The most anticipated annual schools hockey clash in town, the Roy-Tho is back again this weekend with the Thomians defending the title. Royal College Colombo and S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia will be playing for pride at a time when the weather gods haven't been pretty charming towards the sporting world these days. Last year STC, led by Abdhullah Iflal, pipped the Royalists 1-0.
This year the Thomians, led by Sadil Ephraims, have a slight edge over the Royalists captained by Aakash Wijesekara, as the former are coming after clinching the Warden Neville de Alwis Shield against Trinity and becoming third at the Blue and Gold Hockey Sevens.
The Annual Royal-Thomian Battle of the Blues Hockey encounter is played for the Orville Abeynaike Memorial Trophy, honouring an Old Thomian and distinguished former Thomian Hockey coach and Sub Warden, the late Orville Abeynaike. It is saddening to note that last year’s chief guest Amitha Abeynaike – son of Orville – is no more with us as he passed away just a month after the encounter.
S.Thomas’ are leading the win tally with 10 titles, with Royal winning six, and five encounters ending in a draw. The 2020 and 2021 matches were not played due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The under-16 match is set to begin at 1 p.m., the over-35 match at 2 p.m., the old boys’ match at 3 p.m., and the First XI match at 4 p.m. STC have been very dominant in the past decade, with Royal College inching close in many tightly-contested affairs.
Even though the encounter between the two schools dates back to the 1960s, the first Roy-Tho hockey encounter – for the “Orville Abeynaike Memorial Trophy” – was initiated in the new millennial year of 2000. Thora have been dominating the opening encounters and it took Royal seven years to clinch their maiden win in 2007. Their other traditional encounters include the Royal-Trinity, Royal-Wesley, and Royal-Kingswood games.
Since 2007, the Royalists had been safeguarding the trophy for a decade until 2017, when S.Thomas’ under Thilina Dela clinched the trophy after 10 long years, with heroics from Ashwin Ellepola and multi-sporting star Dion Dias.
Here’s a recap of last year’s (2022) results:
1st XI – STC won 1-0
Under-16 – STC won 3-2
Old Boys (Nihal Nilaweera Trophy) – Old Royalists won 3-2
Over-35 – 2-2 draw
According to reports, the match will be played at the Royal College Grounds (grass court) instead of the recent neutral venue of the Colombo Astro Turf. It is an absolute shame to note the sorry state of the Turf in Colombo, in a dilapidated condition for many years, while the astroturf in the hockey-crazy town of Matale is completely neglected too. All top hockey-playing nations in South Asia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal have superb Astro Turf facilities, whereas Sri Lanka is miles away, napping in terms of infrastructure and development.
Royal will play Kingswood next Friday (22) for the Lennie de Silva Memorial Trophy at Peradeniya University Grounds. Last year, Kingswood won 2-0 at the Colombo Astro Turf.
Meanwhile the 12th Royal-Thomian football encounter will be played on Tuesday (26) at the Colombo Racecourse.
Royal-Thomian Orville Abeynaike Memorial Trophy – Results
Year Results Winners
2000 0-4 STC
2001 0-2 STC
2002 0-3 STC
2003 0-1 STC
2004 2-3 STC
2005 2-3 STC
2006 1-2 STC
2007 4-0 RC
2008 6-6 Draw
2009 1-1 Draw
2010 4-1 RC
2011 4-0 RC
2012 4-1 RC
2013 0-0 Draw
2014 3-0 RC
2015 2-1 RC
2016 0-0 Draw
2017 3-1 STC
2018 1-0 STC
2019 0-0 Draw
2020 & 2021 NOT PLAYED
2022 1-0 STC