Twenty teams for St. Eugene's tourney

Twenty teams will vie for honours at the St. Eugene's Trophy Basketball Tournament which is scheduled to take place on October 15 and 16 at the Police Field Force Headquarters Courts at Bambalapitiya .

This year there will be stiff competition coming from the teams entered from the Armed Forces particularly the Sri Lanka Air Force who has entered the tournament for the first time.

The twenty men's teams have been divided into four groups. Three teams from each group will qualify for the knock out stage of the championship with the group leaders progressing to the 'Cup' Championship, runner-up qualifying for the 'Plate' and the winner of the third place meeting in the 'bowl' championship. The total prize money for this year's tournament is Rs. 200,000.00.

The tournament is named after St. Eugene De Mazenod the founder of the congregation of Oblates of Mary Immaculate and is conducted by St. Eugene Association of former Oblate seminarians.

This third St. Eugene Trophy Inter-Club Basketball Tournament will see the introduction of Fr. Herbert medal for outstanding contributions to basketball. Fr. Hubert was an outstanding coach and has produced many top class basketball players during his tenure as coach at St. Michael's College, Batticaloa. He also functioned in many administrative roles in the local basketball scene.

Wattala Basketball Club are the defending champions, winning the trophy for two years, they will be looking forward to record a hat-rick of wins this year.

(RA)