The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS 

Senior Sports Rep;orter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex became the latest sporting facility to be hit by thieves stealing copper as the New Providence Softball Association’s regular season games had to be called off last night because of “no lighting.”

During the ladies’ opening game between the Lady Stingers and the Black Scorpions, league officials discovered what happened when they went to turn on the lights in time for the start of the men’s feature game.

“When we turned on the power for the lighting for the field, we noticed that the lights for the outfield were all off,” said NPSA president Godfrey ‘Gully’ Burnside. “We did some investigation and discovered that the poles from left field to right field were damaged and it appeared as if all of the coppers had been stolen from them. So we couldn’t get the lights on.”

The NPSA attempted to complete the ladies game with the Lady Stingers holding a commanding 17-4 lead in the top of the fourth. But Burnside said it was just dangerous to continue and so in consultation with the managers, they agreed to halt the game and will resume at that point whenever the lights are restored to the park. The men’s game between the BTC Elite Warriors and the Sports Centre Dorsy Park Boyz was also cancelled.

Burnside said there’s no indication when they will be able to continue playing. He noted that they will have to write to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture and the National Sports Authority to assist in reconnecting the power supply to the park once they would have gotten an assessment from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture on the amount of damage caused.

The league, according to Burnside, was already hit by a few rained out games and they attempted to play the make up games on the off days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Now with their regular playing nights of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday affected indefinitely, he’s not sure when they will resume play again.

A couple months ago, the Bahamas Football Association experienced the same fate as their senior league regular season games had to be called off after the Roscoe Davies Developmental Centre, adjacent to the Banker’s Field, also had wires to their lights cut and copper stolen. Their situation has since been ratified and they have resumed play.

In the meantime, Stingers’ manager Gary ‘Super’ Johnson said it was disheartening that they were unable to complete their game.

“The situation was that only the infield lights were working and we really didn’t want anybody to get hurt, so I think it was best for them to call the game and we could finish it up whenever the lights are working again,” Johnson said. “It’s not that there were faulty lights. From what we understand, somebody cut the wire, which is poor. Hopefully they can get it fixed so we can play again.”

The Stingers, winless in two games, had taken a 6-0 lead in the top of the first and extended it to 13-1 in the second and 17-4 in the third. They were threatening to score again in the fourth with Nadia Thompson on second and Melissa Hall on first with one out and Raquell Cooper at the plate.

The Scorpions, winless in four games, scored three runs in the first and added another in the fourth as they started to gain some momentum before the game was halted.

“Based on what was taking place, for the safety of the players, we understand why we couldn’t finish the game,” said Scorpions’ manager Addie Finley Sr. “Hopefully, whenever we get to finish the game, we will be able to get back into the game. This was the game we were looking forward to winning and turning our season around.”

But for now, neither team nor the league officials know exactly when they will be able to play again.