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The fairy tale ends

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Lautoka FC goal keeper Beniamino Mateinaqara gets to the ball first from Marist’s Michael Boso during their second leg semifinal clash at the Lawson Tama Stadium on Sunday. Lautoka won 1-0 (2-1 on aggregate) to set a grand final meeting with Team Wellington FC….Photo Taromane Martin.

Marist out, Lautoka through

By Taromane Martin

Lautoka FC goal keeper Beniamino Mateinaqara gets to the ball first from Marist’s Michael Boso during their second leg semifinal clash at the Lawson Tama Stadium on Sunday. Lautoka won 1-0 (2-1 on aggregate) to set a grand final meeting with Team Wellington FC….Photo Taromane Martin.

MARIST FC’s fairy tale run at the 2018 Oceania Champions League football competition has ended at the Lawson Tama Stadium on Sunday.

They crashed out of the competition after losing 1-0 to Lautoka FC (2-1 on aggregate) in their second leg semi-final match at a packed Lawson Tama Stadium.

Marist had numerous chances to put the game to sleep in the first half but saw their attacks crumbling thanks to the strong defensive presence of Brian Kaltack, Kolinio Sivoki and Beniamino Mateinaqara manning the posts.

The scores were tied 0-0 at half time but changed midway in the second half, 23 year old Praneel Naidu, beating Marist’s goal keeper Anthony Talo to see the visitors leading.

Array of chances went begging for Marist in the second half, Timothy Bakale, Abraham Iniga and Atkin Kaua, who had the best chance to level the scores, all unable to convert.

Marist Head Coach Jerry Allen was disappointed with the result but praised his players for taking the club this far in the competition.

“For me I think our frontline is still and has been a problem for us in this campaign,” Allen said.

“Everyone knew and has seen this but then again I had to stick with the players because they are the only resources I had at my disposal,” Allen said.

“But then we also had a lot of injuries to some of the senior boys in the squad so left me very little choice but to send in the young boys.

“Koriak is out with a hamstring injury, even Talo (Anthony) was not supposed to play today due to injury.

But he is a strong boy and his experience really helped us today (Sunday 28th April).

“They (Lautoka) had only one clear opportunity and they converted it. Should we have converted our chances in the first half it could have been a victory or draw.

“I’m very proud and happy with the boys. Everybody has seen our squad. We have a lot of inexperience players but I’m very pleased they had taken us this far which is a new history for the club.

“For me this will be very helpful for the club’s future especially for the young players in the team. This is a good experience for the boys and I believe will be a bonus for the TSL and should we make it back again,” he said.

But for Lautoka FC the fairy tale will continue.

Head Coach Kamal Swamy was pleased with the win saying Marist made it tough for his side and admitted they were just lucky to win.

“This is the second time we qualified to this competition but is a first time for us to be in the final of this competition.

“I’m pleased. The boys gave a hundred percent. They knew they were a goal down coming here and really stuck to our game plan.

“No doubt Marist is a great team and made it tough for us but we’re lucky to win here,” he said.

Lautoka FC will play Team Wellington FC in the home and- away final of the OFC Champions League 2018 with the first challenge a trip to New Zealand’s capital on the weekend of 12 and 13 May before welcoming their opponent to Churchill Park for the return leg a week later.

Environmental issues raised by future King

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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PM Hou meets future King of England Sir Prince Charles at the Clarence House, Sir James Palace.

BY GEORGINA KEKEA

PM Hou meets future King of England Sir Prince Charles at the Clarence House, Sir James Palace.

BAN on use of plastics had been an issue which Prime Minister Rick Hou discussed with His Royal Highness, Prince Charles.

On his trip to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Hou had made a courtesy visit to the Prince of Wales.

When addressing the media upon his arrival, Prime Minister Hou says matters discussed between him and the future King mainly centres on the protection of our ocean.

He said one issue that came out prominently was the possibility on the ban of plastic use.

Hou said though Western province has taken the lead to ban the use of plastics, it is a national issue and the national government must also be proactive in this stand.

He said another issue discussed was the Queen Canopy Project. The Queen Canopy Project aims to link all commonwealth countries in a canopy of sustainable forest conservation initiatives for future generations.

“This will involve assistance given to member countries, especially small countries and to groups that will be involved in these projects in terms of regulations and resourcing of manpower that are required.”

Hou said the future King has also revealed his interest to visit the Solomon Islands as he has never been to the Solomons.

PM Hou said on the whole, he was privileged to meet members of the royal family.

Indonesia visit soon

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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PM Hounipwele said, “To replace logging receipts Solomon Islands will need to generate 125,000 additional international visitors.

Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela appears headed for Jakarta later this year

By Alfred Sasako

PRIME Minister Rick Houenipwela, once described by a Democratic Alliance Party (DAP) member as the “most photographed Prime Minister ever” appears headed on an official visit to Indonesia later this year.

The visit is being kept a top secret as it may still be at an embryonic stage. However, there are indications Prime Minister Hou as the leader of the SIDCCG Coalition is leaning more and more towards Jakarta for bilateral support on a number of pressing issues for his five-month-old government.

These include costs associated with Solomon Islands hosting the South Pacific Games in 2023, urgently needed medical equipment such a CT scan for the National Referral Hospital as well as the costs associated with the relocation of the National Referral Hospital.

When Island Sun raised these yesterday one insider said such issues would be left for bilateral talks between the President of Indonesia and Prime Minister Hou later this year.

No further comments were offered.

The visit, if confirmed, could trigger the simmering internal tug-of-war between those who oppose dealing directly with the Indonesian government over the West Papua issue and the Prime Minister who seems to have favoured open dialogue with Jakarta on the matter.

Only a few weeks ago he approved the visit to Indonesia’s province of West Papua by senior members on his staff.

Included on the visit is the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister, John Usuramo as well as the Secretary to the former Chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), Rence Sore.

Radio New Zealand International reported last week that five members of civil society groups were on the delegation, which is concluding their two-week visit this week.

The combined Government-civil society delegation returns midweek.

An Indonesian government spokesman said last week the Solomon Islands delegation would be discussing potential infrastructure development that Indonesia could assist with in the Solomons, particularly ahead of the upcoming Pacific Games.

The spokesman said health sector cooperation was also up for discussion, in particular the need of Solomon Islands hospitals for medical equipment such as CT Scanners.

The delegation’s movements in Papua are being facilitated, at least in part, by Jakarta’s Papuan envoys, Frans Albert Joku and Nicolas Messet.

Mr Joku told Island Sun last night the delegation was now in Bali – Indonesia’s tourist mecca – on the last leg of the visit, which took in Jakarta, Papua, West Papua, North Sulawesi and now Bali.

Marist escapes defeat

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Elliot Ragomo gets a pass away.

By Taromane Martin

Elliot Ragomo gets a pass away.

MARIST futsal team had to crawl back in the second half on Thursday to upset Indo-Solo 5-4 in their SIPA National futsal league clash at the Multipurpose Hall yesterday.

Marist were forced to play without, Elliot Ragomo and Alvin Ray in the opening minutes of the first half and paid the price, Fred Max, Chris S and Dennis Ifunaoa finding the back of the net to lead Marist 3-0.

Trailing by three goals, Marist had to dig deep for a comeback in the second half and needed Ragomo and Ray to lead the comeback.

First it was Junior Morosini who found the back of the net for Marist followed by two Ragomo set piece to tie the scores 3-3.

Fred Max regained the lead for Indo-Solo momentarily before Mathias Saru forced an own goal off Ifunaoa before finding the winner for Marist in the final minute of play to steal the win.

“I’m pleased with the boy’s concentration and how they responded to going three goals down in the first half,” Head Coach Jerry Sam told SunSPORTS after their stunning comeback.

“Our game plan worked in the second half because we knew we could not get back into the game through keeping possession and attacking.

“We had to press high and force them to concede fouls which gave us set piece opportunities to get back into the game in the second half.

“Credit goes to Elliot being our first professional futsal player in the country coming back to join us.

“He is not only a big boost for us but also for the other team’s players to play against such a talent while learning from him,” Coach Sam said.

The win for Marist yesterday sees them lurking with nine points close behind Kooline FC who are with 10 points after they were held to a three-all draw by Guntimac FC on Thursday

Basii urges team to win remaining matches

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Solomon Islands U-18 hockey women’s squad line up for the national anthem.

BY ROMULUS HUTA

In Port Moresby, PNG

THE head coach of the national under-18 women’s hockey team has urged his playing members to step up in their two remaining matches of the Oceania Youth Olympic Hockey Qualifiers.

The women’s side will take on Vanuatu and PNG today and tomorrow, respectively, in round two of the competition that is currently underway in Port Moresby, PNG.

The match against Vanuatu is scheduled for 11am this morning at the Sir John Guise Hockey Pavilion while the final round robin match tomorrow against PNG is set for 9am.

Women’s head coach Lyn Basii stated that these matches are vital to their campaign.

“Australia is already way ahead in the points table. If we are to finish second, we must win the remaining matches.

“The two wins will give us six points and certainly we will end up in the play-off for the top spot,” Ms Basii said.

Basii stressed that having the right winning mentality will be the key.

“I told the girls to be positive and win the remaining matches.

“Vanuatu is a strong side and they are one of the teams to beat.”

Meanwhile, the women’s side registered its first win yesterday in the round one round robin match defeating hosts PNG 3-1.

Women’s hockey posts first win

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Solomon Islands went up against hosts PNG and managed to come out with a 3-1 victory at the Sir John Guise Hockey Pavilion.

BY ROMULUS HUTA

In Port Moresby, PNG

Solomon Islands went up against hosts PNG and managed to come out with a 3-1 victory at the Sir John Guise Hockey Pavilion.

THE national under-18 women’s hockey posted its first win in the Oceania Youth Olympic Hockey Qualifiers in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Opening the match day two rounds of matches, they went up against hosts PNG and managed to come out with a 3-1 victory at the Sir John Guise Hockey Pavilion.

Solomon Islands started off the match well by getting an early goal in the first period.

However, PNG bounced back to equalise before the first interval.

The second period turned out to Solomon Islands favour again when they added in two goals to seal off the victory.

A 3-1 lead was enough to secure a vital maximum point where they held off a late onslaught by PNG who mounted continuous pressure against their visitors.

The Oceania Youth Olympic Hockey Qualifiers is being attended by hosts PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Australia.

The competition is being played in a round robin format with two match rounds for each nation against each respective opponent.

The match against PNG yesterday ended the round one matches for the national under-18 women’s side.

Heading into round two yesterday afternoon, they took on Australia and succumbed to a 28-0 defeat. The result was an improvement from Wednesday’s outing where they went down by 30-1 against the Aussies.

The results attained from yesterday’s round of actions placed the women’s team on third place of the table tally behind Australia and Vanuatu, respectively.

Hosts PNG is trailing at the fourth spot.

The women’s team will play their final round two matches against Vanuatu (today) and PNG (tomorrow).

SISF VP visits Taurama Aquatic center

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Taurama Aquatic Center in Port Moresby will host the 12th edition of the Oceania Swimming Championships June this year.

BY ROMULUS HUTA

In Port Moresby, PNG

Nihal Seneviratne standing beside the pool at the Taurama Aquatic Center in
Port Moresby on Thursday.

VICE-President of Solomon Islands Swimming Federation (SISF) Nihal Seneviratne has visited the Taurama Aquatic Center in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG) yesterday afternoon.

Taurama Aquatic Center will play host to this year’s Oceania Swimming Championships which will run from June 24 to 29.

Solomon Islands have already registered to take part in the event where Seneviratne had vowed to send the country’s men and the women’s teams.

Seneviratne, who is also the President of Solomon Islands Hockey Federation (SIHF), accompanies the national under-18 hockey men’s and women’s team to the Oceania Youth Olympic Hockey qualifiers which is currently underway in Port Moresby at the moment.

Seneviratne said the visit is part of the country’s preparation toward this year’s Oceania Championship.

“The Local Organising Committee (LOC) here in Port Moresby is working around the clock in their preparations for this event.

“This event will be huge and Solomon Islands is pleased to take part.”

Taurama Aquatic Center in Port Moresby will host the 12th edition of the Oceania Swimming Championships June
this year.

Prior to the visit, Seneviratne also had the opportunity to meet with PNG swimming legend and former Commonwealth Games Butterfly champion Ryan Pini where they discussed issues of common interest regarding swimming development in Oceania region.

The 12th edition of the Oceania Swimming Championship in Port Moresby will bring together a total of 22 countries across the Pacific and other invited countries from Asia.

Fiji last hosted the biennial event in 2016.

YWCA SI launches new RiseUp manual

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Young Women Christian Association in Solomon Islands staffs with some of the young women who have contributed to the completion of the RiseUp Manual a global guide of women across the world, share the joy of the booklet launching.

BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

THE Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) in Solomon Islands has officially launched a new RiseUp Manual.

It was a global guide for young women’s transformative leadership which was created by and for young women.

Speaking during the launching ceremony General Secretary of YWCA SI Mr Jocelyn Lai said this guide will help empower young women in creating their own transformation as part of their leadership journey and help them claim their rights.

“We hope that this will be the first step in empowering vast of young women across Solomon Islands,” she said.

The official launching was held in Honiara on Tuesday during the commemoration   of the YWCound the breakfast day.

Witnessing the launching ceremony were some of the Solomon Islands young women who have contributed to the making of this global manual.

Young Women Christian Association in Solomon Islands staffs with some of the young women who have contributed to the completion of the RiseUp Manual a global guide of women across the world, share the joy of the booklet launching.

Change of lifetime habits to curb CRB

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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BY ELLISON.T.VAHI

CONVINCING villagers in communities to change the way they manage coconut trees is a very sensitive task. This was heard in the recent SINU talk at the Kukum Campus.

A presenter in the talks, Mr Bob Macfarlane, MSc, an entomologist from Wales says it is a big issue at the moment especially trying to persuade village farmers to change lifetime habits.

“In the past, they could let a palm die and fall down and rot and it didn’t matter, you didn’t have to do anything at all and that must change now.

“Every palm that dies must either be used in some way for instance, for charcoal, for timber, for veneering or whatever.”

At the talks, it was heard that the Rhinoceros beetle larvae breeds and feeds on dead palm trees, a problem which the Guadalcanal Plains Palm Oil Limited (GPPOL) is now faced with.

GPPOL employs 1,500 people on the Guadalcanal plains, who mostly reside in the plains area with their families.

In order to tackle the intruder, it was heard that the company deployed 100 workers to search for larvae in their habitats and to destroy them. A dozen crate full is a good day’s work.

“if we don’t get control of the situation, I fear we might lose oil palm altogether,” says GPPOL General Manager, Craig Gibson.

In search for a virus to control the beetle, namely the silver bullet type, though, is a biological control like the virus that saved the coconuts plantations of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga 60 years ago, sadly, the Solomon Islands’ coconut rhinoceros beetle is resistant to the virus that worked in Fiji so the search is on for its own biological control.

“You have to match the DNA of the strain of beetle that we have with DNA from the country of origin,” Macfarlane from the Ministry of Agriculture (MAL) said.

“There’s no certainty yet but we believe it comes from the Philippines or Indonesia or Vietnam and we have to do a DNA match and then try and identify what is keeping it under control in those countries and then import that.”

Can Solomon Islands live with the rhinoceros beetle or will it be forever changed? “It’s a big question,” Macfarlane said.

“If we can get the right disease, the right parasite, predator, population suppressing organism, whatever you want to call it into the country and we get the population down and people do change their behaviour in that they’re cleaning up the breeding sites, then yes, we can get back to something like what it was before, but there are a lot of ifs and buts along the way.”

For GPPOL, Gibson explained that the stakes are much higher than the future of his company.

“It’s a great crop for tropical countries, especially developing tropical countries and we employ a lot of people here and we support a lot of local people who have their own oil palm, and we have plans for expansion because it is a good growing region with great yields, but first we have to get on top of this beetle,” he said.

Partnership is key to develop tourism: Ragoso

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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By Mike Puia

Gizo

WESTERN Province supervising Premier, Bruce Ragoso, say partnership is key to developing the country’s tourism sector.

Ragoso made this statement while witnessing the opening and handing over of the Oravae jetty in the province.

He said the successful opening and handing over of the jetty proves that both the national and provincial governments can work together in many ways to develop the tourism sector.

Tourism had developed well in the province. Some describe tourism as the key sector in the province.

Ragoso said the opening and handing over of the jetty is an historic event as it is the first of its kind.

He said this will also enhance true partnership between government through the ministry of culture and tourism, the recipients, partners and their government.

The supervising premier said their administration will continue to support the tourism sector in the province where appropriate and possible.

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