The annual Trinity – Royal Hockey Encounter took place for the 13th year at the Asgiriya International Stadium, Kandy. After a tense battle amidst the heavy rains with the skies opening up, Royal College Colombo managed to retain the J.C.A Corea trophy beating their arch rivals Trinity College by a goal to nil.
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Royal College has retained the trophy since 2008 with even the last encounter held in 2016 ending in favour of Royal College. Royal College Colombo now lead the overall tally with six games against three won by Trinity while three games have ended in draws. The Trophy is named after C.A. Corea, who was the first Sri Lankan Principal at Royal College.
After winning the ball on the whistle Royal College showcased an aggressive style of hockey, moving the ball between the corners well even though the conditions were challenging for a good game of hockey. Due credit should be given to Trinity College as they never gave up until the last minutes of play although their intent of wanting to score faded away as the game progressed.
The Trinity defense was strong enough to keep the ball away from its own goal restricting Royal from scoring easy goals. The Royal forwards however were quick on their stick and made some good balls in to D failing to capitalize in the early minutes.
Finally, after much resistance the winning and the only goal of the game came from a short corner through G.D Malshan who managed a clean hit to the board. Hence forth both teams attacked well to create chances without any luck favouring either teams way as the referee brought the game to lemons with Royal at a slender one goal lead.
Half Time: Royal 1-0 Trinity
Second half began with the skies opening up yet again as Trinity missed a golden one to one opportunity to equalize right off the restart.
However, Royal was always in control keeping their composure at all times utilizing the spaces behind the Trinity defense as the home team tried to press high up the field offering a few chances to the Royalists who failed to score.
After the nervous early minutes of the second half had passed by, Royal College controlled the game at their will, negating the Trinitian attacks. The referee blew the game to an end after a goalless second half to give Royal a 1-0 victory.
Full Time: Royal 1-0 Trinity
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