Archives

by Pelham Juriansz

The Mercantile Hockey season for 2003 began on January 8 but with hardly two weeks gone the Tournament ran into trouble with the clash between Browns and Airport & Aviation causing much consternation amongst the officials.

A new snag is that Browns who were severely reprimanded by the President of the MHA did not turn up for the next match against Hatton National Bank and consequently have been suspended from the Mercantile tournament.

According to rule 11 of the MHA Rules of the League Tournament 2002 it is stated "That each team shall be uniformly clad and shall play in their respective club colours. In the event of a clash of colours, a toss of a coin will decide which team shall play in white or coloured.

Shirts/Jerseys must be numbered with the number appearing on both front and back. Goalies shirt/jersey must not clash with his team and opponents team colours. The alternate shirts whatever will be debarred from participating in the match concerned and will be disqualified from the Tournament. Clubs failing to comply with these instructions will be debarred from participating in the match concerned and will be disqualified from the Tournament.

Also under rule 12 where it is stated that "The Secretary or Captain of every team shall, at least 5 minutes before the scheduled commencement of the game, hand over to the officiating Umpires a list of not more than 16 players who will be participating in the match, preferably typed on the Company or Company Sports Club letter head, also signed by the Secretary or Captain.

As Browns did not turn up for the match last Monday according to rule 16, "In the event of a walkover, the ground fees and Umpires travelling expenses will not be refunded.

Furthermore, the defaulting team shall pay a penalty of Rs 5,000 and will be debarred from participating in all Tournaments conducted by the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation or its affiliates in 2003". Meanwhile MJF Exports were involved in a facile win against SmithKline Beecham in a Mercantile "D" division hockey match at the Malay Padang on 14th January.

SmithKline Beecham Mackwoods were completely outplayed in spite of the fact that they had Ishak Sahabdeen and M.J. Majid, two experienced players.

Umpires S.L.M. Mulafer and B.L.V.S. Perera controlled the game.

Scorers for MJF Exports, better renowned for their sponsorship of the National cricket team, had it all one way traffic when opened scoring in the 10th minute through Niroshan Pathirana, and then T. Manoj scored four times in the 14th, 16th, 24th and 38th minute.

It was left to N. Pathirana to add the finishing touches to what was a wonderful day for MJF Exports as they put paid to whatever hopes SmithKline Beecham Mackwoods had.

The final score line, believe it or not, 6-nil.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager