Rajans Kandy District U-13 hockey champs

S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN - Kandy Sport Corr

Dharmaraja College Kandy clinched the Kandy District schools under 13 hockey title for the fifth year in succession when they beat Kingswood College in the finals of the hockey tournament conducted by Kandy Schools Hockey Association and played at the University Grounds Peradeniya on Monday. At half the Rajans led 1-0.

It turned out to be a gruelling finals between the two traditional rivals from the hill capital in any sport.

The Rajans strived hard to maintain their dominance in this tournament while Kingswoodians wanted to break this and win the championship title for themselves.

Match winner for the Rajans was skipper and centre forward Rameel Dharmaratne who was sound in both attack and defence and often carried the attack into the opponents territory and changed the complexion of the game.

The first half was fairly evenly contested with both teams striving hard to open their account.

It was just three minutes before the lemons that Rajans skipper and centre forward Rameel Dharmaratne moved the ball into the semi circle and drove a snorter which sounded the boards.

The second half saw the Kingswoodians going into the offensive in a bid to equalize and neutralize the advantage of the 1-0 lead gained by the Rajans.

But the Rajans defence kept them at bay. Mid way in this half centre forward Rameel Dharmaratne dribbled past two defenders and sent short pass to lift flanker Pasan Ranaweera who beat the Kingswood custodian to send the Rajans 2 up.

In the closing stages of the game came the best goal of the match when Rajans skipper Rameel Dharmaratne foxed the Kingswoodian custodian with a beauty of a reverse shot.

He moved the ball from the right flank to the left and once had got rid of couple of defenders and swing the stick from the left while striking the ball hard and with precision to sound the boards with an amazing shot.

Sumith Dissanayake and D.S. Ranatunga umpired.

In the semi finals Dharmaraja College beat Menikdiwela Central College 3-0 after led 1-0 at the breather.

Rameel Dharmaratne (1), Prabash Rajapakse (1) and D.S. Randeniya (1) scored for the Rajans.

In the second semi final Kingswood beat Sri Sumangala College 4-1 after leading 1-0 at the breather.

Kingswoodian scored through T.V. Bandara (2), Rumesh Kanchana (1) and S.H.B. Ratnayake (1). The goal scored by Sri Sumangala was an own goal when a Kingswood defender deflected the ball to goal keeper B. Kumara Gangoda who failed to stop it.

The fight for the third spot ended in a deadlock when Sri Sumangala College and Menikdiwela Central ended in a scoreless draw.