Southern and Western enter quarterfinals

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, APRIL 25. The former champions, Southern and Western, entered the quarterfinals of the 60th All India Railway hockey championship, but in contrasting fashion. At the KSHA stadium here on Tuesday, Southern strived and spluttered to a solitary goal win over Chitaranjan Loco Works in pool-D while Western thrashed Eastern 7-0 in pool-C.

Earlier in the afternoon, the holder, Northern Railway made the grade and in fact topped pool-A with a 2-0 win over North Eastern Railway (NER). Northern's 2-0 margin enabled it pip ICF to the top spot on better goal average. ICF had managed only a 1-0 win over NER after playing out a goalless draw against Northern.

Ajinderpal Singh it was who got both the goals for the holder, who flaunted the rules by playing Brijnav Singh who got two `yellows' in the last match. When queried. tournament director V. Rajasekharan claimed that the clause was not there in the tournament rules but having sworn to abide by the IHF and international rules, there was no way he could have flaunted the norm.

North Eastern was good in patches. But then it did pose a sturdy defence which managed to keep the Northern forays at check. But goalkeeper Harish Bhakuni, who was substituted by Anook Kushawalate in the second half, let go a feeble push from Ajinderpal through his pads for the first goal. Ajinderpal was at it again in the 56th minute capping a fine passing bout with Daud Suleman with a neat goal.

Northern will clash with the runner-up from pool-B which in all probability could be Central while ICF will meet RCF in the other quarterfinals.

Southern Railway joined SCR in the quarterfinals from pool-D, but the two clash to determine the pool topper.

Southern, the host, however, will have to raise its game a couple of notches in the remaining encounters to stay in contention.

Southern got its all important goal through right extreme M.G. Balamurugan in the 26th minute of play. CLW did come up with a few chances and about six penalty corners but frittered them all.

Western who managed a 2-1 win over DLW in its first match was in its element pumping in goals at will. Muktiar Singh began the goal glut in the very second minute, his reverse hit trickling in off Eastern goalkeeper D.K. Das's pads. Shanta Kumar then added, pushing home a neat through from Allen Barla.

Changing ends with a 2-0 advantage, Western stormed the Eastern citadel repeatedly and managed to find the target regularly. Muktiar added to his personal tally in the 39th, 45th and 54th minute while Ingo Singh scored twice more (52nd and 65th) to round off a big win.

Western topped pool-C while DLW with a win and a loss squeaked in as second team. Western will meet the runner-up of pool-D while DLW take on the winners of that pool.

In the other match, RCF, Kapurthala who had already made the last eight, thumped Wheel And Axle Plant (WAP) 8-3 after leading 3-0 at half time. Both the teams scored a hat-trick each with Satwant SIngh netting the last three goals for RCF while A. Riaz scored all the three goals for WAP.

RCF got its goals through Satwant Singh (3), A.S. Roy, T. Ekka, Jagmohan SIngh, L. Ekka and A. Ekka.

Bihar tops table

CALCUTTA, APRIL 25. Bihar ruled the day with two thumping victories to take itself to the top of the league table in the Eveready East Zone hockey played here on Tuesday.

Playing yesterday's unfinished match against Mizoram in the morning, Bihar scored two more goals for a 4-0 verdict as Sushil Topno and Santosh Kumar scored two more goals in the remaining 23 minutes to add to the two overnight goals scored by Topno and Cyprian Kerketta.

Later in the afternoon, Bihar found an easier prey in Manipur to follow up with a 7-2 drubbing. Kerketta starred in the showing, scoring four goals including an hat-trick while Topno scored the rest three to complete the tally.

For Manipur M. Premeshwor and Th. Herojit scored one each to reduce the margin.

The two wins thus took Bihar on top of the table while Bengal and Manipur follow next with a win each in the five-team round-robin league. Manipur, losing to Bihar today, has played a match more than the host.

Opening its campaign today, Bengal thrashed Assam 4-1 to start on a confident note. Samarjit Singh scored three goals (13th, 19th and 42nd) but failed to get a hat-trick as Jonas Bara broke the sequence scoring in the 28th minute. M. Kirkey of Assam reduced the margin in the 64th minute. Assam fell to its second straight defeat today to diminish its final chances.

- Our Sports Reporter

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