Rail Coach Factory, Northern Rlys post big wins at hockey meet

Mumbai: Last year's runners-up Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, and title contenders Northern Railways went on the rampage and scored runaway victories on the opening day of the All-India Inter Railway Women's Hockey tournament at the Mahindra Stadium here today.

RCF crushed West Central Railway 12-0, while Northern steamrolled North Central Railway 14-1 in one-sided clashes. In the third match of the day, holders Western Railway put it across South Eastern Railway 4-1.

Northern went ahead in the fifth minute through a field goal by Monika. Thereafter, they scored at regular intervals against North Central with goals coming through Jasjeet Kaur (9th minute), international Ritu Rani (13, 29), Poonam (19, 34) and Neha (23).

The trend continued in the later half as Poonam (36, 46, 47 and 58), Jasjit Kaur (39, 44) scored for Northern. Vineeta Kindo came up with a consolation goal for the helpless North Central in the 62nd minute, which was followed by a goal from Neha in the last minute of play to complete the tally for Northern.

Deepika Thakur converted the very first penalty corner in the second minute of play for RCF against West Central. She contributed three other goals to the overall tally.

Amandeep Kaur scored four goals, while Anuradha Thokcham (3) and Kiran Deep Kaur (1) were the other scorers for the winners, who led 4-0 at half time. In the Western-SER match, the former got their goals through Chan-Chan (2), Anupa and Rujita Malik, who scored once each.