Royal retain Lennie Trophy

Richard Dwight

Royal retained the Lennie Trophy for the second successive year when they beat Kingswood College by 3 goals to nil in their annual hockey encounter played at Royal Grounds, Reid Avenue.

Both Royal and Kingswood played fast open hockey and exchanges seemed even at the beginning. Although Kingswood made inroads to the Royal ‘D” they could not breach the defense of Royal skipper Aloka Amarasiri at full back and the custodian Dileepa Senaviratne.

Royal opened scoring in the 18th minute of the 1st Half when Marion Senanayake converted a short corner to lead 1-0. Six minutes later Royal scored once again through a well coordinated forwards more and S. Gajanayake sounded the board to extend their lead to 2-0 at half time.

After the turn around the battle continued at the same space and Kingswood was distinctively unlucky not to have scored a least once. Their forwards made some sizzling moves and breaks but just could not sound the boards due to poor finishing and drives into the Goal were off target.

Kingswood had the territorial advantage throughout the game but Royal proved that a well experienced side can still win by making use of the opportunities that came their way. Royal played as a well oiled machine with their halves and forwards combining well and the defence was very sound which gave them the advantage over Kingswood.

Royal sealed the Game in their favour in the 24th minute of the 2nd Half when their crack centre forward Marion Senanayaka scored for the second time in the match off a forwards move which began in their half to give Royal an unassailable 3-0 lead till the end of an exiting game played in the best of tradition and spirit.

Although the game was played at a furious pace there was no frayed tempers as both sides played hard and clean.

For Kingswood skipper K.D. Piyaratne, V.G. Rajamohan, M.S. Ali L.D. and R.G. Gunathilake played their hearts out while for Royal Skipper Aloka Amarasiri, Dileepa Senaviratne, F. Hallaj, Janith Wijeratne, Marlon Senanayake, S Gajanayake and V. Rajapakshe stood out. In the junior game played earlier Royal beat Kingswood by 4 goals to zero to clinch the O.K. Roshan trophy.