Punjab Police to clash with Sher-e-Jalandhar in Romesh Hockey Final

Jalandhar, Dec 23 (UNI) Punjab Police and Sher-e-Jalandhar will clash in the final of the 9th Romesh Chander Memorial Hockey Tournament here tomorrow.

In their last league match at the Burlton Park Surjit Hockey Stadium here, both the teams fought to secure an edge over the other but the match ended in a 1-1 draw and the teams shared one point each.

Both sides began on an aggressive note and earned one penalty corner each soon after the start. However, amid excitement both teams wasted the corners. They fought neck and neck without succeeding to score during the first half of the match.

In the second half, Punjab Police earned a penalty corner soon after the resumption and drag flicker Jugraj Singh made no mistake in utilising the same for opening the team score. Four minutes later, Sher-e-Jalandhar secured an equaliser through spectacular field goal by Tejbir Singh.

The interesting fact was that Punjab Police today faced opposition from six of its regular players, including Olympians Baljit Dhillon and Gaganajit Singh, who are participating in this tournament for the Sher-e-Jalandhar team.

In fact, Sher-e-Jalandhar team is raised to play Premier Hockey League. Besides six Punjab Police players, this team also has five regular players from another heavyweight Punjab and Sindh Bank.

With today's match, Punjab Police topped in league round with 13 points with four wins and one draw while Sher-e-Jalandhar stood second with 11 points in three wins and two draws.

Meanwhile, in second match of the day, Punjab and Sindh Bank defeated Corps of Signals by 4-2. The Bank team which was playing without seven of its regular players, was lagging behind by 1-2 till half-time but later staged a comeback to win the match and special cash prize of Rs 15,000 announced by the orgnaisers for the winners of the last two league matches.

Bankers Mandeep Singh posted two goals while Lakhwinder and Rajwinder scored one each. Sunil Lakra and Parmjit Singh were scorers for the Signals men.

The last league match between Border Security Force (BSF) and Rail Coach Factory (RCF) turned out to be a one-sided affair in which BSF scored a 3-0 win. Raj Singh posted two goals while Habil Topno scored one.

UNI SS JN DH MIR RN1836