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Festival of Cricket – UK
celebrated its 21st year as the biggest
annual gathering of Sri Lankans in the
UK/Europe, with about 5000 people
attending the festival on Sunday, 12th
July, 2009 at the Winchmore Hill Cricket
Club Grounds, London N21 3ER. All
present at the festival had a day of fun
and excitement with their friends and
families, watching homegrown excellent
cricketing talent. Teams from 24 Sri
Lankan Old Boys’ Associations (OBA)
played a limited-over knockout
tournament on 3 pitches simultaneously,
creating an atmosphere of inter-school
'Big Match' rivalry, as in Sri Lanka.
Alongside the boundary lines were
cheering enthusiastic supporters,
youngsters dancing and singing to live
band music, picnickers relaxing in the
lovely summers day whilst tasting
varieties of Sri Lankan and
International food, and children
bouncing all day long in the Bouncy
Castle!!!
Royal College OBA-UK team was crowned
Champions of the Festival of Cricket
tournament 2009 and received the 'OBA
Challenge Trophy' whilst, Thurstan OBA-UK,
were the runners-up. |
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Royal
College OBA-UK team was crowned
Champions of the Festival of Cricket
tournament 2009 and received the 'OBA
Challenge Trophy' whilst, Thurstan OBA-UK,
were the runners-up.
Zahira OBA-UK won the Plate and the
runner-up was Mahinda College. Dhanushka
Perera captained the winning Royal Team.
Man of the Tournament award was won by
Royalist Malinda Thotiwilage and Man of
the Final Match was Thurstanite Damith
Indika. History was also made where two
teams scored the same runs for equal
number of wickets and were given the
same number of extras, resulting in a
bowl out. Dhanushka Perera (Captain),
Gayan Maduranga, Malinda Thotiwilage,
Sineth Withanage, Kasun Ranabahu, Samira
Perera, Dulith Weeraratne, Nirosha
Wijenayake, Gihan Premachandra and
Shanaka Herath played for the Royal OBA
historic winning team.
There were many prizes and surprises at
the event. FOC Grand Charity that
annually helps National Cancer Institute
of Sri Lanka, and Cancer Research UK,
raffled and auctioned 6 SriLankan
Airline return tickets to Sri Lanka and
more gifts from other donors.
The Chief Guest was His Excellency
Justice Nihal Jayasinghe, High
Commissioner for Sri Lanka in the UK.
Other eminent guests were the Chairman
of Bank of Ceylon, Dr. Gamini
Wickramasinghe, The Chief Executive
Officer of SM Call Dialog, Mr Sam
Seinthan, the Country Manager UK and
Ireland for SriLankan Air Lines, Mr.
Chanaka Olagama, and Councillor Martin
Prescott, London Burrough of Enfield ,
Winchmore Hill Ward.
The main Sponsor was the Bank of Ceylon,
and the co-sponsor was SM Call Dialog,
whilst SriLankan Airline was the other
sponsor.
The Joint Presidents Brian Ratnayake and
Jayantha Edirappuli together with the
Festival of Cricket Executive Committee
2009, send their grateful thanks to one
and all that supported and attended the
21st annual Festival of Cricket, for
their efforts to make the event a great
success. The Festival of Cricket
Executive Committee also extend a warm
welcome to all Sri Lankans to get
together in unity and friendship to,
enjoy our much loved game of Cricket in
years to come!. For more information,
please visit, http://www.festivalofcricket.org
Summary of the
FOC 2009 Cricket Tournament
FOC 2009 Challenge Trophy WINNERS Royal
College OBA (63-3 in 4 overs), WINNERS
by 1 run
FOC 2009 Challenge Trophy Runners-Up
Thurstan College OBA (62-2 in 4 overs)
FOC 2009 Plate Tournament WINNERS Zahira
College OBA (40-1 in 4 overs), WINNERS
by 1 run
FOC 2009 Plate Tournament Runners-Up
Mahinda College OBA (39-2 in 4 overs)
Best Batsman Award Damith Indika,
Thurstan College OBA
Man of the Tournament Malinda
Thotiwilage, Royal College OBA |
