Hillwood Club, Kandy sweep awards at CMCC ‘One-Whistle’ Netball tournament

Hillwood Club girls from Kandy swept the boards at the ‘One-Whistle’ Invitational Netball Tournament conducted by the Colombo Malay Cricket Club (CMCC) to mark its 150th-anniversary celebrations which began in March 2022.

The tournament held at the Padang on Sunday (March 5) was played in a carnival atmosphere with the participation of 20 teams including two men’s teams from Monaragala and Ratnapura who featured in an exhibition match.

Organised under the supervision of former national captain and Asia Cup-winning coach Hyacinth Wijesinghe, a unique feature of this tournament was that matches were played simultaneously on four courts beginning and ending with one whistle during the league stage with a running clock of seven minutes in each half with an interval of one minute.

Piyaratne, Padukka emerged champions in the Under 15 school final defeating Yasodara Balika 9-7.

Hillwood Club won the club final defeating Kalutara Balika 11-7.

The Veterans final was won by Track Master who beat Police 7-4.

Hillwood carried away the special awards with Kusalika Aluwihare crowned CMCC Netball Queen, Yuthara Rajaratnam (Best Centre Court player), Lakshika Aluwihare (Best Defensive Player) and Vichali Mawilmada (Best Shooter) bagging other awards.

A former official of the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka Yasmin Dharmaratne was the chief guest while Damayanthi Jayathilaka was the Guest of Honour. NFSL president Lakshmi Victoria also graced the occasion.