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Kandy brush aside spirited Havies Kandy Sports Club powered by their forwards and three's brushed-off a stiff challenge by Havelock Sports Club to score a hard-fought 20 points (2 goals, 2 penalties) to 16 (1 goal, 3 penalties) win and qualify for the finals of the Western Province Under 24 rugby tourney in a pulsating semi-final fixture at Longden Place yesterday. Kandy sports club led at 14-13 at the short whistle of referee Shamrath Fernando. The hill-capital club who got their act together only mid way in the second half or their victory largely to their playmaker cum scrum half Nilufer Ibrahim for steering the club safely through to the finals on Sunday against defending Champs CR & FC. That Ibrahim turned out to be the match winner for Kandy can clearly be seen in the fact that the diminutive Half Back contributed a total of fifteen points alone out of their final tally of twenty. Kandy opened scoring in the match in only the third minute of play. Ibrahim who picked up the ball in a lose maul breezed through to score mid left cleverly evading a couple of crunching tackles to signal their first try which was converted by him to put Kandy ahead by 7-0. Five minutes later Full Back Radika Hettiarchchi sprang into action to plant Kandy's second try when he formed a beautiful overlap to put the Kandy side ahead by 14-0 as his try too was converted by Ibrahim. Havelocks then made a spirited comeback in to the game when their full back landed the Park Club's first and only try in the game when he covered some thirty metres in a sola run down the left flank having worked the ball down the line to make the scores 14-7. With Havelocks at this stage playing a good hardgame they narrowed the scores to 14-13 by lemons thanks to the boot of Shiyam Pradeep who correctly narrowed two thirty metre penalties in style. In the second half it all became a Penalty affair as the two respective place kickers of Kandy and Havelocks Nillufer Ibrahim and Shiyan Ibrahim traded penalties with the former coming out the winner when he kicked two penalties out of three in this half, as the latter strangely came a cropper when it mattered most. He successfully converted only a solitary penalty out of four attempts. Signature squash begins on September 27 The second annual Squash Tournament for the “Signature Cologne” Championships organised by Otter Aquatic Club and conducted by the Sri Lanka Squash Federation and sponsored by ICL marketing for the second consecutive year will be held from September 27 to October 4 at Otters Aquatic Club courts. This tournament one of the major events in the squash calendar, will encourage some of the top players in the game vying for honours. Eleven events namely Men’s Open and Women’s Open, Men’s and Women’s Intermediate Over 35 years, Master Over 40, Boy’s and Girl’s Under-19, Boy’s and Girl’s under-16, and Boy’s and Girl’s under-13 will be staged at this years tournament. The preliminary round matches will be held at Otter
Club Courts from September 27 onwards. The final of this
tournament will held on October 4 at Hotel Ceylon
Intercontinental courts commencing from 4.30 p.m.
onwards. Meanwhile, the entries for this tournament will be closed on September 25 at 5 p.m. and all application should be addressed to the Secretary Squash Federation c/o. The Otter Aquatic Club, Colombo. The draw will be held on September 25 (Friday) at 5.30 p.m. and it will be displayed at the Otters Club notice board next day. Master Cyril Anthony a pioneer in the martial arts (specially Taekwondo and Hapkido in Sri Lanka) left for Colonge in Germany for the seminar in kick boxing. He has been doing the ground work for the "The Big Challenge' the World Kick Boxing Championship to be held in Germany next year. In addition, he is planning to popularise kick boxing in Sri Lanka. Master Cyril Anthony is the National Representative for International Kick Boxing Federation based in Germany for Sri Lanka. Nationalised Services Volleyball at
Thambuttegama The 30th annual Nationalised Services Men's Volleyball Championships sponsored for the first time by State Pharmaceutical Corporation is now in progress at the Thambuttegama Mahaweli Stadium. It will conclude on September 11. A good number of 24 teams from Nationalised Services sector have entered for the tournament this year. The Sri Lankan Ports Authority team once again comes out as the favourites. While Sri Lanka Transport Board which are the defending champions are bound to be their toughest rivals. The opening ceremony of the games was held yesterday at 9 a.m. with Dr. Colvin Gunaratne, Chairman Sri Lanka State Pharmaceutical Corporation and President Nationalised Servises VBA as the Chief Guest. The finals of the 'A' Division will be played on September 11 a 3.30 p.m. An exhibition womens match between the SLPA 'A' and 'B' teams will be worked off at 2 p.m. This year too the organizers will be conducting an Inter Schools. Men and Womens' volleyball tournament for the Thambuttegama area. Attractive cash prices and surprises await the winners. Bandula Basnayake, MP Kurunegala District, Milton Amarasinghe Director, Mahaweli Ministry, Sunil Navaratne, Director NYSC and President Volleyball Federation will grae the final as special invitees. |
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