Nadur Youngsters FC | 50th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony

50th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony

Tuesday, 20 November 2007 12:13

50th Anniversary Commemorative Ceremony honouring the Nadur Youngsters Founding Members

On Tuesday, 20th November 2007, Nadur Local Council Day, at the Joe Tabone Hall at the Local Council premises, a commemorative ceremony was held to honour the founding members of Nadur Youngsters Football Club.

Mayor Dr Chris Said, in the presence of councillors and guests, said it was an honour for him to present these mementos. He noted that it must have been very hard fifty years ago to found a football club in our village due to limited financial resources and the problem of migration. Nadur Youngsters was the fourth football club to emerge from Nadur. All the others before had to disband due to emigration. He also noted that since the inception of the local council fourteen years ago, the Local Council and Nadur Youngsters Football Club always enjoyed a very good working relationship. The most prolific one was the help given to the Club to achieve its dream of having an artificial turf pitch to train on. Dr Said also said that during the Christmas holidays another artificial pitch will be laid out at the Dun Salv Vella Primary School, thus bringing the synthetic turf pitches to three in our locality.

These mementos were presented to the three founding members, namely Chevalier Joseph Attard Xuereb of Australia (received by Mr Charlie Camilleri, a relative), Mr Horace Mercieca and Mr Angelo Curmi. Also honoured were Mr Damian Said, who served the club first as a player (having the honour of scoring the first goal for Nadur Youngsters) and then for over forty years as the Club Treasurer, and Mr Joe Galea, who egged Horace Mercieca into co-founding the club and also a player for many years.

Mr Horace Mercieca delivered a short speech congratulating Dr Chris Said and his fellow councillors for their tireless work to better Nadur. He also had praise for the current Nadur Youngsters Committee and reminisced on past times when there was no training ground at Nadur and football enthusiasts used to train at 'il-Pjazzetta'; that is until the police came and took their ball away, which used to happen frequently. He remarked how lucky today's players are, training on artificial turf and playing on natural turf. Being a goalkeeper, Horace said that almost invariably he used to leave the ground after a game all grazed and bleeding, with Salvina, his wife nodding in agreement.

Our President Eucharist Camilleri thanked the Mayor and the Local Councillors for the honour bestowed on the Nadur Youngsters Founding Members. He said that their name will always be held in esteem as it was, thanks to them, that so many youngsters past, present and future can train, play and enjoy the game of football. He said that during this year the Club has already won the Independence Cup, is in the semi-final of the GFA Cup and in a good position to compete for the Championship. He augured that the Club can crown the 50th anniversary by winning the tenth Championship.

The evening ended with drinks and refreshments.