Air Force clinch Vijaya tens Title

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Correspondent

Sri Lanka Air Force 'B' pu up a sterling performance to overcome a strong opposition from Sri Lanka Army to beat them 2-1 in the Men's finals of the "Vijaya Tens" organized by the Old Vijayans and played at the Nandamithra Ekanayake International Hockey Stadium, Matale on Sunday. At half time the scores were level at one all.

A heavy downpour delayed the finals and the wet conditions made it difficult for both teams.

This was the fifth successive year that the Air Force teams had won this championship. This was also their fifth championship title for the year having already won the Defence Services Championship, Seetha Devi 11-a-side Championship, H. de S. Fonseka Memorial Hockey Championship and Colombo Hockey Associations League title. This makes then the strongest combination among clubs. The team is captained by Damith Panditharatne and coached by Prasanna Abeyratne. The finals started off on a hot note with both teams from the services playing. After a scoreless first five minutes, when play swung from one end to other, the Airmen kept play within the Army territory briefly. A leg fall by an Army defender within the semi circle saw the airmen being awarded a penalty corner.

Centre forward Lahiru Weerasuriya taking the push up sent the ball to centre forward Damith Panditharatne who scored with a strong drive.

But the soldiers equalized soon afterwards when the airmen were penalized for 'body charge' within the semi circle. Left extreme Keerthi Kumara taking the 'push up' sent the ball to centre forward P N Cramer who scored with a neat drive. The second half saw a more determined airmen taking the field and they made a terrific onslaughter on their opponents defence through some fine stick work by Skipper Damith Pandithraratne, D Nabudu and Duminda Dissanayake. A snap movement deep inside Army territory saw centre forward Jayantha Ganegoda send a scorching drive to sound the boards for airmen to lead 2-1.

The soldiers strived hard in the last stages to score but the airmen put up a strong defence to drive them away.

N Paraneetharan and Mohamed Nowshad umpired.

In the quarter finals Army A beat Army B 1-0, Navy 'A' beat CH and FC 3-2, Air Force 'B' beat police 'A' 5-4 on penalty strokes. Air Force B beat Army Engineers 1-0.

In the semi finals Air Force B beat Navy 2-0 Army 'A' beat Air Force 'A' 1-0.