Olympian Devinder Walmiki played a stellar role by scoring both the goals which enabled strong challengers U.K. United, Malad script a narrow 2-1 win against Coorg XI in a quarter-final match of the Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana 37th Victor D’Mello Memorial Trophy Rink Hockey Tournament – 2018, conducted under the auspices of the MHAL, and played at the Gymkhana’s floodlit tennis courts on Thursday night. The Coorg outfit put up a spirited fight and Raheel P. scored their lone goal.
Devinder Walmiki
Earlier, Mumbai Customs defeated Sea View SC by an identical 2-1 margin. Jayesh Jadhav and Dharamvir Yadav scored a goal apiece to secure Customs win and a passage to the semi-finals. Sea View scored through Karan Kapoor. Customs will meet Companeroes SC who prevailed over Central Railway by a 5-3 margin in another quarter-final match.
Meanwhile, defending champions Ave Maria pulled off a narrow 4-3 win against Bombay Republicans and will take on U.K. United in the semi-finals.
In a Veteran Men’s semi-final encounter, Solomon Alexander scored four goasl in succession in steering Rebels SC to a facile 5-3 win against Ave Maria. Meghraj S. got the fifth goal for Rebels, while Nirel Pimenta, Nasir Khondkar and John Fernandes scored one each for the losing side.
Results – Men’s Open quarter-finals: Ave Maria 4 (Prince Chaurasia 2, Nitin Kumar, Vikram Singh) beat Bombay Republicans 3 (Venkatesh 2, Vikram Y).
Mumbai Customs 2 (Jayesh Jadhav, Dharamvir Yadav) beat Sea View SC 1 (Karan Kapoor).
Companeroes SC 5 (Oristan D’Souza 2, Kayzin D’Souza, Ambrose Toppo, Sushil Ekka) beat Central Railway 3 (Nilesh Mane 2, Mohd. Nizam).
U.K. United SC 2 (Devinder Walmiki 2) beat Coorg XI 1 (Raheel P.)
Veterans semi-finals: Rebels SC 5 (Solomon Alexander 4, Meghraj S.) beat Ave Maria 3 (John Fernandes, Nirel Pimenta, Nasir Khondkar).