Last Thursday at BNECL Field in Woodbourne, Christ Church, home side Team BNECL delivered a dominant display to secure a lopsided 5-1 victory over Barbados Light and Power Company Limited in a highly anticipated friendly football rematch.
Despite intermittent rain showers that swept through the area throughout the match, a substantial crowd turned out to support the squads, made up of employees from both companies, their family members, and local football fans. The game, which marked a repeat of the previous year’s encounter, carried extra significance this time around as Barbados Light and Power marked its 115th anniversary with a week-long slate of celebratory activities, with the rematch serving as a key centerpiece event.
For the winning BNECL side, striker Renaldo Niles stole the spotlight by scoring two goals, earning him the match’s Most Goals Award. Midfielder Darren Gale-Forde took home the Most Valuable Player honor for his consistent, standout play across all areas of the pitch, while goalkeeper Gabriel Layne was recognized as the Best Goalkeeper for his critical saves throughout the contest. Defender Trevor Scott also picked up an individual award, claiming the Best Defender title for his solid work shutting down Barbados Light and Power attacking opportunities.
Speaking after the match, Sonia Haynes-Collymore, Human Resources Business Partner at Barbados Light and Power, explained the origins of the 2024 rematch. Following the positive reception of the 2023 meeting between the two utility-sector firms, leadership from both sides quickly agreed to bring the rivalry back for another year. “It had been quite some time since we held an inter-company event like this, and in years past these competitions used to be much larger, with multiple teams joining in,” Haynes-Collymore noted. “We chose to restart with just our two squads to keep things manageable this year. Even though they got the win over us last year, we were eager to come back for another round, especially as we mark 115 years of operation with our anniversary week of events. It made perfect sense to host this rematch between two companies that operate in the same utility space.”
Samantha Hazlewood-Ermay, Marketing and Public Relations Officer for BNECL, added that the match offered far more than just on-pitch competition for the new merged utility firm. Earlier this year, BNECL formed from the merger of two previous entities, NPC and BNOCL, making the friendly a valuable team-building opportunity for the newly combined workforce. “The game went over extremely well with players from both sides,” Hazlewood-Ermay shared. “It was an exciting, edge-of-your-seat match from start to finish, and for our team, it’s helped bring our new merged squad closer together. We saw great chemistry on our side, which was a big part of why the event worked so well. A lot of our players already knew members of the Barbados Light and Power squad from local football circles, so it was just a fun, relaxed day of competition that everyone enjoyed.”