Yet another cog in a series of Royal-Thomian encounters takes place in the form of the annual Royal-Thomian hockey encounter which will be played for the Orville Abeynaike memorial trophy on Tuesday the 04th of November commencing at 4.15pm at S.Thomas’ college big club grounds in Mount Lavinia.
It will be the 15th occasion the match is being played for this trophy and the Thomians have won 7 matches while the Royalists have won 4 matches, with 3 matches ending in a draws. Royal college is the current holders of this trophy as they won it in 2012 and the match ended in a draw last year. The Royalist will be led by Shaheer Bari while the Thomians by Theekshana Rajan.
It is expected to be an entertaining game of hockey as the Royalist intending to retain the trophy and the Thomians playing with the home advantage ,will try their utmost bring back the trophy to Mount Lavinia.
The chief guest for the match this year will be Mr.Chandra Schaffter, Deputy Chairman Janashakthi Insurance who represented S.Thomas’ in both hockey & cricket in 1948/49 and also is a double international, represented the country in both the above sports.
The Old boys’ match will be played for the Nihal Nilaweera memorial trophy at 3pm on the same day
Royal College –
Squad –
Shaheer Bari (Captain),Malith Rasanga (Vice Captain),Ranchana Felice, Adeesha Perera, Nelaka Wedagama, Vindula Jayalath, Thineth Karunarathne, Hasanga Liyanagunawardene, Imaadh Dole, Malithra Gamage,Sharundan Balenthiren,Furqan Irfan,Yasith Costa,Pasindu Charuke,Anojan Ganeshrajah,Sajana De Zoysa,Isuru Pumuditha,Sadul Dimalsha,Sachin Dissanayake,Gouthamn Kirubarkaran
S Thomas College –
Squad –
Teekshana Ranjan, Pasindu Wanigasooriya, Gayan Dharmathilaka, Kishan Kumaratheesan, Srihari Illamanathan, Shenal de Silva, Maithrika Kururulasuriya, Romesh Nallaperuma, Dilshan Mahawanshakkara, Dewmal Palapathwala, Rudran Sridaran, Thilina Dela, Javindu Pieris, Yuvin Goonewardena, Rahal Rambupotha, Navinda Hewavickreme, Bodh Maathura, Dewmith Udage
Last time it was a draw and there were a lot of regrets and disappointments after the match.
But this year we have corrected our mistakes which we did in the past and we are ready to play field hockey in a whole new level and by adopting the new trend.” Thomian captain Theekshana Rajan talked about how they have come along since the disappointing draw last year.
