Dodransbicentennial toccer tourney kicks off at Sanawar

The Dodransbicentennial All India Bhupinder Singh memorial soccer tournament 2022 kicked off with much fanfare today in the historic Barne field of the Lawrence School Sanawar, which is celebrating its 175^th year of foundation.

The teams from the nine participating schools teams namely Mayo College-Ajmer, Bishop Cotton -Shimla, Pathways School-Aravali, Punjab Public School-Nabha (Punjab), Motilal Nehru Sports School-Rai(Sonipat), Army Public School -Dagshai, Pinegrove school,-Dharampur(Himachal Pradesh) and the host school The Lawrence School, Sanawar marched with their respective school flags on the tunes played by the School Band. Led by the School head boy Aditya Singh Chandel and the head girl Ustat kaur Jatana, the participants took the oath of participation to uphold the glory of the sports and honour of their schools.

Welcoming the participating teams, the headmaster of the school,  Himmat Singh Dhillon encouraged the players to exhibit fair play and further declared the tournament open.

In the inaugural match played between the Host School the Lawrence School Sanawar and Mayo College Ajmer, Aridaman Pratap Singh of Sanawar brilliantly dribbling the ball and piercing through the opponent’s defense formation scored the first goal of the match in the 13^th minute of the game, stirring waves of celebration among the host spectators. However, within a minute of the first goal Anirudh Sharma of Mayo posted a goal with his long distance and well targeted kick. The game remained neck to neck as the score board displayed 1-1 till the half time.

As the match resumed after the half time break, both the teams went all out to score a goal and have an upper hand. Though the ground was a little soggy due to light rains, it did not sag the morale even a bit either of the players or the spectators. In the 47^th minute of the match, Vivaan Mehta of Mayo College score the third goal gaining the psychological advantage but soon the advantage slipped away when a superb header by the centre forward Aridaman went right into the opponent’s goal post. The crowd was on its feet once again as the host team became hopeful. The score was 2-2 now.  The crowd remained on the edge and the clincher came Just two minutes before the end of the game when  Aridaman outsmarting the goalkeeper scored the decisive goal of the match  making an impressive hattrick. For his brilliant performance in the match, Aridaman Pratap Singh was awarded the “Player of the match”.