An excellent fight back by the Under 16 Hockey Team led by its forward line helped Royal College, Colombo to beat Kingswood College, Kandy by 3-2 in their annual hockey encounter played for the Dr. Kathab Roshan Memorial Trophy held at the Peradeniya University Grounds recently.
Royal gained the trophy for the first time since 2019.
Hosts Kingswood scored the first goal through a penalty corner with R.R.D. Thisal sounding the board. This aided the Kandy school lead by 1-0 at half-time.
After the break, Risaja Mahalla levelled it for the visitors to tie the score at 1-1. However, T. Dananjaya of Kingswood scored a field goal to give a lead of 2-1 for the home team.
Royal’s Seth Pathirana then steady the score before Vidu Wijesinghe scored another goal just before the final whistle to win the Dr. Kathab Roshan Trophy for his team after a six-year lapse.
In the forward line, Royal Vice-Captain Savain Karunasiri made some skilful drivelling to keep the steady attack against the Kandy team.
The trophy is named after Dr. Kathab Roshan, who was an instrumental figure of the Royal College Hockey Team from 1990-1995. The skilful dribbler and prominent goalscorer was a member of the all-conquering Royal team in all age groups. He played for Sri Lanka Schools in the first Asian Schools Hockey Championship in India in 1994.
After gaining his medical degree in Russia, Roshan served as the Assistant Coach of the Royal College Under 15 Hockey Team until his untimely demise 20 years ago.
The Royal Under 16 Team played against their archrivals S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia yesterday (20) for the Chandi Chanmugam Challenge Trophy and will face Trinity College, Kandy on 28 September for the Paul Jeyaraj Trophy, with both matches at the Colombo International Astro Turf.
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