ROYALIST AND THOMIAN STICKERS CLASH FOR ORVILLE ABEYNAIKE TROPHY ON OCT. 29
OCT. 29 AT 4.30 PM AT THE ASTRO TURF, COLOMBO.7.
The annual Royalistthomian stickers will clash for the Orville Abeynaike Memorial Trophy on Saturday, (October 29) commencing at 4.30pm at the Astro Turf, Colombo.7. The 1st XI encounter will commence at 6.30pm and it will be played under floodlights. It will be the first time a schools hockey encounter will be played under lights.
It will be the 17th occasion that this match will be played for this trophy. The Thomians have won seven encounters while the Royalists have won on six occasions, with three encounters ending in draws. Royal College are the current holders of the trophy as they defeated the Thomians 2-1 last year. Royal will be led by Sajana De Soysa and Thomians by Javindu Peiris. It will be an entertaining game of hockey as the Royalists intend to retain the trophy while the Thomians will be playing to bring back the trophy to Mount. Lavinia. This year the two schools have introduced an under 15 encounter to promote hockey at the junior level.
The 1st XI trophy is played in memory of Late Orville Abeynaike, who represented S.thomas’ both in hockey and cricket in 1941. He coached the Thomian stickers for over two decades and ended his career as the Sub Warden after serving his Alma Mater for 33 years.
The old boys match will be played for the Nihal Nilaweera Trophy at 5.30pm at the same venue. The Royalists beat the Thomians 1-0 last year and are the current holders of the trophy.
The chief guest for the match will be Gamini Marapona, an old boy of S.thomas’ College, who captained the 1st XI hockey team in 1960.
Hockey commenced at S. Thomas’ way back in the 1940s and has produced stalwarts such as Vathma Wickremasekera, Randall Gooneratne, Chandra Schafter, J.O. Yatawara, S.R.A. Fernando, J.K.C. Gunasekera, L.S. Fernando,asoka Wickremanayake, D.D. ‘Corky’ Abeyseera and his brother Sam, Sarath Seneviratne,randy Morrell, J.D. Bandaranayake,gamini Marapona and his brother Thilak, Ishak Sahabdeen, Anura Tennekoon, Ashley De Vos, Ranil Abeynaike and his brother Amitha.
The Royal team - Rohan Dissanayake (Coach), Sudath Liyanagunawardena (SGM), Sajana De Zoysa (Captain), B.A Abeyratne(principal), Sharoundhan Balnethiran (V.captain),mrs. Badra Shyamalee (TIC), Priyantha Wijayasiri(mic), Sachin
Dissanayake, Yasith De Costa, Gowdthtaman Kirupakaran, Anojan Ganesharajah, Manjitha De Silva,furqaan Irfan,sajad Irshad, Pasindu Charuka, Uvindu Sharika, Sachithra Malshan,induwara Bimsara,dinuka Lakshan, Dilan Kavinda, Himesha Hettige,uchitha Wasudeva,ravindu Ranasinghe,nadun Wijewardena, Himesh Koralage.
The S.thomas’ team - Javindu Peiris (Capt), Thilina Dela, Ashwin Ellepola, Poland Jayawardena, Kavindu Mahawansakkara, Devmal Palapathwala, Romesh Nallapperume, Karresh Kumaratheesan, Navinda Hewawikrama, Gnanadash Hamshavathanan, Devmith Udage,bodhi Maathura, Rahal Rambukpotha, Savindu Wanigasooriya, Daniel Peremune, Jeevananthan Prakash, Adithya Senanayake and Aravinda Kulatunga.