Story is the same with rugby the good defence and regaining of possession from the opponents and feeding the ball to the forwards does not find merit. In the game of rugby the back division has a good chance of scoring but not in hockey which is s preserve of the forwards.

This writer could well remember in a closely contested rugby match a Fijian World Cup Sevens player representing a Colombo Club was seen jinxing his way to the goal line making a mockery of Kandy’s defence and he had only full back Nigel Ratwatte to beat but met his Waterloo here as Nigel Ratwatte brought him down with a crash tackle. The somewhat dazed Fijian looked at the little David who brought down the Goliath. While the Fijian was applauded there was hardly anything for Nigel Ratwatte.

Madumali Karunatillake falls into a case like this and she is just 17 years and has been playing for the school since she was 10 years and blooded into the under 19 team when 13.

Her performance has been many for her school which is too long to mention. This year she was a member of the Seetha Devi Girls college team which were consolation winners in the all island under 19 schools championship. She played a crucial role in the schools winning the Central Province under 19 champions helped the team to defeat St Anthony’s Girls College which only a few weeks earlier had won the all island title. She was in the Seetha Devi Girls College team which won the Seetha Devi Sevens and the Royal College ‘Black and Gold sevens. She played for the Davians Sports Club which finished runners up in the Kandy District inter club hockey championship and was among the four school girls who made up the Kandy District womens hockey team which became Central Province Champions. The rest being all national players. The other three school girls being centre half Charuka Abeyratne, full back Thamali Dissanayake, and centre forward Tharaki Paranagama – all on the brink of winning national or representative honours.

Madhumali Karunatillake is a very intelligent and a good reader of the game. When the ball passes the centre line her eyes are glued on the ball with a ‘Hawk’s Eye’ The in roads made by the opponents is closely watched by her before she sails into attack and feeds the ball to the forwards.

It is not easy to get past this strongly built player and the opponents often use the other flank to get inside the semi circles. She is affectionately known as ‘Police’ for her ability to arrest intruder in her own territory.

A very soft spoken and a very friendly girl and she has a passion for motor cars apart from hockey. She is also the Deputy Sports Captain of the school. She hails from the village of Weligalla along the Kandy-Gampola road. She hopes to continue her hockey and end up playing for the country.

Seetha Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Kandy scored a sensational 3-0 win, over St Anthony’s Girls College, Kandy, to become Central Province Schools Girls Under 19 hockey champions in the finals of the hockey tournament organised by the Department of Education of the Central Province and played at Edward Park, Matale. At half time Seetha Devi led 1-0.

It was only last week that St Anthony’s Girls College won the all island girls under 19 hockey championship in which 30 schools participated. Seetha Devi Balika Vidyalaya finished third.

Seetha Devi Balika Vidyalaya went into this match with grim determination hell bent to come out an top. Their coach M A M Ashraff said that they revamped their team for this tournament and fielded a very young side with almost the entire team was under 17 years except skipper Wathsala Jayasinghe who was 18 years old. This paid dividends he said.

Seetha Devi started cautiously knowing the strength of their opponents who had top players like Nadeesha Sithumini Warigahetti and Sadunika Devagiri both prolific goal scores and guarding the goal was custodian Tharumini Abeykoon all three Sri Lanka Schools Stickers. The first two named were well marked and could hardly do anything.

Seetha Devi BV opened scoring in the 20th minute of the first half when centre half Bashini Perera sent a cross pass to centre forward Wathsala Jayasinghe who made no mistake with the hit at goal much to the jubilation of the Devian supporters.

With the sides changing ends. The Devians did not rest on their laurels and knowing that a 1-0 lead was not a good one to defend knowing the potential of their opponents, they took attack as the best from of defence.

Seetha Devi kept attacking and individually very player in the frontline was well equipped in the basics whom the Antonian top players were marked the attack was slack and out of rhythm. A point the Antonian stickers missed was when Warigahetti and Devagiri were marked they had to switch positions to outwit their opponents.

Playing with more guests the Devians drove play into opponents territory and it was not long before centre forward Bashini Perera collection a pass from Charake Abeyrathne stormed the opponents defence to score with a drive which ricocheted into the goal.

Conceding a 0-2 lead the Antonian girl defence frittered and a few minutes from the end Seetha Devi were awarded a penalty corner and Charuka Abeyratne taking the hit drove to Bashini Perera who had only to move inside the semi circle to score.

Ms Shiroma Athurupana and S N Jayasinghe umpired.

Charuka Abeyratne of Seetha Devi BV was adjudged the best player of the final for displaying aggression and also had a hand in all the scoring efforts.