Ramble New Testament Church emerged champions of the western region in the inaugural staging of the National Association of Domino Bodies (NADB)/New Testament Super Dozen competition, after defeating Lucea New Testament Church on Saturday.

Ramble New Testament Church won 72-62 at Water Lane New Testament Church in Montego Bay, in what turned out to be a two-team battle due to insufficient teams.

The gospel men from Ramble New Testament Church received their championship trophy for winning the region and will join north-eastern region champions Port Antonio New Testament Church; eastern-region champions Portmore New Testament Church; and central region champions Spring Field New Testament Church in the national play-offs later this month.

Carl Mitchell, the National Sports Ministry director for the New Testament Churches, thinks that the initiative of a domino competition in churches will connect with people and win souls.

“We have recognised that this domino competition is really doing a great justice to the gathering of men in the various churches within the communities that they are situated. As we endeavour to use this competition as an evangelism thrust to reach men, we are very grateful for the response that we have got from our correspondents. Within every organisation team work is very important, and seeing what is happening in the Jamaica we are hoping that results of our objectives must be to the greater good,” Mitchell said.

Despite the low turnout of teams, Mitchell said it was a very competitive match.

“It was never a dull moment…it was a very competitive game from the only two teams that were present, due to the fact that others had transportation problems. Ramble New Testament Church and Lucea made it very interesting going at it at both tables in winning games consecutively.

“Having this type of competition for churches is very effective in how we position ourselves as a body to help impact the nation-building. We believe that even though we never got the full complement of teams, it was a fairly good day’s worth of competitiveness and fellowship,” said Mitchell.

Humbert Davis, first vice-president of NADB, saidthe game of dominoes is the best way to reach out and build a better society.

“Domino is important to us as [a] people that we try everything to affiliate ourselves with the sport, because at the end of the day it would be how, when, where, and why. And so this year we have a theme called ‘Create Impact’, and we saw it fit that we could not have left the churches out of it.

“To create a greater impact on society we need the churches. A lot of people in the churches want to play domino and in doing so, we can reach out to others as well and also reach out to the society as well,” Davis told the Jamaica Observer.