Sports
Vineyard sports fans who love edge-of-your-seat contests had a good holiday week as both the boys’ hockey and boys’ basketball teams went down to the wire in thrilling but ultimately disappointing games.
The basketball team lost 55-54 to Harwich in the final seconds of the second round of the Cape and Islands Christmas Classic in Mashpee on Saturday, while the boys’ hockey team on the same day skated to a 5-5 tie against Bourne in an early season match-up of old rivals.
A plan to require all saltwater recreational fishermen to obtain either a state or federal license has been postponed a year to January 2010. The notice by federal fisheries authorities came out recently; a plan to establish a Massachusetts recreational fishing license has also been postponed.
Paul Diodati, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said he is pleased by the delay, as it gives federal authorities more time to work out details for the license.
The question of what is a harvestable sized bay scallop will be the subject of a public hearing next week on the Cape. The state Division of Marine Fisheries is hosting the hearing at 3 p.m. on Jan. 6 to gather input, following emergency action they took last fall to quiet a dispute between fishermen and regulators.
The hearing will take place at the Barnstable Senior Center, 825 Falmouth Road, Route 28 in Hyannis.
In the start of what is expected to be another strong season, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School hockey team rolled over Mansfield at home Saturday 7-1 before taking down perennial power Whitman Hanson two days later 4-2.
The Vineyarders took eight shots on goal in the first period against Mansfield Saturday and connected three times as Jock Cooperrider, Elliot Bilzerian and Tad Gold all found the back of the net. Nick Billingham gave the home team a fourth goal in the second period, and the Vineyarders added three more in the final frame.
The Vineyard high school football team may have suffered a disappointing finish to the season — losing 40-19 to Amesbury in the Division 3A state championship game — but there has been much to be positive about in recent weeks as the postseason awards continued to pile up.
It was the last day of shotgun season for deer hunting and the state forest was the place to be to bag a buck before the sun went down. Or a land bank property. Or a private estate, for those with permission.
No hunter would have thought to look inside the old Edgartown School, where one deer was either smart enough or lucky enough to avoid the business end of a shotgun.