Good Luck Mary and the BWU Team!

Best of luck to Mary Vaughn and her Barbados Workers Union Team who are currently in St. Lucia for the Helen of the West (HOW) Tournament. The team travelling robs me of my weekly umpiring exercise but I am very proud of what Mary along with the help of Joan Scantlebury, both of whom I have known since my secondary school days, have accomplished with Barbados' biggest out of season netball tournament.

Star Publising reports that this year's HOW tournament which runs from Oct. 11 - 18 promises to be exciting and competitive. The tournament is being played at the Beausejour Indoor Practice Facility and is the Fifth Annual HOW Festival.

HOW began as a sports tourism initiative between the St Lucia National Netball Association and the St Lucia Tourist Board in 2003. This year, seven teams will compete for the championship purse of US$3000.00: X-Ceed Sports Club from St Vincent & the Grenadines; Barbados Workers Union Club; Army Netball Team and Royal Air Force Netball Team from the UK. St Lucia is represented by Avengers, Digicel Elite Strikers and Shamrock.

Defense Force of Trinidad & Tobago who are co defending champions along with Digicel Elite Strikers, will not be there to defend their title. Another club from Jamaica also opted out due to high travel costs. The format for the tournament will be a seven team round robin followed by a playoff round.