Trinity retains Corea cup

Trinity College beat Royal College by two goals to nil in their annual hockey encounter and retained the JCA Corea Cup for the second year in succession.

Although Royal made some threatening moves on many occasions they failed to score due to lack of finish. There was also the Trinity custodian M. S. Razeek who had an excellent game and made things even more difficult for the Royalists.

Trinity also found it very difficult to penetrate the tight Royal defence with Royal skipper and full back G. Dissanayake solid in defence and their custodian 16-year-old Duleepa Seneviratne who excelled between the post.

However in the 23rd minute of the second half Trinity drew first blood when their centre forward S. Krishanthan collected a pass from left half V. Raj Mohan to sound the boards. At lemons Trinity led one goal to nil.

After the lemons the game was played at a furious pace with Royal adopting quick and short pass game and Trinity driving and opting for long passes.

Mid way in the second half Trinity increased their tally to two goals to nil when S. Sabeetharan made a neat pass to V. Raj Mohan to sound the boards. Royal did press hard but failed to score and also convert 5 penalty corners awarded in this half.

Trinity emerged victorious and retained the JCA Corea Cup for the 2nd year in succession.

Lionel Almeida, the first Royal hockey captain and one of the finest sportsmen produced by this institution handed the trophy to the Trinity captain M. S. Razeek.

Royal juniors retained the Paul Jeyaraj Trophy with a facile five goals to nil victory over Trinity in the U/17 game that preceded the senior game. Royal completely outclassed their opponent and played very cohesive fast open hockey from the first whistle and kept a tight grip on the game right through.

For Royal Praveen Buddika and M. F. Rahaman Hallaj scored in the first half. Skipper Ashen Peiris and Nadun Amarasinghe and Aloka Amarasiri scored a goal each in the second half. Their skilful display on the field augurs well for the future. This win enabled them to retain the Paul Jeyaraj Trophy for the second successive year.

Saliya Udugama of Trinity handed over the trophy to Royal skipper Ashen Peiris.

Referees: Messers M. Lahir and Damith Jayasena.

(RD)