Royal Look To Tie-Up Wins At Roy-Tho Hockey Encounter

The Inaugural Orville Abeynayake memorial hockey encounter played by Royal College Colombo and St. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia was played in 1999. Royal’s first win was in 2007 and ever since then the trophy has been sitting still at the Reid Avenue building.

With the Thomians threatening play at the 2016 encounter bringing the game to a nil-all tie by their strong offensive playing, Royal looks to come back into the encounter stronger than ever before with the hope of quenching their thirst for another victory against arch rivals St. Thomas’.

17th Royal-Thomian Hockey Encounter 2016

Royal College vs S. Thomas’ College – 17th Annual Hockey..

Their victory at the 2016 All Island National Schools Hockey Tournament saw the Royal stickers touring to Australia, training and playing against top state teams in the country. Bringing that experience back to Sri Lanka, Royal managed to secure 3rd place at the Interschool Western Province hockey tournament in 2017. They also reached the quarter finals at this year’s All Island National Schools Tournament and Emerged Plate 2nd runner up at the Blue and Gold Hockey 7’s tournament played on 21st and 22nd of October at the Royal College ground. Following the tournament Royal managed a convincing win against Wesley College giving them a confidence boost for this week’s encounter.

Royal Thomian Hockey Encounter ends in a stalemate

The 17th Annual Royal Thomian Hockey encounter for the…

Royal’s Captain Pasindu Charuka and Vice-Captain Manjitha De Silva, had this to say:

“The Royal-Thomian hockey encounter has always been unpredictable. We cannot guarantee a win on Saturday… in the end it all boils down to the team that’s most motivated and plays their strengths throughout and lasts till the 50th minute of the game.”

Players to watch out for this Saturday are the captain himself, Pasindu Charuka who has been instrumental in controlling the centre field with his quick decision making and direction changing, Sajad Irshad and Sachithra Malshan with their well-co-ordinated offense which will be sure to threaten the opposition goal keeper. And last but not least Manjitha De Silva who will be protecting the blue and gold post and overlooking the entire game from the back.

The team for the encounter reads;