The Ellawala Water Polo league is one of Sri Lanka’ premier Water Polo league tournaments under the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union and was held over the past two weekends starting from the 15th of July to the 23rd of July 2017 at the Sugathadasa Swimming Pool Complex, Colombo.
The First match of the tournament for the Royal team was on the 15th of July against Sri Lanka Air Force. College was down 2-1 in the first quarter. Royal made a comeback of 7-5 by half time and dominated the rest of the match to with a final score of 13-7. The second match was on the same day against Sri Lanka Army team. The boys from Reid Avenue had the upper hand from the first whistle onwards by scoring 6-0 in the first quarter and 5-0 in the second. Royal won the match the match quite comfortably with a final score of 17-5.

The second day of the tournament was on Sunday the 16th of July where Royal College Colombo faced off against traditional rivals St. Thomas college Mt. Lavania. This was a very tight match where Royal lost the first quarter 2-1 and both team scored 1 goal each in the second quarter leading to an aggregate score of 2-3 by half time. Royal made a good comeback in the third and fourth quarters of the match resulting in a 7-4 victory.

On the third day which was the 22nd of July, the Royal team first faced off against the Royal College ‘B’ team at their third match. The Royal A team managed to gain a comfortable win with a dominant final score of 25-0. The fourth match for Reid Avenue was against the Old Thomian Swimming Club. This match was rather neck and neck with a half time score of 5-5 but the boys from Royal managed to pull off the victory with a final score of 9-6.

The Fifth and final match for Royal was against SSC this was the most crucial match for both teams as it was the league decider thus the victor would emerge as champions of the the tournament. Royal lost the first quarter 2-3 and managed to par with SSC on the second quarter 1-1. Royal managed to score the first goal in the third quarter levelling the aggregate score. Royal went on to win the third quarter 2-1. As the game lies within reach of both teams, Royal manages dominate the final quarter and out class SSC by winning 5-2 resulting in a final score of 10-7 in favor of Royal College, Colombo.

Furthermore, Royal College emerged victorious at the Ellawala League for the first time in a laps of 8 years. This victory was of utmost prestige as the boys from Reid Avenue pull it off staying unbeaten.

In addition,
Shamod Edirisinghe, Isiwaruna De silva, Dulanjan Fernando and Sawinda Dissanayake were amongst the top 5 goal scorers in the tournament.