In spite of losing the second leg at 7-8, Royal managed to take charge of the  of the 27th Dr. R.L. Hayman Trophy at 16-15, making them the proud custodians of the glittering Trophy after a lapse of seven years at the Sugathadasa Swimming Complex yesterday.

Royal won the first leg 9-7 but were off colour in the return game yesterday going down in spite of close exchanges. Royal went into the lead early and went to add two more goals but the Thomians were never ready to surrender scoring two goals and the scoreboard read 3-2 in favour of Royal at the end of the 1st quarter.

Thomians well organised came into the second quarter and added two more goals to their tally ending the second quarter to lead 2-1. The Thomians led the third quarter 3-1. The final quarter saw the Reid Avenue lads shoot into the lead 2-1 but by the final whistle blew while the Thomains still led 8-7.

Last year Thomians won the trophy 9-7.

Both schools missed many chances of scoring due to erratic shooting. But the Thomians organised themselves and played a well calculated game. On the other hand Royal paid dearly for delaying their shooting in front of the goal.

The tally of victories stand Royal 8 and Thomians 16 with three drawn games. In the junior game the young Thomians scored a huge 18-4 victory over in Under–15 encounter. Thomians led in all four quarters of the 4-0, 5-1, 7-1 and held for 2-2 in the last quarter.

 

Following an initial insinuation that Royal College had cheated in fielding an extra player in the Dr. R.L. Hayman Trophy water polo encounter with traditional rivals, St. Thomas’, the Mount Lavinia School later recanted to allow the points accumulated by their traditional rivals to be counted in computing the tally of the two games.

Royal College, while admitting what they said was a bona fide mistake in playing an extra player for 1 minute and 45 seconds dismissed the allegation that it was a “deliberate ploy”. In a letter from their Principal to the Acting Warden of S. Thomas’ on Friday they offered to forfeit the results which stood in Royal’s favour 9-7.

However, the Acting Warden responded the same day saying “we commend Royal College for the generous and magnanimous offer to forfeit the points obtained in the 1st leg”, however in keeping with the “rich tradition and the spirit of sportsmanship” between the two Colleges, the 9-7 points in favour of Royal College should be carried to the 2nd leg and counted in the final aggregate.

The ‘first leg’ encounter of the R.L. Hayman Trophy water-polo encounter was held on September 29 at the Sugathadasa Swimming Pool Complex in Colombo in which Royal won 9-7 but later it was revealed that the winners had an extra player in the pool during the latter part of the game.

None of the members of both teams, match officials, team officials or even the spectators were aware of such an occurrence, due to the intensity of the game.

Royal College explained what happened saying it was due to their goalie joining the team from outside the pool after the time out called by STC. The fact that there was an extra player went unnoticed by the players, the coaching staff of both Royal and St. Thomas’ and the match officials. In fact it appears to have come to light only whilst seeing video replays subsequent to the game,” a letter sent by Royal College to their traditional foes, dated October 5, stated.

The letter goes on to say that ‘No protests were lodged at the time of the incident or within the stipulated time after the conclusion of the game and further reminds of a similar incident which took place in 2016 from the Thomian camp.