The 11th annual Blue and Gold Hockey Sevens organized by Royal College and their Hockey Club (RCHC) will be staged on October 13 and 14 at the Royal College Sports Complex. This year the tournament organizers expect over 600 participants to take part in the gala hockey extravaganza. The tournament was inaugurated in 2002 by [...]

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Over 600 participants expected

Eleventh ‘Blue and Gold’ hockey sevens
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The 11th annual Blue and Gold Hockey Sevens organized by Royal College and their Hockey Club (RCHC) will be staged on October 13 and 14 at the Royal College Sports Complex.

This year the tournament organizers expect over 600 participants to take part in the gala hockey extravaganza. The tournament was inaugurated in 2002 by the RCHC which was formed by 20 former hockey players of Royal College in 1991. Their purpose was to promote the game within Royal itself and build up a good reputation and coordination with other hockey playing schools in the country. But as years passed by few prominent veterans of the game came up with the idea of initiating a tournament that many teams could take part.

This year over 600 participants are expected to take part in the gala hockey extravaganza.

At the beginning the tournament was conducted with two motives. Originally the RCHC looked at this competition as an avenue to strengthen the Royal College hockey team. In addition their idea was to invite over 20 teams for the first competition while in contrast they had to expect the unexpected according to tournament officials. However the first year 24 teams participated and it was a major boost up for the organizers. From a humble beginning the Blue and Gold Hockey Sevens made its headway to become a leading and eagerly looked forward to annual event.

The defending champions Royal College are in line for a hat-trick of championships will face stiff challenge from last year’s runners-up Vijaya College, Matale, the National Schools Games runner-up St. Thomas College Matale, and Wesley College. Also in the fray are Christ Church College Matale, Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa and St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena.

In the girl’s category defending champions Pushpadana Girls College, Kandy will be up against last year’s runners-up Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo and 2012 National Schools Games Champions Musaeus College. But St. Anthony’s Kandy, Janadhipathi Balika Nawala and Seethadevi Balika Vidyalaya, Kandy will not let the defending champs and top sides settle this year.

This invitational hockey tournament which has been a regular event in the schools hockey calendar will host over 55 boys and girls teams from all parts of Sri Lanka.

This tournament has been sanctioned by the Sri Lanka Schools Hockey Association and Sri Lanka Hockey Federation. The tournament will be conducted in three different categories where all teams after clashing in groups will be divided into Cup, Plate and Bowl segments. Special awards for the most outstanding player of the tournament and the best goal keeper too will be presented. The tournament will be supervised by 16 professional umpires nominated by the Sri Lanka Hockey Umpires Association and the panel also includes three international umpires.

The opening ceremony of the Blue and Gold Hockey Sevens will be held on October 13 at 8.00am followed by the group stage matches. After the group stage, the semi-finals of each category will begin from 2.30pm on October 14 with the finals being scheduled from 3.45pm followed by the awards ceremony. – NA




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