this time round as well. Gaborone's finest are currently nine points clear of second-placed Mochudi Centre Chiefs in the BeMobile Premier League, with Francistown outfit ECCO City Greens a further five points adrift in third.

Botswana's club sides have not impressed in African club competitions down the years, with only the Rollers progressing past the preliminary round, and that on one occcasion. Nevertheless, it will be an experience and a half for the Zebras, and congratulations to them, too. It is something of which the country's entire population of two million people should be proud of, regardless of how far they progress. The Zebras now have ten months in which to prepare for the African Cup of Nations, and their friendly in Marrakech against Morocco this coming Thursday will be first of many tests to come, but the coming time is something for Botswana's inhabitants to enjoy, cherish and look forward to.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

NATWEST ISLAND GAMES 2011 ENTRY LIST - LATEST

Preparations are gathering pace for the 2011 NatWest Island Games, to be held between Saturday 25/6/11-Saturday 1/7/11, and several islands have entered both the men's and women's football tournaments. To date, 16 islands have entered the men's tournament, while 10 have entered the women's tournament.

The entry list is as follows, with "parent" countries in brackets:

MEN'S TOURNAMENT: Aland Islands(Finland), Alderney (Channel Islands,UK), Falkland Islands (UK), Froya (Norway), Gibraltar (UK), Gotland (UK), Greenland (Denmark), Isle of Man (UK), Isle of Wight (UK), Jersey (Channel Islands, UK), Menorca (Spain), Prince Edward Island (Canada), Rhodes (Greece), Saaremaa (Estonia), Western Isles (UK) and Ynys Mon/Anglesey (UK)

WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT: Aland Islands (Finland), Gibraltar (UK), Gotland (Sweden), Greenland (Denmark), Hitra (Norway), Isle of Man (UK), Isle of Wight (UK), Jersey (UK), Saaremaa (Estonia) and Western Isles (UK)

Surprise omissions to the list appear to be the Shetland Islands (UK) and Guernsey (UK); the latter would perhaps have been expected to feature reasonably strongly in the men's competition.

It was reported in an earlier blog a few months ago that Saint Helena were intending to send a team to compete in the men's competion. However, the Saints do not appear in the above list of competitors, received yesterday from Kay Batty, General Secretary of the Island Games Association, which is based in the Isle of Man, who stated that, as far as the current list of competing islands goes, "..Saint Helena are not entering a football team."

The list, however, is not yet definite, though, according to Mrs Batty, the fixture-list for the football tournament will be compiled sometime during the next few weeks by the Isle of Wight Organising Committee, and will hopefully be made available to view on this blog.

More on the Island Games to follow in due course, including a potted history  of the men's competition.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to Kay Batty for kindly passing on the information included in the blog; any errors are the author's and the author's alone.