Closing of The Centenary Year – By Algi Wijewickrema
Deviating from publishing photos that could not find space in the Centenary Publication, this time around, I decided to give details about a legacy that does not get highlighted much. That is the legacy of the first Peterite Captain of the Joe-Pete series. Some rare pictures are also included.
Legacy Of George Jayaweera
Among the immortals who played in the Peterite Cricket team that faced the Josephians for the first time in 1933 in what subsequently came to be known as the ‘Big Match’, a name that cannot be forgotten is George Jayaweera, the captain. Though not dubbed the ‘Big Match’ then, the Josephian-Peterite is arguably the most looked forward to in the annual calendar of sporting events at St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s.
George Jayaweera’s captaincy began in 1932 and in that year, as reported in “The Peterite” Magazine of 1933, the Peterites playing against St. Benedicts, won the first of the big matches played. The term big match here refers to the fact that in those days Peterites were not given fixtures by the older, more popular cricketing schools and it was St. Benedict’s College, Fr. Nicholas Perera’s old school, an old established College of repute, which gave us our first big fixture and hence termed a big match.
Let me quote from “The Peterite” of 1933, “Our first big match in 1932 was against St. Benedicts. We made 183 to which St. Benedict’s replied with 139 for 9 wickets. This was a very creditable performance on the part of the College Team and in their first appearance against a first-class College and heartened by their success they went one better in their encounter which was against St. Anthony’s College, whom they defeated in a whole day match.”
The first Josephian-Peterite match, now dubbed the ‘Big Match’, was played on the 23rd and 24th of February 1933 and it was played on the Peterite grounds as was desired by the founding Rector, Rev. Fr. Maurice Le Goc with the concurrence of the indefatigable first Rector, Rev. Fr. Nicholas Perera.
The Peterites under George Jayaweera were confident of doing well as they had achieved a degree of success during the 1933 season that had not been achieved before. However, the Josephians under, Robert Fernando, obviously had other ideas.
That the Josephians won handsomely is what the records will show but Cyril Dias shone like a beacon for the Peterites taking 9 wickets for 64 runs.
Leaving the early Peterite cricket and the first Big Match to be the subject of another write up, perhaps by someone else, let me get back to George Jayaweera and his legacy.
George Arthur Herbert Jayaweera, to give his full name, was born on the 13th of October 1911, in Dehiwela to Arthur Hamilton Jayaweera, a devout Catholic and Alice Jayaweera, a Buddhist. Arthur Jayaweera had strong connections to the Catholic Church and also to Fr. Nicholas Perera and when it came to choosing a school for their only son George, there was no argument that it had to be St. Peter’s College.
Though no records of his achievements in studies are available, that George Jayaweera was appointed captain of the 1932 Cricket team is well documented and I have, earlier in this article, shown the reader a glimpse of two successful matches played against two leading cricketing schools of the time under his captaincy in 1932. George thereafter captained the 1933 Cricket team also, in which year the first Josephian-Peterite match was played.
After leaving school, George married Lucy Violet in February 1937 and had six boys and two girls. Of the sons, Upali, Lakshman, Tissa, Shanthi, Asitha and Ruwan, all attended St. Peter’s, some full term and some for a part of their school career as you will see later on. The girls, Nelun and Irangani studied at St. Bridget’s Convent.
Upali, the eldest now lives in Melbourne, Australia while Lakshman, George’s second son died early. However, according to Tisssa, Lakshman had two sons, Sidath and Asanka who played cricket for St. Peter’s. Here I must say that records do show that Sidath played for College from 2008 to 2011 but unfortunately I found no records of Asanka’s involvement in Peterite cricket.
Whether it is two sons or one, what is important is that it makes the Jayaweeras having three generations of cricketers in Peterite Cricket.
His 3rd son, Tissa played for the College 1st eleven cricket team from 1960 to 1962. He played in the years when the teams were led by Premasiri Authukorale (1960), Adeial Anghie (1961) and Richard Heyn (1962).
After leaving school Tissa played Sara and Donovan Andree cricket at Colts and captained the Donovan Andree cricket team leading the team in 1973 to win the coveted Donovan Andree trophy. Tissa, like his brothers Upali and Shanthi now lives in Melbourne.
The 4th son Shanthi Wimal attended St Peter’s college and played for the College 1st XI cricket teams in 1966 under Darrel Wimalaratne and 1967 under Tony Opatha. After leaving school Shanthi played for the Colts Cricket club and played for the Nationalized Services. Shanthi too lives in Melbourne.
As mentioned before, Asitha attended Royal College after being a student of St. Peter’s up to the 4th Standard and shone for his new school, becoming the youngest to captain Royal also earning the Schoolboy Cricketer of the year in 1972. He captained the combined schools cricket team against the Australian School boys also in 1972. Unlike his brothers who live in Australia, Asitha now lives in London.
The baby of George’s team, his 6th son, Ruwan, who was at Royal College following his brother Asitha, was admitted to St. Peter’s in 1971. He played for the St. Peter’s College Cricket team in 1972 in Roy Dias’ team and in 1973 under the Gamini Goonasena. Ruwan went on to captain St. Peter’s College Cricket team in 1974 and created ‘Big Match’ history becoming the first captain to be the son of a captain in the Joe-Pete series.
Here I need to digress a bit. The first Peterite Captain, Norman Peternott had his second son, Rodney captaining the Peterites in 1969. However, with George Jayaweera being the first to captain the Peterites in the Big Match series, Ruwan becomes the first son of a Peterite captain to skipper the Peterite team in the Josephian-Peterite series.
After leaving school, Ruwan played for the Colts Cricket Club before leaving to UK to do higher studies. Ruwan, like three of his brothers, now lives in Melbourne.
George Jayaweera passed away in November 1976 at the relatively young age of 65.
Let this recollection be a tribute to our first Big Match captain, George Jayaweera and to the sons and grandsons who were part of Peterite cricket.
Pictures include: The 1932 and 1933 cricket teams captained by George Jayaweera, a photo of George later in life, his wedding photo, team photos of 1960, 61 and 62 – the years that Tissa Jayaweera played, team photos of 1966 and 67 – when Shanthi Jayaweera played, team photo of 1973 when Ruwan Jayaweera played, 1974 team photo when Ruwan captained, the 2010 team in which Sidath Jayaweera played (grandson of George Jayaweera) and the 1973 Donavan Andree trophy winning Colts cricket team captained by Tissa that included his brother Shanthi.
