2017 NPFL match day 32 results, scorers, table

*Plateau United 2 Shooting Stars 0
Emmanuel Odafe (16th min)
Ibeh Johnson   (78th min)

*Enugu Rangers 2 Rivers United 1
Ifeanyi George -Rangers    (26th, 39th min)
Ifeanyi Nweke  -Rivers Utd (74th min)

*Remo Stars 0 MFM, Lagos 1
Austin Ogunye (71st min)

*Enyimba 1 Kano Pillars 0
Mfon Udoh (71st min)

*El-Kanemi Warriors 1  Akwa United 0
Tchoanfine Pade (26th min)

*Katsina United 2 ABS, Ilorin 2
Ashadi Destiny -Katsina (34th min)
Martin Ossy    -ABS     (43rd min)
Joseph Adah    -Kastina (56th min)
Akinbo Oluwasegun -ABS  (61st min)

*Wikki Tourists 2 Sunshine Stars 1

*Nasarawa United 1 Niger Tornadoes 0

*Abia Warriors 0 IfeanyiUbah 0

*Gombe United 0 Lobi Stars 0

                     NPFL Table after 32 matches

                                 Team    P    W    D    L    PTS

1. Plateau United               32     17     7     8     58    
2. MFM FC                        32     17     4     11    55    
3. Akwa United                  32     14     9     9     51    
4. Enyimba                        32     15     5     12     50    
5. El-Kanemi Warriors    32     16     1     15     49    
6. Nasarawa United          32     13     8     11     47
7. FC IfeanyiUbah            32     13     8     11     47    
8. Lobi Stars                      32     13     8     11     47    
9. Niger Tornadoes           32     13     6     13     45    
10. Kano Pillars                31     13     5     13     44
11. Wikki Tourists            32     13     4     15     43
12. Sunshine Stars            32     13     3     16     42    
13. Rangers                       32     11     9     12     42
14. Katsina Utd                32     12     6     14     42    
15. Abia Warriors            32     11     8     13     41
16. Rivers United FC       31     11     8     12     41
17. Shooting Stars           32     10     10     12     40
18. ABS, Ilorin                 32     11     7     14     40
19. Gombe United           32     9     10     13     37
20. Remo Stars                 32     7     8     17     29 

2017 NPFL Match Day 32 fixtures

Sunday, July 30

Enugu Rangers              vs Rivers United 
Katsina United              vs ABS, Ilorin
Remo Stars                    vs MFM, Lagos  
Enyimba                        vs Kano Pillars 
Plateau United              vs Shooting Stars 
Gombe United              vs Lobi Stars 
Abia Warriors              vs FC IfeanyiUbah
Nasarawa United         vs Niger Tornadoes 
El-Kanemi Warriors   vs Akwa United 
Wikki Tourists            vs Sunshine Stars

2017 NPFL Match Day 31 results, scorers

*Rivers Utd   3 Wikki Tourists 1
 
*ABS, Ilorin  2 Enugu Rangers 0
Abubakar Chindo (15th min)
Wasiu Alalade   (51st min)
 
*MFM, Lagos   3 Katsina United 2
Stephen Odey       -MFM  (15th min)
Sikiru Olatunbosun -MFM (29th min)
Destiny Ashadi     -Katsina (69th min)
Obinna Eleje       -Katsina (75th min)
Chukwuka Onuwa     -MFM     (78th min)

*Kano Pillars 2 Remo Stars 0
Nyima Nwagua (15th min)
Sikiru Kamal (39th min)

*Shooting Stars 1 Enyimba 0
Abayomi Adebayo (8th min)
 
*Lobi Stars   0 Plateau United 0 

*FC IfeanyiUbah  2 Gombe United 2

*Niger Tornadoes Abia Warriors 0

*Akwa United   2 Nasarawa United 1 
Aminu Kadir        -Nasarawa (38th min)
Ubong Friday       -Akwa Utd (41st min)
Christian Pyagbara -Akwa Utd (48th min)

*Sunshine Stars 1 El-Kanemi Warriors 0
Sikiru Alimi (34th min)

2017 NPFL Match Day 31 fixtures

Sunday, July 23

Rivers United     vs Wikki Tourists 
ABS, Ilorin        vs Enugu Rangers 
MFM, Lagos      vs Katsina United
Kano Pillars       vs Remo Stars 
Shooting Stars  vs Enyimba 
Lobi Stars          vs Plateau United
FC IfeanyiUbah  vs Gombe United
Niger Tornadoes  vs Abia Warriors 
Akwa United       vs Nasarawa United
Sunshine Stars    vs El-Kanemi Warriors

2017 NPFL Table as at Match Day 30

                                        P    W    D    L    F    A    GD    Pts
1.    Plateau United     30    16    6    8    42    20    22    54
2.    MFM FC              30    15    4    11    34    35    -1   49
3.    Akwa United        29    13    8    8    35    23    12    47
4.    Enyimba FC        30    14    5    11    32    24    8     47
5.    El Kanemi            30    15    1    14    31    34    -3    46
6.    Lobi Stars            30    13    6    11    35    29    6    45
7.    IfeanyiUbah         30    13    6    11    33    27    6    45
8.    Nasarawa Utd      30    12    8    10    29    22    7    44
9.    Niger Tornadoes  30    13    5    12    25    27    -2    44
10.    Kano Pillars       29    12    5    12    29    28    1    41
11.    Katsina United    30    12    5    13    24    29    -5    41
12.    Wikki Tourists   30    12    4    14    28    30    -2    40
13.    Abia Warriors    30    11    6    13    32    29    3    39
14.    Rangers               30    10    9    11    30    35    -5    39
15.    Sunshine Stars   30    12    3    15    31    37    -6    39
16.    Rivers United     28    10    7    11    18    19    -1    37
17.    Shooting Stars    30    9    10    11    25    30    -5    37
18.    ABS FC              30    10    6    14    25    40    -15   36
19.    Gombe United    30    9    8    13    26    38    -12    35
20.    Remo Stars         30    7    8    15    25    33    -8     29

2017 NPFL Match Day 30 results, scorers

*Plateau United 1  FC IfeanyiUbah 0
Emma James (13th min)

*Enugu Rangers 1  MFM, Lagos 0
Chiamaka Madu (15th min)
Ifeanyi George    (47th min)

*Nasarawa United 2 El-Kanemi Warriors 1
Adamu Hassan   -Nasarawa  (5th, 46th min)
Hashimu Haliru -El-Kanemi (53rd min)

*Enyimba  2 Lobi Stars 1
Anthony Okpotu     -Lobi Stars (18th min)
Mfon Udoh          -Enyimba    (86th min)
Ikechukwu Ibenegbu -Enyimba    (90th min)

*Remo Stars 1 Shooting Stars 1
Moses James   -Shooting Stars (65th min)
Ekene Awazie  -Remo Stars     (90th min)

*Katsina United 1 Kano Pillars 0
Martins Usule (36th min)

*Rivers United 0  Sunshine Stars 1
Thompson Ezekiel

*Wikki Tourists 1 ABS, Ilorin 0
Harrison Madu (2nd min)

*Gombe United 0 Niger Tornadoes 0

*Abia Warriors 0  Akwa United 0

2017 NPFL Match Day 30 fixtures

Wednesday, July 19

Wikki Tourists  vs ABS, Ilorin
Enugu Rangers   vs MFM, Lagos
Katsina United  vs Kano Pillars
Remo Stars      vs Shooting Stars 
Enyimba         vs Lobi Stars 
Plateau United  vs FC IfeanyiUbah
Gombe United    vs Niger Tornadoes
Abia Warriors   vs Akwa United 
Nasarawa United vs El-Kanemi Warriors
Rivers United   vs Sunshine Stars

2017 NPFL Match Day 29 results, scorers

*Shooting Stars 1 Katsina Utd 0
Wasiu Jimoh (44th min)

*Kano Pillars 2 Enugu Rangers 0
Jamiu Alimi   (32nd min)
Junior Lokosa (43rd min)

*Sunshine Stars 0 Nasarawa Utd 1
Bashir Abdulrahman (39th min)

*MFM, Lagos 1 Wikki Tourists 0
Stephen Odey (40th min)

*Niger Tornadoes 1 Plateau United 0
Samuel Agba (4th min)

*FC IfeanyiUbah 1 Enyimba 0
Godwin Obaje (50th min)

*Akwa United 3 Gombe United 0
Musa Newman        (57th min)
Ibrahim Alhassan   (75th min)
Christian Pyagbara (83rd min)

*El Kanemi Warriors 1 Abia Warriors 0
Samuel Mathias (31st min)

*Lobi Stars 3 Remo Stars 2
Anthony Okpotu -Lobi (9th min)
Victor Chidume -Remo (13th min)
Kingsley Eduwo -Lobi (38th min)
Ekene Awazie   -Remo (68th min)
Uchenna Eze    -Lobi (84th min)

*ABS, Ilorin 0 Rivers United 0

Caption: Stephen Odey, scored 17th goal of the season last Sunday against Wikki Tourists at the Agege Soccer Temple, Lagos.

2017 NPFL TABLE AFTER 28 MATCHES

                                      P    W    D    L    PTS    GF    GA       

1. Plateau United       28     15      6       7     51     41     19   22
2. MFM FC                28     14     4     10     46     33     33     0
3. Enyimba                 28     13     5     10     44     30     22     8
4. Akwa United             27     12     7     8     43     32     23     9
5. El-Kanemi             28     14     1     13      43     29     32     -3
6. FC IfeanyiUbah     28     12     6     10     42     32     26     6
7. Lobi Stars FC         28     12     6     10     42     31     25     6
8. Niger Tornadoes     28     12     4     12     40     24     27     -3
9. Nasarawa United    28     10     8     10     38     26     21     5
10. Abia Warriors      28     11     5     12     38     32     28     4
11. Kano Pillars          27     11     5     11     38     27     27     0
12. Katsina United     28     11     5     12     38     23     28     -5
13. Wikki Tourists     28     11     4     13     37     27     29     -2
14. Rivers United       26     10     6     10     36     18     18     0
15. Enugu Rangers     28     9     9     10     36     28     33     -5
16. Sunshine Stars      28     11     3     14     36     30     36     -6
17. ABS Ilorin            28     10     5     13     35     25     39     -14
18. Gombe United      28     9     7     12     34     26     35     -9
19. Shooting Stars       28     8     9     11     33     23     29     -6
20. Remo Stars           28     7     7     14     28     22     29     -7

2017 NPFL Match Day 29 fixtures

Sunday, July 16

ABS, Ilorin                    vs Rivers United  
MFM, Lagos                 vs Wikki Tourists 
Kano Pillars                  vs Enugu Rangers
Shooting Stars             vs Katsina United 
Lobi Stars FC              vs Remo Stars
FC IfeanyiUbah          vs Enyimba
Niger Tornadoes         vs Plateau United
Akwa United               vs Gombe United  
El-Kanemi Warriors  vs Abia Warriors 
Sunshine Stars           vs Nasarawa United 

Nigerian Inyang retains U12 tennis title in US

Nigerian junior tennis international, Gabriel Inyang has retained the Boys' U12 title

at the Beco International Tennis Championship in New York, the United States. Inyang, who will turn 12 later this month, defeated American Alexander Wenberg 8-6 in a keenly-contested final of the tournament.

The Victoria Garden City Club of Lagos super kid represented the IMG Academy, Florida in the tournament which featured over 30 kid players .

"It was a great match because the American was playing so well, but Gabriel was determined to win because I promised to reward him with gifts. He was so happy and all the coaches were commending him," Gabriel's dad, Richard, who doubles as his coach, said by phone last weekend.

Inyang made his debut for Nigeria in April emerging as Nigeria's best performer at the ITF/CAT West and Central Africa 12 and Under Championship in Lagos, winning two of his three singles matches.

Richard disclosed that the victory has set the tone for what should be another memorable outing by the time the talented prospect steps on court for the Freiburg tournament in early August in Florida.

"The priority here is to train and develop his skills but we are getting used to celebrating victory and as such we will work harder to amend sure that we win the next tournament in Florida.

At the 2016 Feiberg tournament, Gabriel defeated American Jack Patricof 6-3, 6-1, to win the top prize.

Caption: Inyang proudly displays his gong.

Ekundayo suffers first professional career defeat, misses WBO Inter-Continental title

Nigeria's Larry Ekundayo on Saturday night (July 8) suffered his first defeat of his professional career out of 13 fights which dashed his hope of becoming the WBO Inter-Continental welterweight champion at least for now.

The former Prizefighter champion after the superb 12-round vacant WBO Inter-Continental  title bout decided at Copper Box Arena, London, sensationally lost to Gary Corcoran the 'Hellraiser' by split decision.

The judges scored the bout 115-113, 114-113, 113-114 in favour of the home boy who raised his fight record to 17 wins with one loss.

After a scrappy opening exchanges, Ekundayo proved more than capable of fighting in the trenches, giving as good as he got in a heated fifth stanza.

By the seventh round, the two gladiators were exchanging vicious body punches mixed with short hooks to the head as they tried to establish supremacy and Corcoran suffered a cut above his left eye during the eighth round.

As the Nigerian fondly called the 'Natural' was pressed to a corner in the ninth, a combination of short counter hooks hurt Corcoran badly. 

Two left hooks from Ekundayo to start the tenth again hurt Corcoran and a further left hook almost floored him in a terrific tenth and by the championship rounds a grotesque swelling had developed over Ekundayo’s right eye.

After a fittingly brutal final round Corcoran was judged the split winner in a fight where both men come away with reputations enhanced.

An exasperated Ekundayo  now with (12-1) record after the defeat said: "I'm gutted but alive and well".
 ...........

Caption: Nigeria's Larry Ekundayo, beaten for the first time in the ring.


 

2017 NPFL Match Day 28 results, scorers

*Wikki Tourists 2 Kano Pillars    0
Ahmed Usman (8th min)
Chinedu Aneibor (48th min)

*Enugu Rangers        1 Shooting Stars  1
Godwin Aguda -Rangers (29th min)
Abu Azeez    -3SC     (80th min)

*Katsina United 2 Lobi Stars      1 

*Enyimba        3 Niger Tornadoes 0
Ikechukwu Ibenegbu (45th min)
Chinonso Okonkwo   (64th min)
Stanley Dimgba     (90th min)

*Plateau United 3 Akwa United 0
Emma James  (21st min)
Emeka Umeh  (86th min)
Kabiru Umar (90th min)  

*Gombe United   2 El-Kanemi Warriors 0

*Abia Warriors  2 Nasarawa United 0 
Emmanuel Makama (20th min)
Sunday Adetunji (85th min)

*ABS FC, Ilorin 2 Sunshine Stars 4
Sikiru Alimi     -Sunshine  (46th min)

Ajibola Otegbeye -Sunshine (55th min)
Samuel Oyedeji   -ABS      (61st min)
Ezekiel Thompson -Sunshine (76th min)
Chukwuebuka Anaekwe-ABS    (85th min)
Ezekiel Thompson -Sunshine (86th min)

*Rivers United  p MFM, Lagos      p

*Remo Stars     p FC IfeanyiUbah  p
....................
Caption: A Sunshine Stars player (right) dazzles during their 4-2 victory over ABS FC in a Match Day 28 NPFL game in Ilorin.

2017 NPFL Match Day 28 fixtures

Sunday, July 9, 2017
 
Rivers United      vs MFM, Lagos  (pp)
Wikki Tourists    vs Kano Pillars 
Rangers               vs Shooting Stars
Katsina United   vs Lobi Stars 
Remo Stars         vs FC IfeanyiUbah 
Enyimba             vs Niger Tornadoes 
Plateau United   vs Akwa United 
Gombe United   vs El-Kanemi Warriors
Abia Warriors   vs Nasarawa United 
ABS FC, Ilorin  vs Sunshine Stars

Team Oluyole face Teams Anambra, Police College for 2017 NCC Tennis League ticket

Oyo State will have to engage in playoffs to make debut in the 2017 season of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Tennis League Cup and the players of Team Oluyole are in high spirits to clinch a ticket.
 
Team Oluyole of Ibadan will confront Team Anambra of Onitsha and Team Police College of Ikeja for the last available spot for the 2017 season scheduled to kick off next month.
 
According to the draws held recently in Lagos by the International Tennis Academy, organisers of the championship, 14 teams including six new entrants registered for the 12-team League including six new teams, while Ekiti, Ibadan and Jos join the host cities for the 2017 season.
 
The organisers said 11 teams bagged automatic spots based on their collective team rankings of players, while the three-lowly rated teams have to go for the play-offs in Lagos for the last spot a week to the kick off of the main League.
 
Top 10 players were awarded three points, top 20 two points and the rest one point each to arrive at the team rankings. 

 The Blue Group consists of 2015 champions, Team NSCDC of Abuja; Team Kalotari of Port Harcourt; Team Muller of Lagos, Team Optiweb of Ilorin; Team VGC Lions of Lagos and the qualifier from the playoffs.

The White Group has defending champions, Team Offikwu of Kaduna; Team Ndoma-Egba; Team Goshen of Ilorin; Team CBN Futures of Lagos; Team Oyetade of Ekiti and Team Tech Vibe of Jos. The top two finishers in each group qualify for semi-finals and on to the finals.

Vice chairman of the Oyo State Tennis Association, Mr Babatunde Oyediran said Team Oluyole would have earned automatic slot, but for 'late' registration just as he expressed hope that his players won't let the opportunity slip off. 

"We didn't register in time for the league if not, we would not have been part of the teams to engage in playoffs but all the same, there is no cause for alarm. Our players are determined and they are ready to do the needful to make our debut in the NCC League a reality," Oyediran said.

He stated that Team Oluyole boast tested players who can make things happen for the state.
"We have quality players who can deliver the goods like Wale Samson, Wasiu Ibrahim, Sunday Okechukwu and three others, while our female players are Colleen Orji and Bukola Popoola. We hope to make a good representation in the league as this serves as a great opportunity
for our players to play themselves into national reckoning," Oyediran said.
 
Meanwhile, aside the winner of the NCC Tennis League going home with N7million, the runner up with N5million and the third and fourth placed teams getting N3million and N2million as prize money, each of the 12 teams will also receive N500,000 as logistic support from the
organisers for participation.

It will be recalled, that Team Offikwu won the NCC Tennis League last year in their debut and went home with N7million as prize money.

Team Tombim got N5million for coming second, while Team Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) finished third with N3million as prize money as Team FCT received N2million for finishing fourth in the then 10-team league format.
.............
Caption: One of the female players of Team Oluyole, Collen Orji before a game. She is battle-ready for the NCC Tennis League playoffs.