Ananda- Royal joint champs

By L.D. Chandrasiri

Ananda College – Colombo and Royal College Colombo were declared joint boys champions, when Royal held Ananda to a one all draw in the final of the all island Under 15 Hockey Tournament – 2006 concluded a day ahead of schedule at Nandimitra Ekanayake Synthetic turf in Matale on Tuesday October 17th.

Ananda led by Geemal Dias dominated the first half totally to earn their goal through centre forward Hasitha Lakruwan to lead by 1-0 at the breather, but in the second half, Royalists led by Marlan Senanayake displayed their true fighting spirit and shortly before the final whistle, right inside Chirantha Wijesinghe scored a goal for his side to level the score. Indrawansa Herath and I. Jayawardhane controlled the final.

In the run up to the finals Ananda beat St. Joseph’s Colombo 1-0 in the quarter finals and beat Vijaya Matale 1-0 in the semi finals while Royal beat St. Sylvester’s Kandy 3-0 on penalties.

In the decider for the third place Vijaya beat Nalanda 3-1 on penalty strokes after the game ended in a nil all draw.

The defending champions Seetha Devi Balika Kandy led by Geethika Nandasena retained the girl’s title with a 1-0 win over fancied Visaka Vidyalaya Bambalapitiya in the final played at the same venue. Left inside Upeksha Tilakaratne scored the winning goal in the second half. M. Karunaratne and S. Jayasinghe umpired.

Seetha Devi beat Yasodara Balika Colombo 1-0 and Visaka beat Pushpananda Girls Kandy 2-0 in their respective semi finals.

A hat-trick by Ishara Sandamali (First half 1 & second half 2) gave Pushpananda a 3-0 win over Yasodara Balika Colombo in the girls play off for the third place.