The bonanza razzmatazz
Like village boys who had just seen an aeroplane for the first time, Nyasa Big Bullets were caught gazing at the modern scoreboard and the blinding glare of the Chinese built marvel when ‘sniper’ Jaffalie Chande caught them off guard barely two minutes into the game when he drew first blood to give Be Forward Wanderers the lead in the Luso TV Bus Ipite Bonanza second leg.
The fellow went on to claim a double just as he had done in the first leg to stun his former team into submission.
There was also the jazz about the theft of mirrors from restrooms of the stadium, which are now hanging on the walls of crappy salons and barber shops of Ntandire. After just the first day of hosting an official activity, the beautiful facility started losing its identity and God knows how it will look like a year from now.
But the jazz that hogged the limelight was the breakdown of the Nissan Caravan bus which was the bonanza’s ultimate prize. The bus broke down at Manjawira in Ntcheu as the Nomads were travelling back to their base in Blantyre after developing a clutch plate fault.
And so Bullets sympathisers took to the social media to scorn at their rivals with one of them insinuating that the ‘Bus Ipite’ slogan had been extended to ‘Bus ipite ku garage’ while another one taunted that: “Basi yaneba yanokora atayilodza sing’anga wawo Ayaya chifukwa chosampatsa zake”.
But the Nomads did not just sit back and their flamboyant self-proclaimed chief supporter Yona Malunga pledged to buy them one of the ram-shackles that operate between Limbe Market and Manje as they are failing to redeem their ‘war bus from katapila operators.
He further mocked that the bus has since been turned into a mini ‘rest house’ for ‘short-time’ services by hookers at one of the night clubs in town. Well, these are the sights and sounds that characterised the Bus Ipite Bonanza, the sort of stuff that added flavour to the latest episode of the Blantyre derby. Uloliwe, uloliwe wayidudula neng’esiza hah! (oh yes, the train is pushing). Glory be to God. n
