QRC Link

Organising committee member Willard McIntyre advises all that the QRC Small Lime 2008 Edition is carded for Saturday 27th December, 2008.

Additional details will be broadcast as they become available.  Old Boys are advised however to mark their calendars and to have their visas stamped early for one of the biggest events of the Royalian year.

With the last match of North Zone league play concluded yesterday, St. Anthony’s defeating Trinity by a score of 2-1, the final league standings are as follows.  QRC ends the league season in fifth position with three wins, five draws and four losses, all four losses coming in the second round. The Royalians had gotten to second place in the league table at the end of the first round, but a poor run of form has seen our team slip dramatically.

The side fared a little better on trips away than we did at home, earning one win more and one draw less. We were also very economical in goals for and goals against, averaging one per game in either category.

QRC’s best game was the first round encounter versus St. Mary’s at Serpentine Road.  There, we trounced our traditional rivals by four goals to one, with a brace from our top scorer Jerrel Britto.  Britto added seven to QRC’s tally for the season.  The remaining five goals were contributed by Rishad Griffith (4) and Akil Clarke (1).

The team’s worst game was arguably its one-nil loss at home to relegated Malick.  From a purely numerical standpoint though, two other losses against Fatima and St. Anthony’s have come at the expense of two goal margins.

The team’s best match up this year appears to be versus St. Mary’s where we enjoy our only positive aggregate score of five goals to two.

Having gone winless in Round 2, including losses to the bottom two teams, QRC must find a way to reverse the slide as we go into the Intercol competition.

We first face off against last year’s North Zone Intercol champion St. Mary’s College, a team that we have trounced in the first round and drew with in a game where we scored both goals.

As a result of a two-all draw away to Trinity College, Mucurapo Senior Comprehensive took the North Zone league title on Monday.

The difficult conditions at Moka as well as the threat of relegation seemed to favour the Trinity lads who were up by two goals at one point during the match.  But with the title and Big Five spot within reach, Mucurapo was not to be denied and they eked out the required draw in the last 10 minutes of regulation play.

The result deprived neighbours Fatima their claim.  Both teams ended the league equal on points, but Mucurapo enjoyed superior goal difference in the league season – 21 to Fatima’s 12.

Trinity will also have been happy with the draw, as they climb one point past Malick Senior Comprehensive and out of cellar position.  They are thus guaranteed a place in the top flight in 2009.

QRC.edu extends congratulations to Mucurapo, and wishes them good fortune as they move forward to the Big Five competition.  They next meet Central zone champs Carapichaima Senior Comprehensive on Thursday at 3:30pm in the first match of a double header at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella.  In the evening’s second match, South zone champs Naparima take on the East’s San Juan Senior Comprehensive at 5:30pm.

QRC’s poor run of form continued on Saturday as they fell to Fatima by a two-nil margin.  On the win in their final match of the league season, Fatima climbs to the top of the table.  They must however await the result of Mucurapo’s last match – a rescheduled encounter with Trinity College at Moka today – to determine championship honours.  Mucurapo needs only a draw with Trinity to pip their neighbours on goal difference, and take both silverware and the Big Five spot.

In other matches on Saturday, St. Mary’s College closed out their league season with a 3-1 victory over Trinity.  St. Anthony’s in their penultimate match managed a 3-0 win over Malick.

QRC now drops below both CIC and St. Anthony’s on points and into fifth position on the table.

With two Trinity matches to be rescheduled however – the second being a St. Anthony’s visit to Moka on October 16th – final places and Intercol matchings are not yet settled.  A St. Anthony’s win will see them leapfrog CIC to take over third position.  Anything less will see no change at third and fourth.

The Royalians end league play with three wins, five draws and four losses.  Notable though is that QRC has not yet won a match in the second round, and needs to brake the slide going into the knockout competition.

On Wednesday, QRC fell again on a visit to St. Anthony’s College by a two-nil margin.

On the same match day, Fatima clawed closer to a league title by defeating table toppers Mucurapo by two goals to one.  And in a relegation fight, Malick and Trinity battled to a 2-2 draw.

QRC is set to play its final game at Fatima this afternoon.  A Fatima victory would take them ahead of Mucurapo on points, and they would then have to wait until Mucurapo plays its last game – a rescheduled encounter versus Trinity at Moka – to determine the championship.  The Royalians though could seal the deal for Mucurapo.

With CIC equal on points and St. Anthony’s who have two games to play just two points adrift, a QRC loss today could see the team slip dramatically from third to fifth.  As such, there is much to play for still.

With attacking forces Rishad Griffith (7) and Jerrel Britto (10) out on one-game suspensions for yellow cards in successive matches, QRC failed to show the punch up front to overturn a Trinity goal.  The loss effectively ends QRC’s league championship ambitions in the 2008 season.

As if to emphasise the point, Mucurapo trounced St. Anthony’s by four goals to nil pulling out of QRC’s range, and indicating clearly that they have no interest in relaxing on their way to the title.

On the same match day, Malick and St. Mary’s battled to a nil-nil draw.

The league title and Big Five spot out of reach, QRC now needs to focus on wrapping up its last two games handily.  We then need to turn our attention to the knockout competition paying special attention to the fact that cellar placed teams have given us the most trouble to date.  Our only losses have come by narrow margin – one-nil in both cases – from the schools at clear risk of relegation.

QRC next faces St. Anthony’s at their Westmoorings ground on Wednesday.  Not only would the Tigers still be smarting from their Mucurapo encounter, they will be looking for points to pull themselves clear of Malick and Trinity.  The Royalians can ill afford to relax on this match day.

Reports coming in confirm that Fatima defeated St. Anthony’s by a goal to nil off a Kevon Durham strike in the 43rd minute.  For the second time though, a game was not played at Moka as match officials failed to show.  The first was an already re-scheduled encounter versus St. Anthony’s, and now their home game against top of the table Mucurapo will have to be played at a later date.

The results see Fatima climb closer to their neighbours’ point tally, and they are now just two behind but with fewer games left to be played – two to Mucurapo’s three.

CIC’s draw at QRC yesterday puts them out of title contention as they can no longer catch Mucurapo’s point total.  QRC remains with a chance of taking zonal silverware, but will still require assistance from other teams to slow the march of the Mucurapo Road schools.

Seven points adrift of Mucurapo, QRC must win all of their final three matches – at home to Trinity on Monday, and away to St. Anthony’s on Wednesday and Fatima on Saturday – to take our point tally to the maximum available 23.  QRC will also then need the following match scenarios to secure the championship:

• Mucurapo can earn no more than three more points in the rescheduled match against Trinity, and in matches Monday and Wednesday against St. Anthony’s and Fatima.
  • Mucurapo can draw with Trinity, but can then do no better than draw against St. Anthony’s and Fatima, taking their total to 23.  In this scenario, QRC needs a goal deluge against Trinity to catch Mucurapo on goal difference.
  • Should Mucurapo defeat Trinity at Moka, then Compre must lose to both St. Anthony’s and Fatima, which again puts them on 23 points.
  • The most favourable scenarios will see Mucurapo lose to all three teams (20 pts), secure only one draw in the three matches (21 pts), or two draws and a loss (22 pts).
• Fatima holds QRC’s title ambitions in the balance, and they must themselves not cross QRC’s available total of 23 points in their two remaining matches.  As indicated above, Fatima must take points from neighbours Mucurapo on Wednesday and QRC must defeat Fatima on Saturday.  This will take their final tally to a maximum of 21 points.

A loss to Trinity in our next match would fairly well put us out of title contention.  We would no longer be able to cross Mucurapo’s current point total of 20.  Further, for Mucurapo to stay on 20, Fatima will have to defeat them taking their own point total to a minimum of 21.

A draw with Trinity still gives QRC a remote chance of taking honours.  However, this will require that Mucurapo lose all their remaining games, and that QRC scorers open the floodgates on opposing teams in order to cross Fatima’s goal difference figure.