why Government didn't purchase the property and preserve its sporting history.

Sporting groups, including the Devonshire-based Wolves Sports Club, had shown some interest in the facility but couldn't afford the asking price.

The six-acre property was eventually purchased by Montessori Academy for $3.5 million and will be converted into a school. The long-term future of rugby and field hockey on the site is uncertain.

"I called up the David Lopes' show once when they were talking about it and said it's a shame because probably once in a lifetime you are going to see a club like that being sold,'' said Sousa.

"I was brought up down there, I've been around Nationals since I was five or six years old. I played all my sports for Nationals, cricket, soccer, every sport that Nationals had I represented them,'' he said proudly. "I was surprised Government didn't step in. In fact at a cocktail party before Cup Match at Camden I spoke to the Sports Minister (Dennis Lister) and Randy Horton, and told them that Nationals were negotiating the sale of the club.

For three-and-a-half million that's a steal. I told Dennis Lister we have houses in Bermuda worth more than that! "You Devonshire Colts looking for a home, Wolves looking for a home, Flatts cricket team looking for somewhere. I have nothing against Montessori but I was hoping to keep it in the sports arena, maybe Government purchasing it and using it as an academy for cricket and football.'' Sousa was a part of the Nationals cricket team in their heyday in the 1970s, but gradually interest in cricket amongst the members began to wane to the point where the team dropped out of the league in 1993 and then came back again in 1994, only to fold again at the end of the 1996 season, a year after finishing second in the league. "Interest started to dwindle once we lost the cricket team,'' he said.

"They tried to put on different activities at the club but they weren't getting the numbers. They tried softball in the evenings for families, it was a success for a while then fell off.

"People just weren't supporting the club. I could see the writing on the wall for a while.

"It's a sorry time, I think a lot of clubs are going that way,'' he believes.

"I remember the days when rugby and hockey were big and you had two or three thousand people down there, but even that is declining.

"Club life is a dying life, people have families and a lot of other things going on. I wasn't spending much time down there myself, I live in St. David's and have a nine-year-old son and a wife.''