First Leg of Puducherry School Hockey League comes to an end

First leg of the Puducherry School Hockey League came to an end on last Thursday with the prize distribution by the Amalorpavam School principal Lourdusamy in his campus.

Lourdusamy handed over a cash prize of Rs.1000 to visiting Guruvinatham school which defeated his school 4-0 in the Amalorpavam primary school premises while the losers collected Rs.250. Man of the match of each match also won Rs.250.

Seven schools enlisted under the One Thousand Hockey Legs program of Delhi based Hockey Citizen Group started the first leg of the league on 10th August in Puducherry.

In order to enthuse schools and to bring school children into the sprit of hockey, the matches were organized in school campuses and the principals were kind enough to send other class students to watch the matches.

First match took place between Petit Seminaire and Vivekandha (Lawspet) at the latter’s ground. It was 1-1 draw.

Next day, Swami Vivekanandha (Thirubhuvanai) was crushed at the hands of Lawspet Vivekanandha at home. The hosts defeated the visitors 7-0 after leading 5-0 at half time.

Next two matches were held in Amalorpavam premises involving the school.

In the first match on the fields of Amalorpavam, Petite Seminaire defeated the hosts 1-0. On the next day, Guruvinatham outplayed the hosts.

Thus, with one win and draw both Laswpet Vivekananda and Petit Seminaire are have collected 8 points each.

A Best School Trophy has been introduced under the one thousand hockey legs program. Based on matches and quiz wins, and school’s commitment to the program, this trophy will be given away in December this year.

Each school a session on quiz competition on hockey was conducted by Bangalore based volunteer Shashank Gupta. Out of five teams in each school one was selected for All Puducherry Final. Each winning team was given Rs. 500, runners up Rs.250.

During the half time, the spectator students were involved in a jolly stick and goal activity. The winning students were given colourful hockey player’s posters.
Former international player Shanmugam was present on the initial days and offered valuable tips to the coaches Jayees, Bala, Sudhish Kumar and others.

The second leg of the League will commence in November.

For many schools it is the first occasion hockey match was conducted in their premises.
In each school assembly, those who attended the Summer Camp in April were given away a Certificate by the principals of the each school. The idea of putting players photo in each certificate elicited good response from players.

For more details please visit http://othl.stick2hockey.com