Fires, old boys , break-ins , fights, arrests - the club is all action . We should have a permanent section on ZNS news.


Well it looks as tho our intrepid team of players will have to travel to h'abaco to ensure a game of footy after our GBFL opponents failed to show for the 2nd week running !!!

Plans are well afoot for a day trip on saturday to play Dwayne's Dwean team at a kick off time to be determined and location to be determined . All we know is boat leaving McCleans town at 10am and returning at 6pm and some refreshments will be partaken on the way.


Final games for Messrs Paul , Andrew ( no not that andrew unfortunately), Doug and (Steven) Gerrard .

More details wednesday neet.

Luther Blissett will visit Grand Bahama once again for the annual Summer Soccer Camp on Grand Bahama Island. Photo: Robbin Whachell The best youth soccer players on Grand Bahama are going to get a top-level challenge at this year’s soccer camp: “You think you’re good – well, prove it”.

In a new departure at this extremely-popular event, the best players enrolled at the camp in the view of the visiting coaches will be offered the chance to take part in small master classes aimed at fast-tracking their skills, and in the process enhance the level of the game on the island.
The two groups – one for boys and the other for girls – will be strictly limited to five or six players, and they will receive the undivided attention of soccer legend Luther Blissett for the last three or four days of the week.

Although Luther has been at previous camps he has always divided his time equally between all age groups and skill levels. This year’s new venture has been made possible by the fact he will be accompanied at the camp by not just one but two full-time professional coaches, who spend their lives training young people in the UK and the US. “That will free Luther up for more specialized work, “said camp organiser Richard Malcolm.
Blissett, who was born in Jamaica but qualified to play for England, which he did 18 times, achieved legendary status thanks to his prolific goal scoring at the highest level of the English game. He also coached leading professional players for years before giving up to devote his time to helping develop a motor racing team of all Black drivers. He had already been a trail blazer for Black sport by scoring the first ever goal, and the first-ever hat-trick for England, by a man of colour.

“The real benefit for our best young players is that they will be getting close attention from a man who played at the very highest level, not just a couple of times but frequently. They may think they are good but they will be critiqued and developed by a man who was paid a lot of money for a lot of years passing on his skills and knowledge to top pros,” said Malcolm.
Luther Blissett as defenders remembered him - in black and white print days! “When I heard about this I loved the idea,” said Blissett. “It will be interesting to see how they take on board the work I give them.”

Blissett scored 217 goals in a 602-game career. Malcolm continued: “We have had some distinguished players helping our camps but this guy is undoubtedly the outstanding one. We have felt for a year or two we could use him rather better than we have so far and this year, thanks to having an extra visitor, we shall be able to.

“The real beneficiary will be the game here and not just the kids. The two youth soccer development programmes on the island have done a fantastic job but the number of competitive games available is strictly limited and so too is the quality of the opposition. Being exposed to the best just for a few days is bound to pay dividends for those youngsters prepared to listen, learn and work hard. They hopefully then will reflect a standard to which others can aspire.”

The camp, at Freeport Rugby Club from June 22 to June 26, is for six-to-16-year-olds but the master classes will be selected from those aged 14 and above, reflecting the role that size and physical strength can play in teen years. The classes will become a regular feature of future camps though and younger children will get their chance for selection as they graduate to older groups.
Registration is under way with forms available on this website (see top of home page) and from Town and Country in Yellow Pine Street or Animale, Port Lucaya Marketplace. They can be handed in, along with the attendance fee of $175, at those two venues and also at the rugby club this coming Saturday afternoon (May 23) from 3pm until 5pm while a veterans’ game against visitors from Atlanta is being played.

Last Monday morning the Freeport Fire Department received a call at 3.00am that the Freeport Rugby Football Club was on fire.

Responding quickly the fire department ensured that the club didn't burn completely down. Extensive damage was caused by the fire to the storage, bathroom and bar areas. All the club's uniforms, equipment and stock was destroyed by the fire.

The club which had just finished renovations to the bar earlier now has a race against time to get the club ready for it annual Soccer Camp which runs from June 22 - 26. Club President Rob Speller says that if everyone works together the club will be ready for the camp and he hopes that the community will assist the club by getting involved in the soccer camp, Speller said "after the fire we now more than ever need the community help in making the soccer camp the most successfull camp so far, we aim to provide over 50 scholarships to the camp by Corporate Sponsors paying $175 to sponsor a child to attend the camp, this money directly supports kids who otherwise would not benefit from the coaching and the two full strips plus other items the kids receive at the camp".

Together with the FA. Coaches coming out from the UK the club hopes the camp will once again prove a huge success. If anyone wishes to assist in the camp please email robspeller@hotmail.com

BOYS SOCCER TEAM DEFEAT VISITING FLORIDA TEAM


A late 30 yard ‘ screamer ‘ from Sam Taylor helped seal a well deserved victory by Dolly Madison Youth Soccer Academy against the visiting Westminster from Fort Lauderdale at Freeport Rugby & Football Club on Saturday.


Taylor’s goal with 10 minutes to goal capped a fine overall team performance over the two days by the Grand Bahama side and put his team into an unassailable 4:2 lead in the game. Earlier , the local Academy side , featuring the best 14 to 18 year olds on the island , had stunned their visitors with a lightening quick two goal burst in the first 2 minutes of the game. Less than half of the players on the pitch had touched the ball after the initial kick off before Taylor had burst through a stagnant opposition defence to slam the pull past the keeper for his team’s opening goal. Within a minute the score was doubled as Marco Borsetto continuing his efforts from the previous evening danced his way through the defence to make it 2 ; nil after less than two minutes.

Credit must be given to the visiting team who could easily have buckled at this point but they defended manfully and fought back well. The game appeared to be well and truly won once Jason Raad added a third goal midway through the half for the Freeport team who thus went into the half time interval 3 goal to nil to the good.

However as the local team began experimenting with formations and players , the visitors got back into the game with a long range shot early in the second half. Indeed a looping header with 20 minutes to go from Westminster forced a rethink by the local coaches who had previously looked to ‘sit on their lead’. Now with a quarter of the game left their team now had to look to win the game once again and thus a more attacking formation was played with the team switching to 442 once again.. This resulted in Sam Taylor’s second goal to secure to secure the victory.

The previous night had since a much more comprehensive victory for the local team by 4 goals to nil. Whilst the score line flattered the local team slightly, they did play far better football on the Friday. The midfield and forwards in particular worked very well together and created some excellent moves. Local coaches Andrew and Henry were particularly pleased with Richardson and ‘Gunsov ‘Navarrone who helped ‘steady the ship’ after the local team was put under pressure in the early stages. However a couple of tactical changes by Freeport helped the team solidify the midfield and get back into the game. Perhaps as a prelude to the following evening, Freeport stunned the visitors with two goals in quick succession as the effervescent Chris Malakious scored two goals in 3 minutes. The first was particularly impressive as he turned his defended and unleashed a powerful shot into the net that left the keeper rooted to the spot.

As the local team continued to press forward they were unlucky not to increase their lead as both Borsetto and Roberto hit the woodwork. Eventually both players (Marco Borsetto and Roberto Bascon) did indeed score to make the final score 4 nil to Dolly Madison Youth Academy.

Their Head Coach Mark Hardy was pleased with the overall performance of all his players but singled out his defenders as the foundation of the team‘s 2 victories. He noted that the performances of Kingsley, Tristan Phillips, Preston Rolle, and Kevin Charlton gave the rest of his team the foundation to build upon . Some of these guys played out of position but all of them were immense and , whilst they did not score, they all played a large part in the two victories.

Coach Hardy took the time to thank the visiting team for coming over adding that they hoped to travel to the US next year and , in addition, aim to bring additional teams over in conjunction to Westminster so that a proper soccer tournament could be held. He also expressed his gratitude to the game officials ( Eon, Eon and Ghassan) and the committee at Freeport Rugby & Football Club ( especially James , Phil and Kirk ) for their hard work in assisting to get the weekend running smoothly.

The Dolly Madison Soccer Academy continues to run every Wednesday from 5pm at Freeport Rugby & Football Club.