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The inaugural St. Eugene’s Trophy 5-a-side Basketball Tournament commenced last Sat. (5) and ended on Sun. (6) at the MCA basketball courts.
The tournament was held for ‘B’ Division players and was conducted by the St. Eugene’s Association as part of its 10th year anniversary celebrations. St. Eugene’s Association comprises of former Oblate Seminarians.
The event was sponsored by Screenline Group of Companies while World Wide Logistics Group, Nestle Lanka and Coca-cola Beverages had come forward as co-sponsors.
Twenty Teams –
Twenty teams, namely Amal Int’l, Royal College, Nugegoda Cagers, La Sallians, St. Anthony’s College, Wattala, Moratuwa University ‘A’ and ‘B,’ St. Joseph’s Seminary, St. Eugene’s BC, Field Force BC, Lyceum ‘A’ and ‘B,’ Old Joes BC, Wattala BC, Stallions BC, Dharmsokians (Dhamso), Ex-Aloysius BC, All Greens BC, Jayewardenepura ’Varsity BC and the Cambrians BC competed in the tournament, divided into four groups. In the first round, each team has to play against the other four in the relevant group.
The top two teams of each group qualified for St. Eugene’s Trophy C’ship while the 3rd team of each group moved on to the Plate C’ship with the 4th placed team played for the Bowl C’ship.
The matches started last Sat. and continued on Sun. commencing 8.00 a.m. and they were of seven minutes duration with an in-between-break of one minute. 40 1st round matches were held while the semi-finals and the finals of the Cup C’ship, the consolation finals and the finals of the Bowl and Plate C’ships were worked off last Sun. followed by the awards ceremony at the MCA courts.
Amal Int’l took on St. Anthony’s College, Wattala, in the curtain-raiser and 33 matches were held on the opening day of the tournament.
After the 1st round matches, Dhamso, Ambalangoda, St. Anthony’s College, Wattala, Moratuwa University ‘A,’ Cambrians, Wattala BC, Nugegoda Cagers, All Greens and Field Force were the top eight teams who qualified to compete for the Cup C’ship quarter-finals. From them, Dhamso, Ambalangoda, Moratuwa University ‘A,’ Wattala BC and All Greens were the four semi-finalists.
Best Players –
The best Player of the Cup C’ship was Anuruddha Wickramasinghe of Wattala BC while Lakshan Perera of Colombo Joes was awarded as the best player of the Plate C’ship. Uthpala Sumanarathne won the best player’s award of the Bowl C’ship.
The Chief Guest at the prize giving ceremony was Rev. Fr. Bob Rodrigo who was a former Rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary, Kohuwala. Rienzie Cooray, Managing Director of World Wide Logistics Group, Carlo Thubawila, Chairman, Screenline Group of Companies, and Basil Fernando, former star basketball player of the Maharaja Group, graced the occasion as the guests of honour.
