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by Pelham Juriansz

Commercial Bank clinched their fourth Mercantile Hockey "Sevens" title in six years to dominate proceedings at the 26th Mercantile Hockey "Sevens" at the Havelocks Sports Club grounds on Sunday.

Only their Banking partners Hatton National Bank (in 2000) and Browns(in 2001) have deprived them of six straight victories in the last six years.

The "A" division final between Hatton National Bank "A" and Commercial Bank was keenly contested and seemed to be heading for a draw when in the dying stages Pradeep Heenkenda of Commercial Bank dribbled past the HNB defenders to pass the ball to S. Gajanayake who scored what turned out to be the winning goal with Commercial Bank winning by one goal to nil. In the "B" division final Arpico grounded SriLankan Airlines two-nil and Abans had a similar 2 nil win over HSBC in the "C" division final.

SmithKline Beecham won their first title in 13 years when they defeated Unilevers by 2 goals to one, mainly through the efforts of veteran hockey national Ishak Sahabdeen. Thus they clinched the "D" division title and M.J.F. Exports defeated Aitken Spence by 1 goal to nil to clinch the "E" division title.

In the "A" division defending Champions Browns Group drew nil all with Singers and Commercial Bank had a similar scoreless draw with John Keells.

HNB "A" trounced Seylan Bank 4-0, Browns Group drew with Commercial Bank nil all, John Keells defeated Seylan Bank 1-0, HNB "A" defeated Singers 2-0, Browns won with Seylan Bank 1 nil, John Keells and HNB "A" drew one all and Commercial Bank defeated Singers 1 nil. HNB "A" defeated Browns 2-1, while John Keells and Singers drew nil all, and Commercial Bank defeated Seylan Bank 1 nil.

Browns defeated John Keells 2 nil while Commercial Bank and Hatton National Bank "A" , the ultimate finalists, had a ding dong battle with the match ending in a nil all draw. Singers and Seylan Bank too featured in a one-all draw.

In the "B" division Bartleets defeated Airport and Aviation 1-0, Arpico defeated Sampath Bank 1 nil, Janashakthi and HNB "B" drew nil all and SriLankan Airlines drew with Bartleets 1-1, while SriLankan Airlines thrashed Airport & Aviation 4-0, with Arpico defeating Janashakthi 1-0. Sampath Bank "B" and HNB "B" featured in a nil all draw.

Janashakthi defeated Sampath Bank 2-0, while Arpico defeated HNB "B" 2 nil. In the "C" division Hong Kong Bank beat Colombo Hilton 1 nil, while Abans beat Colombo Hilton 2-0, and Abans drew with HSBC 0-0.

The "D" Division saw SmithKline Beecham defeat AWD Group 2-1, and Ceylon Tobacco draw 0-0 with Unilevers and Unilevers defeated AWD Group 3 nil.

SmithKline Beecham defeated Ceylon Tobacco by 2 goals to nil and AWD Group and CTC were featured in a nil all draw.

The "E" division saw MJF exports defeat Aitken Spence 2-1. Mackwoods Ltd had withdrawn from the Tournament.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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