Vijaya College Matale completes hattrick

By L.D. Chandrasiri

The reigning Champions Vijaya College Matale completed a hattrick, when they defeated Joseph Vaz – Wennappuwa by 3 goals to one (1) to retain the ‘A.J. Wijesinghe Memorial Trophy’ at the 3rd A.J. Wijesinghe Memorial Inter-school, 9-a-side hockey tournament 2006 for boys under-19 concluded at the Nandimitra Ekanayake Synthetic turf in Matale on Sunday.

This tournament was inaugurated in 2003 by the old boys of St. Thomas’, Matale in honour of late Mr. A.J. Wijesinghe who was the Principal from 1962 to 1982.

In the 8th minute of play Milan Ariyawansa put Matale Vijayans one up and two minutes later Shantha De Mel made it 2-0. N.K. Bandaranayake added the third goal for Vijayans in the 15th minute of play to lead by 3-0 at the short whistle.

Joseph Vaz claimed their solitary goal through Upul Danushka Fernando in the 25th minute of play.

I. Jayawardhane and S.S. Jayasinghe controlled the final.

Semi finals: Vijaya beat St. Thomas’ Matara 5-0 and Joseph Vaz beat St. Thomas’ Matale on penalties 3-0.
In the decider for the third place St. Thomas’ Matale beat St. Thomas’ Matara 2-0.
C.J.Nanayakkara claimed both goals for St. Thomas’ Matale.

D.M. Sapugasgodage of Vijaya was adjudged as the best player of the tournament while the award for the best goal keeper was won by N. Fernando of Joseph Vaz Wennappuwa.

Milan Ariyawansa, the live wire in the Vijayan attack with a tally of 12 goals – 5 against St. Thomas’ Matara and one against Trinity Kandy in the first round matches, four goals over St. Thomas’ Matara in the semi finals and one against Joseph Vaz in the final – won the award for the highest goal shooter.