ANOTHER season over. Another Village celebration.

Bermuda's own `mighty Reds' and their fans can walk tall after wrapping up their second successive football league and cup double at the National Sports Centre last Sunday.

As reported in yesterday's Gazette, there's every chance their players and coach will also make a sweep of the individual honours at tomorrow night's annual Bermuda Football Association awards presentation.

And few would begrudge them that.

It's open to argument whether the current Village side are in the same class as the all-conquering Red Devils who dominated during the 1970s. Ralph Bean, Wendell Baxter, Joe Trott and company were probably the most talented and without doubt most entertaining team seen in domestic soccer over the past 30 years.

But that's not to take anything away from the club's 2003 champions.

After a shaky start to this season, it was work rate and commitment that carried them through to what in the end was a dominating performance in again securing the two most coveted trophies.

In the League, their cause was helped by a lack of consistency on the part of any of their rivals and in the FA Cup, Devonshire Cougars' fatal error in fielding an ineligible player in their semi-final win over First Division Prospect virtually handed Village the prize on a silver platter.

Yet it has to be said, Scott Morton's men would have been favourites no matter who they had met on the `carpet.'

Such was the topsy-turvy nature of this season's campaign, with teams seemingly one week threatened by relegation and the next challenging for the title - such wild fluctuations are always going to occur in an eight-team league - it was difficult to assess any of Village's rivals.

Indeed, lack of consistency was a common affliction.

More the pity, then, that Village players won't get chance to test their skills against more accomplished opposition.

Bermuda teams no longer compete in the CONCACAF club championships which in years past saw sides such as PHC and Hotels take on the best in the Caribbean and Central America.

But there might have been a strong case to send Village, as Bermuda's representatives, to this summer's Small Island Games in Guernsey.

As with Bermuda Track and Field Association, the BFA declined an invitation.

However, while they might not have wanted to send a senior national team, offering Village the chance to fly the flag on their behalf would have been a nice gesture and a fitting reward for the club.

It would also have offered international exposure - albeit limited - to players who rarely get chance to compete outside the domestic league.

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BERMUDA Cricket Board's decision to appoint a full-time executive director is a step in the right direction.

Some might say it's a step long overdue.

Gone are the days when any national sport can be run purely by volunteers and cricket, in particular, has reached a crossroads where it desperately requires the attention of a professional whose role will be to strengthen all aspects of the game's administration.

As BCB president Reggie Pearman pointed out, the successful candidate will need to be an `all-rounder' - knowledgeable of the game but equally as important equipped to make business and financial decisions which will ultimately shape cricket's future.

If such a person exists locally, all the better, but if not there should be no hesitation in seeking applications from overseas.

In the right hands, it's a post that could do much towards turning around local cricket's flagging fortunes.

- ADRIAN ROBSON