Royal Reclaims Lennie De Silva trophy

The conclusion of the proceedings on the 28th of November saw Royal College outshine their opponents Kingswood College, Kandy to add yet another trophy to the halls of Reid Avenue as they have been consistently doing so all year round.

The Astro Turf first witnessed the encounter of the two junior sides battling it out under the ever present Colombo’s drizzling weather conditions for the prestigious Kathab Roshan Memorial trophy. Goals from Sachithra gamage ensured that the under 15 Royal side had a comfortable 2 goal lead at the break. However a penalty corner at the start of the second half saw Kingswood forward score to make it 2-1,and as just as the hill country visitors started to find their rhythm, a goal from the Royal centre half put the game beyond the reach of the Kingswood side.

The 1st XI encounter for the coveted Lennie De Silva trophy kicked off at 3.pm with the pouring skies pausing just at the right time. This game was to be the last time representing college wearing the iconic Blue and Gold jersey for 9 senior players that had been representing college hockey since 2005.

Royal who got the game underway started to show real promise of an early goal only to have their chances gone astray due to their own unforced blunders in the final third. The kingswood side capitalized on this and started to counterattack from defence and deployed long balls to their forwards who played higher up in the field. Due to poor finishing and great pressure from the Royal full backs Ranchana Abeyratne and Adeesha Perera the kingswood forwards were dreadful in attack.

The Royal forwards who realised the defensive approach of the opposition was hindering their chances of scoring started to create fouls and won a penalty corner that Royal Vice Captain Imaadh Dole flicked through the oncoming rushers to sound the board and draw first blood in favour of Royal. Soon after an overhead pass by Vindula Jayalath to fresher Pasindu Charuke resulted in a great Diagonal cross to the right end of the field which was misjudged by the Kingswood shot stopper in goal allowing the Royal no 7 Thineth Karunaratne with a simple tap in. It was clear that the Royal was firmly in the driving seat and it was just a matter of by how many goals they would win. The Third goal came after a host of chances being missed by the home side when Royal Captain Malith Rasanga skilfully played a one-two pass with his second in command Imaadh Dole who skilfully dodged past a hoard of Red and blue shirts and chipped the keeper.

The second half saw a much slower tempo to the game as Royal took their foot off the gas and started to enjoy the game. However the Kingswood side wasn’t ready to call the quits yet and started to penetrate the Royal defence with some skilful interceptions and dribbles through the midfield only to see their efforts being stopped by the Royal goalie Sharounthan Balendran who was in form. Just as the Kingswood players started to dominate the game a brilliant counterattack which started all the way from the Royal backline saw Thineth Karunaratne burst with speed catching the defenders who had committed Upfield to cross the ball into the path of Royal winger Pasindu Charuke to score into an empty net and end the game in favor of Royal.

Royal wrap up the perfect season winning all four trophy encounters.