Blue and Gold Hockey 7’s; 56 teams vie for title

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The 16th edition of the Royal College Blue & Gold All Island Schools Hockey tournament started off today at the Royal College Grounds Read Avenue. This annual tournament is sponsored by Singer Sri Lanka for the 15th consecutive year in success. The chief guest at the opening ceremony was Mr. Dammika Wijesundara, the Deputy Director Marketing at Singer Sri Lanka and a former National Hockey player.

This tournament had 20 teams take part in the introductory year in 1992 and was held on two days. With Singer Sri Lanka coming on board as the main sponsor in the year 2002 it was made possible for the Royal College Hockey Club to have conducted this tournament for the 16th year in succession by attracting 56 teams drawn from all parts of the island including the teams from Jaffna, Galle, Uva, Matale, Kandy, Colombo and Wennapuwa.

It is now a date much looked forward to in the schools hockey calendar. The tournament offers many attractive prizes including plate, bowl and cup championships. The success of the tournament is due to the high professionalism maintained by Singer Sri Lanka and the officials of the Royal College Hockey Club. This tournament has brought the best in boys and girls categories and encouraged new comers to take up the game in rural areas of the country.

The first round matches were held today on a league basis and the summary of the match results are as follows:

St.Aloysius vs Royal ‘Blues (0-0) Pushpadana vs Sangamitha (2-0)
Seethadevi vs Swarnamali (3-0) STC Mount vs St. Anthonys (4-1)
Kingswood vs Mahinda (2-1) STC Mount vs Wesley (3-0)
Joseph vaz vs Isipathana (3-0) St Benadicts vs Trinity (0-2)
STC Matale vs Trinity (3-1) Nalanda vs Zahira (4-0)
Ladies vs Sirimavo (1-1) Bishops vs Girls High School (0-1)
Chirstchurch vs Mahinda (3-1) Musaeus vs Gothami (3-0)
Royal ‘Golds’ vs Vidyaloka (3-0) Nalanda vs St Peters (3-0)

The second round matches will start tomorrow at 7.00 am and it will be the final day of the tournament.