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As in every year, the third Sunday of November is a special occasion in
the Reskeon Maltese Association calendar. This is the day when "Jum il-Maltin" is organised at Clarke's Oval
Sunbury. This year the weather was on our side. It was a perfect day for this
monster picnic, which attracts thousands of people.
In the past few years the weather has not been very kind to us. A lot
of preparation goes into organising such an event. So it's not very
pleasant when the weather lets you down. But this year was different. A perfect day, starting overcast but
getting warmer and warmer as the day progressed. It was estimated that around 6000 members from the Maltese community and
others visited the oval.
The day started with the Men's Soccer Competition. Sixteen teams
participated, each choosing a city or village name from Malta. This was
followed by the Ladies' Soccer Competition, which started at 9 am.
At 10.15 a Mass was celebrated by Father
Emmanuel Adami, MSSP, assisted by Father Gabriel who
travelled from South Australia. A good number from those
present attended Mass.
The soccer competitions continued at
11 am. At the same time there was folklore singing
(Ghana) by the "Għaqda Għannejja" (Albion) and
the commencement of the boċċi competition.
This year we had an exhibition of
bocce by a group of ladies. The entertainment continued
with modern music from The Rainbows.
Children's races were organised and
it was good to see a large number of children
participating and enjoying this event. This was followed
by the ladies' races, men's races and mixed races.
Children winning the races received ribbons.
The Maltese Own Band Philharmonic
Society Inc. and the St. Albans Melita Band presented
marches. They started playing from the gates until they
reached the centre stage. They entertained those present
most of whom followed the bands all the way.
At the end of the day trophies
were presented to the winners of the Ladies' Soccer
Competition. The final was played by Northern United and Fawkner, where Northern United came out winners with the
score of 2-1. In the Men's Final it was Xewkija
who came out winners against Rabat 2-1. Both the ladies'
bocce players and the men's bocce players received
trophies on the day.
There were activities for the
children such as the Jumping Castle. Food was plenty,
including Maltese food, such as bigilla,
ġbejniet,
qagħaq tal- għasel,
etc.
Among those present were His
Excellency Mr Ives De Barro, High Commissioner of Malta
in Australia and Mrs De Barro; the Consul General of
Malta in Victoria, Mr Clemente Zammit and Mrs Zammit;
and the President of the Maltese Community Council, Dr
Victor Borg.
We were happy to host a group of 46
people who traveled to Melbourne from South Australia
for this occasion. They told us how they enjoyed the day
and their stay in Melbourne. We thank Mr John Debono and
Mrs Debono for organising this group to come to join us
on this great event.
On Saturday, 18th November, they
attended a dinner dance at the Maltese Centre,
Parkville, which was organised by the Ladies' Auxiliary
of the Maltese Community Council.
It was good to see so many young
people attending "Jum il-'Maltin" and we were
pleased to see them enjoying themselves.
This must be one of the few events organised for the Maltese community,
which attracts so many young people. This encourages us because we
believe that such events will keep on going years after the seniors
organising it now disappear.
We thank the committees of Reskeon Maltese Association and the Reskeon
Seniors Group for their hard work. Some of them worked hard from 2 pm to
10 pm on Saturday, only to be there again from 5 am on Sunday morning.
We thank Mr Charles Spiteri and Mr Charles Tabone for organising the
soccer competition, and for the hard work in preparing the grounds, line
marking, etc.
The members of the association who slaved themselves in the kitchen
preparing the food and cooking the hamburgers.
Special thanks to Jane |
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