The cool weather was cancelled out by the warmth that the town of Udvada (showed),” noted 21-year-old Jeyhaan Carnac, who with Zaara Dastur (20) and Anahita Karanjia (20) conducted the "Winter Fest” events for the organizers of the three-day Iranshah Udvada Utsav 2019 (IUU 2019) under the banner of "Wings.” "The ground (was) always filled, buzzing with Udvada locals enjoying the sports and cheering their teams on,” Carnac wrote in an email to Parsiana.
Four sports were played — cricket, football, volleyball and sepak, starting on the afternoon of December 27 and continuing till the morning of the next day. Play resumed in the afternoon and continued till the early evening of December 28. The night matches were played under floodlights. The sports involved about 150 players representing Parsi teams from Bombay, Surat, Navsari, Poona and Valsad, Carnac listed in an email. The Udvada team was entirely made up of sister communities, Dastur told us on January 23.
"A few weeks before IUU 2019 (we were) discussing how to attract more Parsi youth to the IUU festivities,” Havovi Dastoor, wife of Udvada High Priest Dastur Khurshed Dastoor, who served on the Utsav core committee, told Parsiana. "The activities we had already planned and the stage shows were exciting for youth...but we had to figure out a way to get them to Udvada for something they always enjoyed... Sports have always bonded our colony youth especially in Bombay, Poona and Gujarat...We put together a plan to create day and night matches for them. With this in mind, we contacted Wings to make it all happen,” she said.
Carnac termed the volleyball games as "the most exciting” as matches were very close. Gamadia Colony (GC) made it to the finals after beating the Gamadia Hostel B team in the semi finals. They faced Cowasji Jehangir (CJ) Colony who won in a tight exciting final.
(Top, from l): Jeyhaan Carnac, Zaara Dastur, Anahita Karanjia;
(above): games at the Iranshah Udvada Utsav: "sports have always bonded our youth"
Above: Dastur Khurshed Dastoor (center) with the winning volleyball team and (r) with the football team
Nineteen teams took part in the cricket tournaments. Gamadia Hostel - C played Malcolm Baug (MB) in the finals that saw the latter come out victorious.
The five-a-side (instead of 11 players) football tournaments saw MB reach the finals as well, only to lose the trophy to the Dadar Parsi Colony Juniors (DPC Jr). The MB team had earlier beat the Udvada team in the semi finals, while DPC Jr had beat Vesu Lions in a narrow 2-1 win. "The final was a scintillating affair to say the least,” exulted Carnac. DPC Jrs were all set to bag the trophy when Sohrab Mehta from MB scored an equalizer with two minutes to go. "But the drama had just begun... 18-year-old Sohrab went on to score another goal right after.” Just when DPC Jr seemed to have thrown it all away, Meherzad Patel equalized in the last play of the game to make it all level at full time. The game went into a penalty round that saw DPC Jrs lift the trophy thanks to a great save by goal keeper Danesh Avasia.
Sepak, played with the team members hitting a ball with their feet across a volleyball net, had CJ Colony playing Godrej Baug A in the finals. "The two teams have been dominating the All Parsi Sepak tournaments for quite a while, and faced each other off in an epic battle,” stated Carnac. CJ Colony won the final set to win the tournament narrowly.
The games were followed by a prize distribution ceremony that was hosted after the entertainment events on the second day of IUU 2019.
"MB has now remained undefeated at Wings (sporting) events, ever since its inception,” noted Carnac. In April 2019, Dastur and Carnac had founded the Zoroastrian Premier League (ZPL), consisting of 10 teams, on the basis of caliber and not colony affiliations as was done previously by other organizers (see "Premier players,” Sports, Parsiana, April 21, 2019). "Watch out for ZPL 2020 in April,” Dastur mentioned. "We plan to have 15 teams this year!”
Parsiana reported on the events of IUU 2019 in two previous issues.