The 2nd round of matches, of the 2015 Colombo Hockey Association (CHA) League Tournament was held over the last weekend at the Astro Turf in Reid Avenue. There were fourteen scheduled matches; with seven matches being worked off on each day.
Saturday, 11th July
The first match of day 1 was played between Old Joes and STC SC Mount Lavinia. In the first half of the match neither of the teams scored any goals. Midway through the second half, old Thomian Poojitha scored the first goal of the match. Rajan & Rimshad went on to score two more goals for their side. The match ended at 03 goals to nil in favor of STC SC Mount Lavinia.
Match no. 02 of the day was between Janadipathi SC and Yasodara SC. Imesha Lakshani started the scoring for Janadipathi SC with the first goal. The speedster of the Yasodara team, Prarthana Upeksha scored a goal to draw her team level in the first half. Even so, her efforts were taken down by the Jandipathi team who had a line of nimble forwards and Sandali Dilhara scored the second goal for the team. In the midst of the second half, she put the Jandipathi team beyond reach of the opponents by scoring 03 goals. The score line read 05 goals to 02 at the final whistle.
The third match of the day which was scheduled between Old Anandians SC and the University of Kelaniya was not played due to the absence of both teams. The referees continued playing with the present teams to finalize the weekend hockey calendar.
Match no. 04 was played between Old Bens SC and Old Nalandians SC. Amazingly; the Old Nalandians were able to take down the Old Bens’. Even though the Benedictines were considered match-winning stickers, their skills were noticeably absent during the entire match. Dilan Niroshan, Pubudu Saranga and Vijitha Ekanayake each scored a goal a piece to win the match by 03 goals to 00.
The referee called off the match between the Young Ladies and Combined Ladies SC due to the absence of several players and carried on playing the last two games for the day.
The penultimate game of the day was played between the Old Royalists and the Old Senanayakians. The latter scored the only goal of the match as the Old Royal HC finished scoreless. The match winning goal was scored by the Old Senanayakians number 15, Thilina Maleesha.
The Seventh and final game of the day was played between two well-known clubs from Colombo, BRC and Old Peterite’s HC. Minol Jayasundara got two goals under his belt for the Old Pete’s whereas BRC were scoreless at the breather. Jayasinghe drew first blood for BRC in the midst of the second half but Minol Jayasundara, the petite Peterite replied with a decent goal. The scoreboard read 04:02 at the close. Shakthi and Mario Joseph scored the other two goals respectively.
12th July Sunday
Day two started with much anticipation for the Old Hindu SC as they took on Old Kelaniya HC. As the first match of the day, it was a remarkable win for the ex-Hindu stickers who played well enough to win the game by 04 goals to 01. Tharindu from the Old Kelaniya team scored his team’s only goal.
The match between Old Bens and Old Royalists which was scheduled for the afternoon but played only in the evening due to some miscommunication or another. Since the match was played at an unscheduled time, there were nine more minutes left to be played when the committee decided to call off the match and play the balance minutes during a weekday to finalize this week’s fixture since they were running out of time.
The third match of the day was played between the Old Anandians and KDU HC. It was an easy game for the Kothalawala Defense University Hockey Club as they took down the old Anandians, who were thought to be one of the finest hockey clubs in Colombo. Even though S. Kumara drew first blood for the Old Anandians team in the first half, the keen KDU team replied with two goals in the second half taking down the Old Anandians by 02 goals to 01. K.S.S. Dilshan and N.O. Kalinga scored the two goals in for the KDU team.
The fourth match was called off since the teams didn’t show up for the match between the Old Joes and the University of Kelaniya.
Janadipatha took on Combined Ladies’ in the fifth match of the day where the hapless Ladies went down by 10 goals to 00. The mighty and solid ex-Janadipathi stickers displayed their hockey skills during both days. Anaka Shekaza and Sandali Dilhara scored 3 goals each while Kavishi Dilanthi scored two goals and Nishali Sepala & Sashini Dias scored a goal each for the team respectively. Sandali Dilhara played remarkably well on both days.
Match no. 06 was played between Yasodara Sports Club and the University of Moratuwa. It was a sad day for the University girls who were beaten by 07 goals in their fist game this week. The Yasodara stickers handled the UOM girls in a very well-balanced way. Prarthana Upeksha opened the scoreboard for Yasodara by scoring two goals, with Sajeewani NIroshika scoring another two. Lakshika Devmini scored the first goal in the second half while Ishara Maduwanthi and Himashi Imalka scoring a goal each to end with the match at 07 goals to 00 in favor of Janadipathi HC.
Old Senanayakians took on UOM hockey team in the final match of the 2nd day. The match ended in a draw with both the teams scoring two goals each. In the first half, the Senanayakians scored two goals through Thilina Maleesha and Tharusha. However the reply from UOM HC was an unexpected one for them with P. Weerasekara and M.P. Sharinda scoring goals in the second half, ending the game at 02 all.
