The prestigious Royal Wesley Hockey Encounter for the Dudley K.G. De Silva Memorial Shield that began in 2007 has been an encounter that is looked forward to in the Sri Lankan Hockey Calendar. As both teams have been a peak performer in the top flight of schools Hockey in Sri Lanka, this encounter has always proved to be an encounter worthy of its name.

The defending champions Royal were favored to emerge on top at the final whistle but history shows Wesley College thrives on being the underdogs that always tend to surprise teams and produce shock results. With the overall tally at 6 wins to Royal, 1 draw and one solitary win to Wesley, the Wesley blues were ready to catch up to Royal and hurt the side from Reid avenue with the dangerous counter attacking style of Hockey that Wesley is well renown for. However, they failed to cope up with brilliant skills and fantastic team work displayed by Royal College, as the lads from Reid Avenue comprehensively thrashed their opponents by a massive 9 goals to 1.

Proceedings of the day commenced with the presence of Mr. Asela de Livera who was the captain of Royal hockey as well as a College prefect in the year 1971 as the chief guest at this year’s encounter. The match commenced at 4.p.m with the skies gloomy and set to pour down. After a period of scrappy play by both sides, Royal started to show their dominance in possession with the Wesley  defense constantly being exploited by the Royal forwards. The awarding of a penalty corner led to the first goal of the game with the Royal captain Malith Rasanga dribbling through the bunch of defenders and putting Royal in the lead. A few minutes later, the Royal forward Shaheer Bari slipped one through the Wesley Goal keeper’s legs to make it 2-0. Royal skipper Malith Rasanga converted a penalty stroke seconds before half time and thus Royal led 3-0 at the breather.

The second half saw Royal completely dominate proceedings with diminutive Pasindu Charuke scoring a hat-trick of goals while the left winger Furqan Irfan contributing to the scoreline. . However Wesley No. 4 Abishek Devdas managed to pull one back by scoring off  a penalty corner that took a deflection off a Royal defenders stick into the Royal goal to make it 7-1. A quick fire thrust from Royal resulted in winning a penalty stroke which was converted by center half Nelaka Wedagama and he followed up with another spectacular goal to seal the game with the final score reading a 9-1 thus giving Royal a spectacular record breaking victory.

Royal Skipper Malith Rasanga was awarded as the most outstanding player. The champion Royal team is coached by Mr. Rohan Dissanayake.