Sept. 10: Old boys of St. Xavier's Collegiate School returned to the "big field" today morning to renew their camaraderie over a game of football.
The oldest players in the five-a-side tournament were pushing 60 and the youngest barely out of their teens.
In its 22nd year, ALSOCCER, in association with The Telegraph, saw around 130 Xaverians relive their magic moments on the school playground. Many other former students turned up to cheer for their friends.
"We played before school, we played during the small break, we played during the lunch break and we played after school when we had matches. It's so nostalgic to be back," said Arjun Sen, who passed ISC in 2006. He assists film director Sujoy Ghosh.
Arjun's team, comprising students of the 2005 and 2006 batches, lifted the trophy after 10 years. They won 2-0 against a mixed-batches side, with goals coming from Shouvik Sen and Agnidev Roy.
Sixteen teams - of five players and three reserves each - were divided into four groups and played three games each in the league stage before the top two teams from each group went on to the quarter-finals.
Such is the pull of the tournament, many fly down for it. Among them was Yashoswi Mitra, who passed ICSE in 1993. An avid footballer in school, he now works for a bank in Mumbai.
Mitra reached the city on Saturday night, played the matches and left for Mumbai today evening.
Jayjeet Jaiswal, 17 years Yashoswi's junior and set to join training before his first job, also flew down from Mumbai for the match.
Among the semi-finalists, competing with old boys, was a team of current teachers.
There was a Xaverian touch to the tournament: this was the first time an exhibition match was played between fathers of senior school and primary school students who are not alumni of the school but had a wish to play on the St. Xavier's ground.
"We meet a lot of these parents while coming to drop our sons to school and knew that many of them have a desire to play on our field. The idea of the match came from one of our members, Vikash Sahani," said the convenor of the event, Amish Raja.
