National Hockey Championship:

Army, Police and Mercantile advance to semi-finals

by Sajeewa Jayakody

Sri Lanka Army, Mercantile and Police advanced to the semi-finals as Air Force and Navy quarter-final match was put off due to bad light in the National Hockey Championship worked off at Astro Turf, Reid Avenue, Colombo 7 yesterday.

Sri Lanka Air Force was leading having scored a goal against Sri Lanka Navy in the last quarter-final match, which was put off in the 24th minute of the second half due to a gloomy overcast conditions at 5.30 pm.

The last quarter-final match started at 4.30pm and the solitary goal was scored by Sri Lanka Air Force's D Dissanayake off a penalty corner after five minutes from the commencement. Since then the both teams fought hard but were unable to secure a goal as two teams missed twice each to hit the net.

In the first match of the day, Mercantile team thrashed Combined University team 9-0 after leading 5-0 at half time. National players Anju Hewage scored the first goal in the 14th minute and D M Bandara struck three goals. S B Dissanayake (2), M Ariyasinghe (1), Thilina Perera (1) and RT Wickremasinghe (1) contributed in Mercantile's semi-fial reaching effort.

Sri Lanka Army beat Matale hockey team 6-0 after leading 4-0 at breather.

P M Cremer hit twice while R A Ratnaweera, C A Welagedara, U G Kumara and M B Gunawardene scored one goal apiece in Army's comprehensive victory at the end.

Sri Lanka Schools team went down fighting against formidable Police team in the third quarter-final match. Police scored four goals while Schools hit a solitary goal by Imad Musammil. At lemons, Police led 2-1. Saman Jayalath (2), Thilina Perera (1) and Wimansa Anjana (1) guided Policemen towards the semi-final berth.

The put off last quarter-final match between Sri Lanka Air Force and Sri Lanka Navy will be played before the semi-final matches today.