As the Royal-Thomian season begins, the badminton match between the two reputed schools has been scheduled to be played on the 23rd of this month at the S. Thomas’ College Sports Complex at 3PM.
This year’s encounter will be the 9th rendition of the event and will include U19 and U16 age categories as per tradition.
The Thomians are under pressure to bring back the trophy this year as the last time they won this encounter was way back in 2010. The team is looking good this year with 4 coloursmen in the side and this could finally be the year they turn the tables on Royal. The Royalists, on the other hand, are looking to maintain their undefeated streak and despite having only 2 coloursmen in their team, they are sure to play a exciting brand of Badminton.
The S. Thomas’ side is led by Rehan Wijesekara whilst the Royal side is led by Dinuka Kaluarachchi, both of whom are experienced coloursmen, looking to bring glory to their school.
The winner of the encounter will be decided by a best of 5 matches consisting of 3 singles and 2 doubles matches. Each match will have up to 3 sets of 21 points to decide a winner.
The Teams (U19)
| S. Thomas’ College | Royal College |
| Rehan Wijesekera | Dinuka Kaluarachchi |
| Pasindu Wannisinghe | Harindu Adikari |
| Vinul Fernando | Thevin Rahubedda |
| Shehan Karunadasa | Nilesh Wijsekara |
| Lashan Mendis | Binara Kariyawasam |
| Adeesh Peter | Adithya Hettiarachi |
| Ravindu Peiris | Kisal Ekanayake |
The Thomian captain Rehan shared his thoughts on their chances this year with ThePapare, saying, “both teams have an equal chance of winning this year but our team has been practicing very hard for this. We hope to overcome our mistakes from last year to come out on top and bring back the trophy to college. I would like to wish our counterparts from Royal College the best of luck.”
Come by on the 23rd of September to find out which team emerges on top as they battle it out for the Ranil Wijesekara Challenge trophy.
