Royal clinch Lennie De Silva, Orville Abeynaike trophies

Thursday, 20 November 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Royal College, this year’s national school hockey champions, beat Kingswood College Kandy convincingly to retain the Lennie De Silva memorial Trophy for the sixth time in Colombo on Tuesday, while they also beat their archrivals S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia to secure the Orville Abeynaike trophy on Wednesday.

Royalist overcame Kingswood by 5-0 to win the title in the match held in astro turf with the encounter hosted by the Royal College. Royal’s left-extreme Malitha Gamage sounded the board to score the first goal while right inside Anojan Ganasen scored the second goal for Royal in the first half to lead the game 2-0 at lemons. In the second half, Royal skipper and right inside Shahir Bhari sounded the boards twice to help his side, while centre forward Imad Dole scored a solitary goal to end the game with a 5-0 lead at the close. Royal has won the title six times while Kingswood has won only once in the encounter between the two schools. Three games have ended as draws.

In the junior match played earlier, Royal beat Kingswood by 2-1 to win the Dr. Roshan Kathab trophy. Royal won the Orville Abeynaike trophy against S. Thomas’ College with a 3-0 score line. The match was held at the S. Thomas College grounds with Royal’s right extreme Thineth Karunaratne opening the account when the centre forward Imad Dole passed the ball after dribbling. Royal led 1-0 at lemons. In the second half left extreme Malithra Gunarathne scored the second goal for Royal College from a penalty corner. In the dying minutes, Royal centre half Nelaka Wedagama sounded the board to finish the game 3-0 and win the Orville Abeynaike trophy for the fifth time in the last 15 years.

The Thomians, however, still lead the tally with seven wins while three games have ended in draws. The clash officially got underway in the year 2000, with the trophy being named as the Orville Abeynaike Trophy, in memory of an eminent old Thomian who was a Sub Warden at S. Thomas’ College, while also coaching them at hockey during the 1970s. Royal centre forward Imad Dole was chosen as the best player in this year’s encounter.