KELANI LADIES DEFEND THE PERA CHALLENGE TO RETAIN THE CROWN

Being Sri Lankans, we are blessed with unique set of games that we may knowingly or unknowingly engaging today. However the uniqueness of local games may be hidden due to the popularity of other games like Cricket or Football that have become the higher ranking sports among worldwide sports fans. Anyway, this does not mean that we are not open to other game activities. We also have such unique as well as famous kind of games. Elle which is also called the bat and ball game is quite such an example.

Elle is practiced by both male and female players irrespective of gender. Even though Elle has not been a much upcoming game in school and club levels, it has now been added as a sport in university level games. Elle is played in village areas as well as urban areas and it measures the strength and capacity of the participants. A great interest towards this sport is shown by female players similar to the male players. Such open participation of female players was noticeable in the Women’s Elle championship of Inter University Games 2018 held on 26th and 27th of July at Sabaragamuwa University Grounds.

13 teams representing various universities competed under 4 groups in the preliminary stage of the Inter University games 2018. South Eastern University team didn’t show up giving both Kelaniya and Rajarata teams a walkover to the quarter finals. Out of those 4 groups, winners and the runners up teams were then qualified to the quarter finals.

Quarter final matches were played between 8 universities. Kelaniya and Wayamba, Peradeniya and Colombo, Ruhuna and Jayawardanapura, Jaffna and Rajarata were the 8 universities that competed against each other. Out of them, University of Kalaniya, Peradeniya, Ruhuna and Jaffna won over the quarter finals and entered the semi finals. Peradeniya and Jaffna universities on one hand and Kelaniya and Ruhuna universities on the other hand played in the semi finals. Peradeniya and Kelaniya universities got selected to the finals beating Jaffna and Ruhuna universities respectively. The losers, Jaffna and Ruhuna universities then played against each other for the third place. The consolation finals between the two teams ended up 06-05 making Ruhuna university the winners.

The final match was played between University of Kelaniya and University of Peradeniya and after going through a hard battle, University of Kelaniya won the match showing their colours by obtaining 10 points. They restricted Pera team to a single point. Thus, University of Kelaniya became the champions in Women’s Elle at Inter University games 2018. Meanwhile University of Peradeniya became the runners up and University of Ruhuna became the 2nd runners up.

Women participation in this Elle game series showed the strength and the sport skills of the budding female undergraduates that should not be over looked. Dedication, patience and continuous practice of the winning teams and the participated teams and their straightforward leap taken in engaging in this kind of an Elle game should be commendable. To this end, we wish Good luck for all the winning teams as well as the participated teams.

Article by – Trishani Ranasinghe

Edited by – Isuru Akalanka