Three Colombo schools, Royal College, St. Joseph’s College and Nalanda College with Christ Church College, Matale in the boys’ segment and Seethadevi BMV, Visakha Vidyalaya, President’s College Nawala, with Museaus College in the girls’ secured the semi final berths in the all island inter-school Under-13 boys and girls’ hockey championships at St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena on Monday.

Most of the matches played in the day saw some exciting finishes and in the process, it was the Royal College stickers who first booked their position in the semi finals overcoming St. Thomas’ College, Matale, by 4 goals to 3 on penalty strokes after the match ended in a nil all draw. The second quarter final match was of a similar nature between Ananda College and Christ Church College where the match ended after a tensely battled penalty strokes that was eventually won by the lads of Christ Church. The third quarter final was the only game that did not lead towards penalty stokes in the boys’ partition as the lads from St. Joseph’s College recored a 1 goal to nil defeating Zahira College Matale. The fourth and last quarter final was played between Nalanda College and Vijaya College Matale in which the former managed to enter the semi final after a win recorded on penalty strokes by 4 goals to 2 as the match ended in a nil all draw.

Meanwhile, in the girls’ segrmrny all matches were close affairs. It was Seethadevi BMV who booked their semi final berth first first as they beat their home town rivals Pushpadana BMV on penalty stokes (4 goals to 3). In the other quarter final fixture, the Visakhians had the better of Sangamitta BMV Matale as they won by 2 goals to nil while President’s College, who finished third in the tourney last year overcame Sirimavo Bandranayaikr MV by a solitary goal to nil. It was the lasses of Museaus College who snatched victory over defending champions Yashodhara BMV by 4 goals to 3 on penalty stokes.