85 to 95 teams to contest on Oct. 11 AND 12

By Susil Premalal
The first round games of the 60th Anniversary Celebrations and ‘Eva Trophy’ Open Netball Tournament conducted by the Western Province Netball Association (WPNA) will take place at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike MV courts in Colombo on October 11 and 12 commencing at 7 am.
The competition will be conducted in seven divisions. The competition for clubs will be conducted in four divisions and the contest for schools in three divisions.
This tournament is open to all members of the WPNA and around 85 to 95 teams are expected to compete in the contest said Mrs. Alexi de Silva, President WPNA at the press briefing to announce the staging of the event.
The final will take place on October 18 at the St. Joseph’s College Indoor Stadium.
A mixed tournament too will be held in conjunction with the competition. This will take place on October 5 at the St. Joseph’s Indoor Stadium.
The Western Province Netball Association is the oldest netball association in Sri Lanka. The activities of the WPNA can be traced back to 60 Years of netball and during these years, the WPNA has produced players to represent Sri Lanka, Umpires who have gained leading positions in the International Netball field, reputed coaches and one of the WPNA players gained a position in the Asian Federation and the world body for the first time in the history of netball in Sri Lanka, pointed out Mrs. Alexi.
“We are conducting an Open Netball Tournament to celebrate our success in the netball world for 60 years in October this year and this event will be sponsored by ‘EVA’. This is not the first time that they have sponsored us because we have been conducting our Open Tournaments from 1995 to 2000 with them for the ‘EVA Trophy’. They have agreed to sponsor us this year as well.”
The clubs will be taking part in the ‘A’ Division, ‘B’ Division, Over 35 and Mixed Divisions.     Schools will take part in the ‘C’ Division (Under 19), ‘D’ Division (Under 15) and ‘E’ Division (for International Schools).