The third round matches of the Colombo Hockey Association (CHA) League Tournament 2015 were worked off over the last weekend at the Hockey Grounds in Colombo. Nine out of fourteen scheduled matches were played, while an additional match from last week was also completed.
Saturday – 25th July
The first scheduled match for day one was between Gymkhana SC and AWD Hockey Club. It was Gymkhana’s day, as they were leading from the very start of the match. Welagedara and Gamer scored two goals each, while Ranasinghe scored the final goal to lead their team to a 05 to 02 win.
The Old Nalandians took down University of Moratuwa stickers with precise tactics in the next encounter. They were leading in the first half and went on to win the match 03 points to nil. Akalanka Ishan scored two goals, while Dilan Niroshan scored the other goal for the Old Nalandians.
In the Ladies’ category, only one match was scheduled for the day. Combined Ladies were up against University of Moratuwa Girls’ team. In the first half both teams went scoreless but at the start of the second half the Combined Ladies’ scored to take down the University girls by 01 goal to nil. The lone goal scorer was Thisakya.
The most exciting match of the day was between the Peterites and Gymkhana, when the Petes were held back tremendously by the stickers from Gymkhana. In the 1st half, the Petes went scoreless while Gymkhana scored six goals. In the second half they scored another four goals to win the match 10 points to nil. Gymkhana became the second highest point scoring team for the weekend. Ranasinghe scored a goal while Gamer got two goals under his name. Shamila Gunawardena also scored two goals and Welagedara scored four goals for Gymkhana.
The last match scheduled was between AWD and CH & FC Hockey Club. CH & FC, renown for their hockey held down the upcoming AWD Hockey team 06 goals to 03. Silva, Gunathilake and Kalhara scored the goals for AWD while Dilanka Weerasinghe, Anju Hewage and Maharage scored one goal each and Upul Fernando scored three goals for CH & FC Hockey Club.
An additional match which was scheduled for the last week was also played on Saturday between Old Hindu SC and Old Kelaniya stickers. Hindu College, who has been playing well, was not up to their regular standards of hockey and were beaten by one goal to nil by the Old Kelaniya Hockey team. Wijesundara was the match winning goal scorer for Old Kelaniya.
Sunday – 26th July
Day two commenced with the match between Old Anandians and Old Hindu SC. Anandians took the Old Hindu SC down by 04 goals to nil. Geemal Dias, a famous chaser, together with Udula Rathnayake and Umesh Anurudda scored the goals for Ananda.
The Malays and Old Joes match ended with the teams tied up with two goals each. Shane Silva scored two goals for the Joes while Usama Samsudeen and Sadeff Rizvi scored one goal each for the Malays.
The next match was between Kothalawala Defense University and Old Kelaniya. KDU, who entered the league recently, made history by becoming the highest goal scoring team for the weekend when they beat Old Kelaniya by 11 goals to nil. The scoreboard read 08 goals to nil at the breather.
The goal scorers were Bandara, Abeydeera, Herath and Keeragala who scored one goal a piece, while Kalinga and Thilakaratne scored two goals each to conclude the match in favor of the Kothalawala Defense University.
The final match of the day was played between CH & FC and the Old Royalists Hockey Team. Both teams scored a goal each in the first half: Christo Tissera for CH and Shami Gajanayake for Royal. However Senanayake scored the match winning goal in the second half for the CH & FC team. The final scoreboard read 02 goals to 01 in favor of CH & FC.
Summary of the Match Results
Day 01
- Gymkhana 05 AWD 02
- Old Nalanda 03 University of Moratuwa 00
- University of Moratuwa 00 Combined Ladies 01
- Old Peterites 00 Gymkhana 10
- AWD 03 CH & FC 06
- Old Hindu 00 Old Kelaniya 01
Day 02
- Old Ananda 04 Old Hindu 00
- Old Joes 02 Malays 02
- KDU 11 Old Kelaniya 00
- CH & FC 02 Old Royal 01
