Nalanda and Seethadevi clinch Cup Championships

The 14th edition of the Annual Blue and Gold Hockey 7s, organized by Royal College along with their Hockey Club (RCHC) was concluded last evening at the Royal College grounds, Colombo.

From the participating 55 girls and boys teams from all over the country, Nalanda College, Colombo and Seethadevi Girls School, Kandy clinched the cup championships.

Photo Album – Royal Hockey 7s 2015 -(Day – 01)

Blue and Gold Hockey 7s is one of the first inter-school tournaments to be organized in the island in the recent past, providing an opportunity for the players from different provinces to meet up and battle against each other for the Cup, Bowl and Plate Championships. The main purpose of organizing this tournament is to improve the standards of hockey by bringing teams from all around the island to one place to display some beautiful and exciting hockey. The tournament was supervised by 18 professional umpires nominated by the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation and a panel including 03 International umpires. All the group matches were played on day 1 and the tournament then progressed to the pre quarter finals, quarter finals and semifinal rounds on the final day.

In the girls’ third/fourth place play-off of the Cup segment, Musaeus College secured third place by beating Ladies’ College by one goal to nil. Lithma Kumaradasa scored the only goal during the latter part of the match. Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya lost the third place match of the Plate championship to Visakha Vidyalaya by one penalty stroke after the match ended during regulation time. Meanwhile, in the Bowl segment Panadura Balika emerged victorious to secure 3rd place over Girls High School by two goals to nil.

In the boys’ third/fourth place play-offs Royal College established a comfortable win by three goals to nil over the boys of the Dharmadutha College. In the Plate segment, D.S. Senanayake College, Colombo took on St. Thomas’ College, Matale and secured a win by beating the Matale stickers by one goal. The third/fourth place play-off for the Bowl segment was between St. Aloysius and St. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia with St. Aloysius coming out on top by two goals to nil.

The much awaited finals of the three segments were played in agreeable weather as the rain clouds died out, making way for the teams to battle it out in the most anticipated part of the tournament.

Seethadevi Girls School, Kandy started off their campaign by beating Bishops College, Colombo, they extended their unbeaten streak in the tournament by winning against Visakha Vidyalaya, Bandarawela in their other group stage match. In the Pre Quarters and Quarter finals they knocked out Christ Church, Matale and Southland College, Galle respectively. By beating Musaeus College in the semifinals they once again met Bishops College in the finals which they ended up winning by 04 goals to nil to clinch the Cup Championship of the 2015 edition of the Blue and Gold Hockey Sevens.

Meanwhile Nalanda College lifted the boys Cup Championship by beating Joseph Vaz, Wennappuwa by 02 goals to 01. In the road to finals, Nalanda College held down all the teams to appear against them and remained unbeaten in the entire tournament. In the group matches beat Isipathana College, St. Aloysius College and Richmond College, Galle. In the Pre Quarters, Vijaya College, Matale went down against the nimble footed Nalanda stickers. During the quarter finals they took down D.S. Senanayake College and Dharmadutha College in the semifinals.

In the Plate finals for the girls, Janadhipathi College took down Southlands College, Galle by 02 goals to nil to secure the Plate Championship and in the boys category Zahira College registered an easy win over Christ Church College.

Christ Church Girls team secured the bowl title by beating the St. Joseph’s Girls in the final while Zahira College, Colombo defeated Vijaya College, Matale to lift the same championship in the boys category.

Sakundala Ilayapperuma from Seethadevi Girls School and Chamalka Rukshan from Joseph Vaz won the best goal keeper award for girls and boys respectively while Shehani Fernando from Seethadevi Girls School and Jeewantha Pasan Edirisinghe of Nalanda College were named the best players of the 14th Blue and Gold Hockey 7s 2015.