The MSA(UK) EGM of 2003 and its colourful events ended after a very grand, festive, challenging and enjoyable time in London. The EGM was held at 9 Rosemont Avenue, London from 11th -13th April 2003. Members arrived for the EGM on Friday, 11th April 2003 and started to depart after the Big Match on Sunday, 13th April 2003. The last group of members left London around 18:00Hrs on Tuesday, 15 April 2003.

There were a number of competitions, games and a quiz competition held before the meeting. The fun activities started on 12th April 2003, with a cricket match between Notorious Gangsters and Humble Followers. The cricket match was played at the Finchley grounds. Notorious Gangsters (NG) won the match by thrashing Humbles' by 32 runs. Jameel, Captain of the Notorious Gangsters was declared man of the match after making the highest number of runs.

Other competitions in games such as pool, carrom, chess and scrabble started just after the cricket match at 14:00hrs. All the members who attended the meeting, took part in all the events held. "It was great to see all the members united and taking part in all the competitions" said the Central Committee members.

Due to the large number of members taking part, the pool competition was held as doubles championship and 12 teams took part in the competition. Due to time constraints, the pool competition was not completed and three teams reached the semi-finals by the end of allocated time. The three teams were: Faya & Iya, Shafiu & Nashi and Muna & Mumthaz´s team. The Central Committee is planning to hold the final match in sometime during the summer vacation and the winners will be announced and prizes will be given accordingly.

Carrom was another favourite competition among members. This is a completely new event to our gatherings. The matches were played to a knock-out system and the finalist were Ugail and Haidhar among the 24 members who took part. The final match was very challenging. The Champion title was won by Ugail. Haidhar was declared as the runner-up.

In chess, the final match was played between Shafiu and Ugail. Shafiu won the match to become the Chess King.

Scrabble competition was also held togather with the other three competitions. Due to time constraints and also due to huge demand, the scrabble competition was played among four members at a time. Hasna Haidar, London took the MSA(UK) Scrabble Queen title by achieving  the highest score among all the participants.

The Central Committee also arranged a quiz competition for the members offering a touch screen organiser as a prize to the winner. The main aim of this quiz was to increase the knowledge about MSA(UK). The questions were all about MSA(UK) and based on the information provided on the MSA(UK) website. 30% of the participants managed to answer all the questions correctly.

The winner of the quiz competition was picked at random by Mr Adam Hassan and the winner was Saamy from London. The winners of the events were announced by the Central Committee during the meeting and the prizes were given by the Special Guest, Mr Adam Hassan, The Maldivian High Commissioner in London.

During the meeting, Mumthaz and Riffath launched the present MSA(UK) website and the MSA(UK) Forum as a platform for discussion within the members. Mumthaz gave technical information about the forum and website to the members. He also expressed his thanks on behalf of the Web team to all those who have helped in many ways to launch the website and forum.

After the meeting, all members gathered around the dinner table for the grand “farikkolhu” with many delicious dishes on the table. After enjoying the meal, members then proceeded to Hollywood Bowl, for bowling. The event became more enchanting by the presence of Mr and Mrs Adam Hassan and Ms Amaal Ali with the rest of the members. Ahmed Shafiu (Shafiu) from Manchester made the highest score of 130 points and Nasheeda Gasim (Nashee), from London was the highest female scorer with 124 points.

After bowling, other activities continued through out the night. These include "Lava Bazee", "Bondi Boa", Snatch, Good Morning Sir, carrom and joke sessions.

There were some members steaming their brains trying to solve brain teaser questions. This kept them awake throughout the entire night and some people complain that this was a strategy used by questioners to keep them awake and make them tired and weaker towards the Big Match. After a hectic day of physical activities and draining their brains off, members finally had a nap for few hours before the big match.

The big match was played on Sunday afternoon at 12:00Hrs at Finchley grounds. Unlike other days, the climatic conditions were extremely good and with top temperature reaching 20°C which was morale boosting for the players from both sides. The football match was played between London vs UK United. The Londoners kept the title by beating UK United by 9-5 goals. UK United fought well with Londoners and the winning 4 goals were scored in the last 20 minutes of the match. Irfan and Shifan from London team were the highest goal scorers by scoring 4 goals each. Faya (famously known as F.A) scored three goals for UK United. After a great time of football members returned to Rosemont to conclude the EGM and its events.

MSA(UK) central committee said the gathering as "very successful" while they were leaving the validity of their claim entirely to the satisfaction of the members. “We tried very hard to make the EGM and its events as much enjoyable to our members, but we will count it as a success depending on the satisfaction of our members”, says Jeku, Chairperson. He added, “We are also looking forward to arrange more fun events during the year, especially during the summer vacation and also to have a grand AGM this December”. Neeza, Secretary stated “We have learnt a lot from this EGM and based on our experience and lessons learned, we will try to make the rest of the events planned for the year more organised and enjoyable.”

Habaru Issey, Student Advisor expressed his happiness as the EGM environment was very friendly and welcoming. "It was nice to see all the members united and having a good time during the EGM. The atmosphere was excellent and I hope members enjoyed the EGM and their stay with us" concluded Habaru Issey.

MSA(UK) Central Committee and the Web Team extends their warmest gratitude and thanks to all the members who attended the EGM and also to all the people who helped them in various ways to host this successful EGM. “There are many people who, one way or the other contributed towards the EGM. Some of them were present, some were not, but still did help greatly in this festive gathering. Without their contributions we could not have done this so successfully” says Iya, Treasurer. Therefore, a Big Thank You goes to all the people who helped make the EGM a very successful one.

EGM 2003 - Photo Gallery  popup slide show

If you have any comments or ideas how we could further improve, please write to committee@msa-uk.org