Flashback 60 years ago to 1964 – to that thrilling victory – marking the 60th Anniversary of the famous 1964 Thomian Victory at the 85th Battle of the Blues, under the inspirational captaincy of late Premalal Goonesekere- by Ravi Rudra (Auckland, NZ)

Flashback 60 years ago to 1964 – to that thrilling victory – marking the 60th Anniversary of the famous 1964 Thomian Victory at the 85th Battle of the Blues, under the inspirational captaincy of late Premalal Goonesekere- by Ravi Rudra (Auckland, NZ)

Flashback 60 years ago to 1964 – to that thrilling victory

Delighted to share a report to mark the 60^th Anniversary of the famous 1964 Thomian Victory at the 85^th Battle of the Blues, under the inspirational captaincy of late Premalal Goonesekere.

1964 was a very special year for STC as we won both the Big Match and regained the Senior Tarbat for Public Schools Athletics after 11 years – both previously won in 1953.

In the same year (1964) we also won the Stubbs Shield Boxing Title, the Rugby encounter against Royal to win the Gooneratne Trophy and swept the board winning almost every single championship titles and trophies. (see photo below).

While compiling this cricket report, wonderful memories came flooding back – a thrilling game that I watched with great excitement while seated in the pavilion in front of the Thomian dressing room, just prior to my 10^th birthday.

The article also includes brief report on the 1964 Cricket Season for both 1^st XI and 2^nd XI.

I wish to express my deep gratitude to all those former players who contributed to this article at very short notice, especially Sarath Seneviratne, Kumar Boralessa, Barney Reid, Sriantha Rajapakse and Nihal Dias Abeysinghe.

This particular compilation will not be complete without acknowledging –

• The one and only Premalal Goonesekere, who not only led the victorious team superbly, but for the fine article he penned in recalling the game.
• Anura Tennekoon who shared his thoughts of the ‘1964 Big Match’ in his book, ‘Passionately Cricket’.
• Eddie Appathurai and his son Dr Shamil Appathurai for scanning the 1964 Thomian Souvenir and important RT paper cuttings that were carefully preserved and kindly handed over by the late LS (Lasantha) Perera’s dear wife Mrs. Varuna Rohini Perera.

While we bask in the glory of what was achieved back all those 60 years ago, our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the players who are no more with us physically.

From the Royal Team – Kevin Sockanathan, Sugi Rajaratnam, L Thalayasingham and N.T. Kurukulasuriya and the Thomian Side – skipper Premalal Goonesekere, vice-captain Lasantha Perera, Ganendran Balasingham and reserve Ranil de Soysa.

May their souls Rest in Eternal Peace.

Last but not least – a very special mention to the 1964 Royal captain Shaw Wilson who led his team and played in the highest tradition of the game.

He exemplified utmost dignity, character and the very best of sportsmanship at all times – imparting valuable life lessons for all of us.

Thank you for the Memories & Very Best Wishes

Ravi Rudra

Ravi Rudra (Auckland, NZ)

Flashback 60 years ago to 1964 – to that thrilling victory

MARCH 14, 1964. Deep Purple Shadows gently pushed its way through across the Colombo Oval. On the fringe, they jostled and edged ahead inch by inch, this mass of humanity eager to unbridle its emotions.

This was no time to shout and scream, for the drama that was enacted in the middle held them in speechless suspense. For eleven long years they waited for this – and here were they soaking each minute of this experience.

Eager, like a man impatient to collect his first pay packet, Thomian skipper Premalal Goonesekere stood their stamping his feet, waiting for the bowler to toss it down. It came, somewhat rising. Goonesekere pushed by his enthusiasm, crouched, feet slightly askew, whipped it to square leg.

If the ball went to the boundary, no one could see, it was drowned in this surging mass of people.

S. Thomas’ won this ‘Battle of the Blues’ breaking a long,

long spell of barrenness.

(Compiled by Ravi Rudra – March 2024)

1964 STC Cricket Season

The Victorious Thomian Team

Seated (L-R): K. Boralessa, A.P.B. Tennekoon, L.S. Perera, P.N.W. Goonesekere (Captain), S.B. de A. Seneviratne, B.D. Reid.

Standing (L-R): R.P. Samarasinghe, H.R.J. de Soysa, L. Chelliah,

H.S.M. Pieris, G. Balasingham, R.F. Mendis, N.G. Dias Abeysinghe,

S.J. Rajapakse.

Mater-in-Charge & Coach: Mr. O.A. Abeynaike Captain: P.N.W. Goonesekere

Vice-Captain: L.S. Perera Secretary: S.B. de A. Seneviratne

1963/64 Season – by Sarath Seneviratne (College Magazine, 1964)

During the period under review we played eleven school matches, of which we won four, drew six and lost one. Although we did not win as many matches as was expected, this team was still one of the best we have had for many years. From the forgoing results it is quite evident that our performance in every school match was quite creditable.

We had a very strong batting side – one of the best among schools this season. On almost every occasion that we played we were able to pile up over 250 runs well ahead of the clock. A.P.B. Tennekoon and P.N.W. Goonesekere were the most outstanding batsmen during the season. The former was at the head of the table for the Best Schoolboy Batsman.

Our bowling was quite steady and we did not concede many runs throughout the season. Very often we were able to dismiss a side for less than 150 runs. The most successful bowler was B.D. Reid who captured 46 wickets during the season.

Our fielding on the whole was quite good although at times we had reason to be disappointed. H.S.M. Pieris and S.J. Rajapakse deserve special mention and also wicket keeper K. Boralessa who claimed several victims behind the stumps. L.S. Perera was the best all-rounder.

So much has been spoken of and written about the most important event of our season – the Royal-Thomian match – that it is quite unnecessary to describe it in detail here. However, it is a great joy to us to have been able to bring about the much-desired and long-awaited result. This I think was due to good team spirit and team work, intelligent leadership, and a determined and purposeful attitude towards the game.

At the end of the season A.P.B. Tennekoon was selected to represent “The Rest” in the Quadrangular Tournament organised by the C.C.A. (Ceylon Cricket Association). The Stephen’s Memorial Prizes for batting and bowling in the Royal-Thomian match were to S.B. de A. Seneviratne and

B.D. Reid.

The following were re-awarded Cricket Colours: P.N.W. Goonesekere (Cop-Cl), L.S. Perera (B), S.B. de A. Seneviratne (B), A.P.B. Tennekoon (W),

B.D. Reid (S) and K. Boralessa (S).

And Colours were awarded to: G. Balasingham (W), H.S.M. Pieris (S), S.J. Rajapakse (S), R.P. Samarasinghe (B) and L. Chelliah (de S).

1963-64 Season The results of the school matches were as follows:

Drew with Prince of Wales College

POW: 93 (H.S.M. Pieris 5 for 40) & 97 for 4.

STC: 256 for 6 dec. (A.P.B. Tennekoon 60, P.N.W. Goonesekere 67, S.J.

Rajapakse 66).

Won against Dharmarajah College

Dharmarajah: 115 & 60.

STC: 316 for 4 dec. (A.P.B. Tennekoon 78, P.N.W. Goonesekere 71, S.J.

Rajapakse 66).

Drew with Thurstan College

Thurstan: 57 & 68 for 9.

STC: 140 for 9.

Lost by 4 wickets against St. Benedict’s College (10^th & 11^th Jan 1964 at Kotahena)

STC: 261 for 7 dec. (P.N.W. Goonesekere 53, K. Boralessa 51, L.S. Perera

44, A. Tennekoon 35) & 75 for 3 dec. (L.S. Perera 36).

SBC: 182 (F. Dias 52, S. Fernando 33, M. Anandappa 31; B.D. Reid 6 for 32,

L.S. Perera 3 for 71) & 156 for 6 (M. Anandappa 47*, S. Fernando 36; B.D. Reid 4 for 48* including hat trick).

• “The match against St. Benedict’s College played out at Kotahena in 1964 turned out to be an unique St. Benedict’s was captained by Sunil Fernado and had some outstanding players in Ranjith Fernando, Felix Dias, Selva Perumal, Anurudha Vitanachchi and J.O.J. Perera on duty. S. Thomas’

captained by Premalal Goonesekere had L.S. Perera, Sarath Seneviratne, Barney Reid and myself in its ranks.

STC batted first and ran up a formidable total of 261 for 6 wkts and declared. Kumar Boralessa 57, Premalal Goonesekere 53 being the main scorers. SBC in reply were all out for 182 with Felix Dias 57 and Sunil Fernando 33 being the main contributors. Barney Reid, true to form, picked up 6 for 43 and L.S. Perera 3 for 71.

STC batting a second time made a sportive declaration with the score at 76 for 3 wkts setting St. Benedict’s a target of 156 runs in 90 minutes. They, to their credit, relentlessly pursued the target despite losing wickets and had 11 runs in the final over of the match. This was narrowed down to 3 runs in the last delivery of the match. Our captain took extra care in setting the field after which Barney Reid ran in and delivered the ball down the leg side to deprive the batsman of putting bat to ball. However, this delivery being faster than his usual deliveries went down to the boundary as 4 byes giving the ‘Bens’ victory in an extraordinary Game of Cricket.

It must be said that in the era we played School Cricket many challenging declarations were made in trying to obtain outright victories which resulted in very exciting Cricket for spectators. We were not shy to lose a game in trying to win. This attitude drew a large number of spectators and the grounds were filled to capacity when key matches were played.”

– Anura Tennekoon

(extracted from Tennekoon’s autobiography, “Passionately Cricket”)

Drew with Nalanda College (17^th & 18^th Jan 1964 at Mt. Lavinia) STC: 281 for 7 dec. (L.S. Perera 87, P.N.W. Goonesekere 70, G.

Balasingham 38*; S. Kalpage 4 for 87) & 192 for 1 (L.S. Perera 95, B.D. Reid 58*).

Nalanda: 227 (W. Seneviratne 72, S. Peiris 41; G. Balasingham 3 for 64, D.L.

Peiris 3 for 32).

Drew against Ananda College (24^th & 25^th Jan 1964 at Campbell Place)

Ananda: 141 (D. Pathiravithane 41, G.C. Perera 32; B.D. Reid 5 for 36) & 172 for 5 (D. Siriwardene 55*, S.T. de Silva 56*, L.S. Perera 3 for 48).

STC: 309 for 3 dec. (K. Boralessa 132, A.P.B. Tennekoon 127*).

Thomian opener L.S. Perera gives D. Siriwardene a return catch after scoring 28 in their match against Ananda. Kumar Boralessa who went on to score a superb 132 is at the non-striker’s end.

Won by 8 wickets against Wesley College (31^st Jan & 1^st Feb 1964 at Campbell Park)

Wesley: 147 (E. Schoorman 90; H.S.M. Pieris 4 for 19) & 121 (R. Hamer

44*; B.D. Reid 4 for 42, G. Balasingham 3 for 35).

STC: 251 for 8 dec. (A.P.B. Tennekoon 71, P.N.W. Goonesekere 55, G.

Balasingham 37: L. Perera 3 for 48, P. Christie 3 for 87) & 18 for 2.

Drew against St. Joseph’s College (21^st & 22^nd Feb 1964 at Darley Rd, Maradana)

STC: 158 (R.P. Samarasinghe 50, P.N.W. Goonesekere 30; T. Mitchell 6 for 61, J. de Alwis 4 for 47) & 143 for 9 dec. (L.S. Perera 71; T. Mitchell 3 for 52).

SJC: 127 (B. Alwis 35; G. Balasingham 5 for 38, B.D. Reid 4 for 27) & 82 for

Drew against Trinity College (28^th & 29^th Feb 1964 at Asgiriya, Kandy)

STC: 188 for 7 dec. (R.P. Samarasinghe 64*, A.P.B. Tennekoon 59; H. Dunuwilla 5 for 57) & 161 for 3 (P.N.W. Goonesekere 51*, L.S. Perera 46,

A.P.B. Tennekoon 39).

Trinity: 128 (H. Dunuwilla 30; B.D. Reid 4 for 44).

Won by 10 wickets against St. Peter’s College (6^th & 7^th March 1964 at Mt Lavinia)

STC: 224 (P.N.W. Goonesekere 64) & 28 for no loss. SPC: 110 & 141 (L.S. Perera 5 for 37 & B.D. Reid 4 for 35)

“Thomians compiled 224 in just 190 minutes and gave their bowlers plenty of time to bowl out the Peterites twice, which they did. The game was won with two and half hours to spare.”

NOTEWORTHY PERFORMANCES (*Prior to playing St. Peter’s & Royal)

*PNW Goonesekere 64 v St. Peter’s

*LS Perera 5 for 37 v St. Peter’s

AVERAGES FOR THE SEASON – PRIOR TO THE ROYAL-THOMIAN

*also excludes the 3rd Term (1963) fixtures

TWO FINE CAPTAINS

Premalal Goonesekere (STC) and John Dinshaw ‘Shaw’ Wilson (Royal)

1964 – Thomian Squad

Standing: (L-R): L.S. Perera, S.B. de A. Seneviratne, G. Balasingham, L. Chelliah, P.N.W. Goonesekere, B.D. Reid, H.S.M. Pieris, K. Boralessa, A.P.B. Tennekoon.

Seated (L-R): H.R.J. de Soysa, N.G. Dias Abeysinghe, S.J. Rajapakse, R.P. Samarasinghe, R.F. Mendis.

1964 – Royal Squad

Standing (L-R):, C.M. Fernando, L. Thalayasingham, M.H. Macan Markar. J.D. Wilson (Captain), S. Rajaratnam. T. Sivanesarasa, A. Anketell, K. Sockanathan.

Seated (L-R): N.T. Kurukulasuriya, A.M. Samarajeewa, H.N. de Silva (?), R.W. Schokman.

BATTING:

(*Hoping we have got the names in the correct order – RR)

SEASON’S BEST FOR ROYAL

H.N. de Silva: 110 v St. Joseph’s, 68 v Wesley

1. Sockanathan: 103 v Nalanda, 68 v St. Joseph’s, 59 v Wesley

J.D. Wilson: 59 v Zahira, 54 v St. Peter’s, 53 & 80 v Trinity

1. Rajaratnam: 68 v Zahira, 62 v Wesley
2. Macan Markar: 57 v Zahira & C.M. Fernando: 55* v Trinity

BOWLING:

1. Sivanesarasa: 6 for 20 v St. Benedict’s, 7 for 35 v Nalanda
2. Anketell: 5 for 31 v Trinity & S. Rajaratnam: 5 for 27 v Trinity

Premalal Goonesekere (L); All-rounder Lasantha Perera (R)

Left-arm Spinner, Barney Reid (L); Medium Pacer, Mevan Pieris (R)

Confident Looking Thomian Team

At their Final Training Prior to the Big Match

(L-R): Sarath Seneviratne, Kumar Boralessa, Ranjan Samarasinghe, Barney Reid, Premalal Goonesekere, Anura Tennekoon, Lohendran Chelliah, Lasantha Perera, Ganendran Balasingham, Mevan Pieris, Sriantha Rajapakse & Nihal Dias Abeysinghe.    (photo courtesy: Nihal Dias Abeysinghe)

The picturesque Colombo Oval looking at its best at the moment will again be the venue for the oldest match in the long history of Ceylon School Cricket, the 85^th Royal-Thomian. It is the current season’s first ‘Big Match’ and to the old and present boys of the two institutions this is the greatest of them all. Each team has won 28 matches, while 28 matches have been drawn including the last 10 in a row. Ceylon Cricket owes these two institutions a deep debt of gratitude.

85th Battle of the Blues

Day 1

BATSMANSHIP of contrasting styles and so much associated with school cricket transformed the Thomian innings from a sparse trickle to a raging torrent in the first day’s play at the 85^th Battle of the Blues between Royal and S. Thomas’ at the Colombo Oval yesterday.

Rising above the mad cacophony of sound, and the ringing jubilee, in sweet peels of true blue blood the Thomians lashed out after early lapses into a sound position in their annual big match encounter.

FIRST RUN – L.S. Perera (S. Thomas’) opens his account with a single off Royal paceman Sugi Rajaratnam.

L.S. Perera is out LBW to Anketell for 21 with the Thomian score at 42.

A brilliant fourth wicket partnership of 146 runs in only 115 minutes between Anura Tennekoon and Sarath Seneviratne helped S. Thomas’ declare at 262 for 6 by tea. At the end of the day’s play Royal had still 69 runs to get with six wickets in hand to avoid a follow on.

Coming together when things looked glum for the Mt. Lavinia school, the pair had the score careering along and had Thomians young and Thomians old exulting out the echoes of the Blue-Black and Blue.

Tennekoon, sensing the need for caution in the face of some tight bowling, took his time in getting himself set; but with the arrival of Seneviratne the pair completely annihilated the bowling to score as they pleased and set their side on the glory road to a possible match of decision.

Earlier Premalal Goonesekere, the Thomian captain, won the toss and elected to bat on a tricky wicket. They ran into trouble right away, but the wicket had little to do with it.

In Thalayasingham’s second over, opener L.S. Perera drove him to extra cover and Boralessa tried to steal a run, but a superb Kurukulasooriya throw in which ‘Shaw’ Wilson backing up beautifully wiped the bails off to see the batsman out – STC 2/1.

In came Tennekoon. He seemed a man with a purpose. With such concentration did he watch every ball, treating each according to its just desserts. The two kept at their task, the first four coming off L.S. Perera’s bat when he slammed Samarajeewa through the covers in his first over.

With score at 42, L.S. Perera left, falling leg before to Anketell in trying to pull him to mid-wicket – STC 42/2.

Premalal Goonesekere did not last long, he was out three runs later – 45/3.

Premalal Goonesekere (01) caught by Anketell at first slip – sharp catch off Sugi Rajaratnam (STC 45/3)

However, the arrival of Sarath Seneviratne a mutual confidence welled up in the pair and they kept punishing the bowling often and hard. By lunch time they had taken the score to 103 for 3 with Tennekoon 38 not out and Seneviratne 39 not out.

Lunch must have been a sumptuous one, because both Tennekoon & Seneviratne went to town after lunch. After resumption these two bustled

up the rate of scoring with both getting their half centuries in quick time. Tennekoon got his 50 in 111 minutes and Seneviratne reached his 50 in just 71 minutes. The torrent was now on. The batsmen caught up with the clock and saw the 150 come up in 147 minutes.

Thrilling batting came from the run hungry Sarath Seneviratne who bashed a scintillating 96 and of course as always an exquisite innings of 78, rich in stroke play from Anura Tennekoon to put S. Thomas’ in a commanding position from 45 for 3 to 191 for 4. Their 146 runs 4^th wicket partnership was a 115-minutes batting cavalcade, and were the doyens in helping S. Thomas’ declare at 262 for 6 at tea.

Anura Tennekoon is caught at covers by C.M. Fernando off Thalayasingham for 78.

Tennekoon, who was lucky to be dropped, had 8 boundaries and took 164 minutes to get his 78.

Seneviratne brought up the team’s 200 in 180 minutes with delightful six to square leg off Anketell. He was just four runs short of his century when he was caught by Macan Markar off Thalayasingham just after the second new ball had been taken. It was a champagne innings and consisted of a rich variety of strokes all round the wicket. Seneviratne was at the crease for 124 minutes and bashed 12 fours and a soaring ‘six’ in a valuable innings which came close to eclipsing some of the other entertaining knocks. What a pity he missed a deserving century!

With Sarath Seneviratne’s exit fresher Sriantha Rajapakse livened up things. He was 40 not out when S. Thomas’ declared. Right arm paceman L. Thalayasingham proved most economical among the Royal bowlers to capture 2 for 21 in 14 overs.

R.P. Samarasinghe (S. Thomas’) is caught by Rajaratnam off Anketell for 2.

Going into bat after tea, Royal captain J.D. Wilson was raring to go when he opened the innings with K. Sockanathan. G. Balasingham, the ever- popular chappie, started the rot when he had Sockanathan caught by Rajapakse for 02 when the score was only 13.

Wilson got a breezy 30 before being clean bowled by a beauty from L. Chelliah with the score at 42 for 2. Another two quick wickets fell and Royal were 52 for 4. H.S.M. Pieris had H.N. de Silva bowled with a peach of a ball which went round his legs.

1. Rajaratnam and C.M. Fernando shored up a possible landslide and took the score to 93 for 4 at close with careful batting. G. Balasingham, B.D. Reid, L. Chelliah and H.S.M. Pieris took a wicket each.

The much disputed topic today will be about the possibility of a decision being reached. Will the eleven year hoodoo be broken?

Everyone hopes it will and it depends on the Thomians being able to enforce the follow-on. The colourful crowd of 20,000 relished the day’s play and showed their appreciation in like manner.

By WRONG ‘UN

The brightest feature of yesterday’s play was an exhilarating record-breaking partnership between Anura Tennekoon and the little heard of Sarath Seneviratne of S. Thomas’.

Seneviratne collected 96 runs in 124 minutes and found the boundary on 12 occasions. In his late eighties he thrilled his supporters with a magnificent six off left-arm spinner Anketell which landed straight into the Royal enclosure…a brilliant piece of fielding by Macan Markar deprived this dashing batsman of a well merited century.

The Thomian middle order batting lived up to expectations when S.J. Rajapakse and G. Balasingham collared the tiring attack and raced ahead of the clock to enable the Thomians to declare at 262 for 6 at tea time. Young Rajapakse, an elegant left-hander must be commended for having carried his bat out for a nicely compiled 40 runs in his first ‘big Match’ appearance.

1. Kurukulasuriya was the one Royal fielder who gave an exhibition of sustained beautiful fielding that was a treat to the spectators.

COSTLY MISS AND A VITAL STAND

In a moment of sheer lunacy, Royal lost the initiative and never regained it. Achieving that vital early break-through, here were the Royalists sitting happy. The Thomians were in a tormenting position, smack in the middle of an imminent collapse.

And then it happened! S. Thomas’ were 50 for 3. Anura Tennekoon, one of the Thomian batsman who broke the hearts of the Royalists bowlers square-cut left-arm spinner Anketell and an absolute “sitter” was spilt. So the Thomian’s score that should have been 50 for 4 was inflated to the handsome proportions of 191 for 4 – giving a truly majestic look to the impressive ivy-fringed score-board at the Colombo Oval yesterday.

That dropped catch was to be Royal’s permit for a 240-miniute long leather hunt in the blazing sun. What a difference that catch would have meant to the Royalists………… Together Anura Tennekoon and Sarath Seneviratne

provided cricket that’s, oh, so nice to watch. Tennekoon with his superb stroke play and unquestionable technique, just could not keep the spotlight all for himself. It was Seneviratne who proved a delight to watch with his aggressive approach.

Seneviratne timed his shots to precision and had an eye for picking the gaps, particularly in the cover region. Once he punched through those gaps there was no need for a chase…it was boundary all the way. He seldom drove straight and compiled his 96 runs with drives through the covers and glances behind the wicket….The new ball stood between his century. He drove through the covers off paceman Thalayasingham and Macan Markar held an absolute scorcher.

DAY 2

VICTORY AFTER ELEVEN YEARS

Thomians Beat Royal and – the Clock

If a draw prevailed for ten long years to provide a definite decision in the 85^th Battle of the Blues yesterday, the long wait was truly worth it. After two days of eventful cricket, the last 50 minutes of play was indeed a spine- tingling, palm seating episode.

Frantic, stirring chase for victory

In those last fifty minutes, 70 runs stood between the Thomians and victory. In the very first over Thomian openers, Lasantha Perera and Kumar Boralessa, gave their supporters an inkling of their victory when they slammed 9 runs off paceman Sugi Rajaratnam.

The assault continued and they were well ahead of the clock scoring their first 25 runs in 15 minutes and the 50 in 33 minutes. The Thomians eventually reached their target of 70 runs, ten minutes ahead of the clock. In just 11.3 shattering overs the Thomian batsmen compiled their winning runs and had eight wickets intact.

Openers L.S. Perera and Boralessa tore into the attack right from the word ‘go’. Despite the deep defensive field setting of the Royalist, Boralessa pierced it to reach the ropes three times.

After Boralessa’s exit, Premalal Goonesekere played the role of the ‘butcher’ and he too with good timing swung a happy willow to reach the ropes on three occasions. The Thomian total of 70 had forty runs in boundaries – more than half the tally.

The match virtually was over at 12.15 pm on the second day, when the Thomians had the remaining six Royal batsmen out cheaply in their first innings and forced a follow on. But a few Royal batsmen were not going to throw in the towel that easily.

Their openers Shaw Wilson and K. Sockanathan had the Thomian aspirations drooping when they hit up 55 runs paying scant respect to the perilous position they were in.

Wilson in particular gave a delightful display of aggressive batting, driving with uncanny precision. Sockanathan refraining from his hazardous hook shot, looked much safer playing a straight bat and compiling most of his runs with drives through the covers.

Then Wilson tried to flash at a ball on the off-stick from Reid and snicked a catch to keeper Boralessa (55/1). Sockanathan crossed one and was caught at forward short leg by substitute N.D. Abeysinghe off Rajapakse (55/2).

1. Anketell, S. Rajaratnam and H.N. De Silva tried to put their heads down and play but when their desire to go for the runs came to the surface, it proved to be their undoing.

There were shades of a possible Royal recovery when Hamza Macan Markar and Cedric Fernando were at the wickets. Both batsmen played aggressive roles and quite apparently were removing the sting off the Thomian attack and mustering runs as well.

Then it had to happen. Cedric Fernando was needlessly run out when Macan Markar tried to pinch a single that was not there.

1. Kurukulasooriya and Thalayasingham both showed that they were quite foreign to spin bowling and were out for ‘blobs’, Reid being their bug bear.

Then came the partnership that had the Thomians twitching their fingers impatiently. For seventy three long minutes Macan Marcar and Samarajeewa held out defiantly, weathering the varied Thomian attack.

It may well have been the Thomian’s jinx, but unfortunately for the Royalists they suffered yet another run out. With that the Royal hopes fizzled out.

Barney Reid bowled well giving the ball plenty of air and most of the Royal batsmen exposed their poor footwork against him. Reid had a match bag of seven wickets. Sriantha Rajapakse, right arm off-spinner too impressed and had a total of five wickets for the match.

Earlier in the morning C.M. Fernando gave momentum to Royal’s first

innings with a spicy knock of 46 runs which included six boundaries.

–   T.M.K. Samat

Defeat Royal by 8 wickets with 10 minutes to spare

PREMALAL GOONESEKERE the Thomian Skipper and his doughty teammates sent their supporters delirious with joy by bludgeoning the 11 year-old bogey of draws at the Colombo Oval yesterday.

They beat Royal in their 85th ‘Battle of the Blues’ by the handsome margin of 8 wickets in a ravishing finish. The Thomians have now leapt ahead of Royal in the series to lead 29-28.

After many excruciating minutes of anxiety the Thomians dismissed Royal for 179. And then, L.S. Perera, Kumar Boralessa, and skipper Premalal Goonesekere lashed the bowling with utter contempt.

(top): Kurukulasooriya is bowled by Barney Reid for 07 and (below) C.M. Fernado is caught behind by Boralessa off Reid for a well-compiled 46, both during the morning session of the second day in Royal’s first innings.

The Royalists just could not build on their first day’s score of 93 for 4 in reply to 262 for 6 declared by the Thomians. Overnight not out batsmen, S. Rajaratnam was out at 100, caught at long on by Tennekoon off L.S. Perera.

Some stiff resistance was, however, offered later by Cedric Fernando and Hamza Macan Markar. But, Sriantha Rajapakse wove a spell over the tailenders with his off spinners and spun them out for 152. Assisted by Barney Reid, Rajapakse followed his performance with the bat to stun the Royal late order as he bagged 3 wickets for 8 runs in 5 overs. Reid got 3 wickets for 56 runs. Cedric Fernando batted soundly, but in a moment of haste he gave his wicket away. He had 8 boundaries in his 46.

John D. Wilson and Kevin Sockanathan were determined to make an issue of it in the manner they played the bowling in Royal’s 2^nd innings. It was Wilson in terrier mood and Sockanathan a subdued one.

However, after lunch the Thomians got the break-through. Both openers, Wilson and Sockanathan, were out with the score at 55. From then on it was a matter of time for the Thomians. Barney Reid and Sriantha Rajapakse had the Royalists guessing with their flight and guile. Quick wickets were captured again and then an unfortunate series of run outs – three in all really put the Royalists in a plight.

Asoka Samarajeewa and Hamza Macan Markar were shaping fine after tea. Could they hold out! For 73 minutes Samarajeewa held the fort till he was run out. After taking the score from 139 for 8 to 177, Macan Markar attempted to pinch a single that left Samarajeewa short of his ground.

1. Sivanesarasa the last man in was also run out and Royal were all out for
2. Macan Markar remained unbeaten with a fighting 41. Barney Reid had the best figures. He claimed 4 for 53 in 26 overs to finish with a match-bag of seven wickets while Sriantha Rajapakse took 2 for 13 in 11 overs.

Lasantha Perera and Kumar Boralessa abandoned all notions of caution in the Thomian pursuit of 70 runs. From the first ball they flailed their bats – the runs came – and all Thomians were jubilant.

Boralessa got 25 breezy runs before getting out. Skipper Premalal Goonesekere and Tennekoon stayed at the wicket to get the winning runs. It was a fine compliment to Premalal Goonesekere in achieving the elusive winning run, which he did by pulling Thalayasingam to leg for four to bring up A Thrilling Victory!

How the Thomians chased the score.

2^nd wicket fell at 60

VICTORY with 10 minutes to spare!

Royal-Thomian 85th Encounter (Colombo Oval)

Date: 13^th & 14^th March 1964         Result: STC Won by 8 wickets

STC 1^st Innings: 262 for 6 dec. (L.S. Perera 21, A.P.B. Tennekoon 78, S.B. de A. Seneviratne 96, S.J. Rajapakse 40, G. Balasingham 13*; L. Thalayasingham 14-06-21-02; A. Anketell 22-02-94-02, S. Rajaratnam 20-

06-43-01)

RC 1^st Innings: 152 (J.D. Wilson 30, S. Rajaratnam 29, C.M. Fernando 46,

M.H. Macan Markar 15; B.D. Reid 23.4-05-56-03, S.J. Rajapakse 05-02-08- 03, G. Balasingham 09-02-26-01, L. Chelliah 06-03-11-01, H.S.M. Pieris 05- 02-09-01, L.S. Perera 12-04-24-01)

RC 2^nd Innings: 179 (J.D. Wilson 28, K. Sockanathan 23, H.N. de Silva 19,

1. Anketell 23, C.M. Fernando 15, M.H. Macan Markar 41*; B.D. Reid 26- 06-53-04, S.J. Rajapakse 11-07-13-02, S.B. de A. Seneviratne 10-01-29-01)

STC 2^nd Innings: 70 for 2 wickets (11.3 Overs) (L.S. Perera 18, K. Boralessa 25, P.N.W. Goonesekere 22*)

*Scorecard maintained by L.S. Perera – courtesy of his wife Rohini

THE MATCH OF 1964 – by Skipper Premalal Goonesekere (RIP)

“Friday, the 13th March 1964. Oval time 10.20 a.m. Shaw Wilson’s lucky coin decided to rebel against its custodian and spin in favour of the boys from Mt.

Lavinia.

It was a known fact that the wicket had been prepared in such a manner so as to give a sporting chance to both batsmen and bowlers. Having called correctly I had a problem whether to bat or field.

The team had previously favoured bowling first and then taking their chances, because we all knew that there was no way that our powerful batting lineup could be demolished twice by any school boy bowling side that year. I fully

agreed with them, but I was also not going to carry the can for inviting our opponents to bat on what looked like a perfect batting wicket, no matter how the strip would play later. So S. Thomas’ elected to bat.

Royal started cautiously against our openers so much so that we in the pavilion were convinced that they were scared of us. Sugi Rajaratnam and Thalayasingham, one of the best pace combinations in school cricket that year, opened to a field of fine leg and third man each, to supplement their two slips and gully.

In spite of this, we practically dug our own graves before the first hour was through. L. S. Perera, Kumar Boralessa and I were back in the pavilion before 50 runs were on the board, thanks to some reckless batting.

Shaw’s lucky coin seemed to be doing its thing after all, I thought glumly.

Anura Tennekoon was at the wicket, his usual calm self and utterly deaf to a situation that had never occurred before to us that season. At the other end his new partner Sarath Seneviratne was fidgeting nervously.

Unfortunately, Sarath had had a very lean season up to then and it was with some effort that external pressures to drop him were defied in order that he could play, simply because only the team and those close to it knew the tremendous potential

he had. Sarath proceeded to show the public how right we were and in the next two and a half hours or so with Tennekoon, playing the supporting role for a change, he blasted the Royal attack with contemptuous ease.

By lunch the Thomians were out of the woods and by 2.00 o’clock we were sitting pretty. In 113 minutes this pair added a fantastic 146 runs, the highest stand for the 4th wicket in the series to date, the 100 coming up in only 78 minutes. Anura Tennekoon’s technically perfect knock ended with his score at 78 when he was caught off the tiring Thalayasingham. The Royalists must surely be still regretting not having accepted the relatively easy chance he gave early in the innings.

Batting Hero – Sarath Seneviratne

Sarath Seneviratne continued plundering the Royal attack, driving and cutting effortlessly until he reached, his nineties. Then he suddenly stopped, as if he had forgotten something. The ‘Nervous Nineties‘ claimed yet another victim when Sarath, now fidgeting in the same manner that he started, spooned a catch to Macan Markar off Thalayasingham when he was only 4 runs short of the century he so richly deserved. Truly an unforgettable knock.

Our target for a tea-time declaration was 250 runs and thanks to these two brilliant knocks we knew we could reach this easily. Young Sriyantha Rajapakse, taking advantage of the tired and confused Royal attack, made merry – cracking a scintillating 40 not out and according to plan we declared at tea.

Sriantha Rajapakse – had a memorable debut with both bat & ball.

The timing of our declaration was received with mixed feelings, not by the team nor its coach & master-in-charge, Mr. Orville Abeynaike, but by some prominent old boys, who thought that we should have batted on for another 20 minutes or so.

Tempers were understandably high in the dressing room when I was bluntly told that I had made a mistake. To me all this advice was as useful as a hole in the head since we had already conveyed our decision to the Royalists.

Royal went in to bat after tea. We now had the opportunity to see how good our observations on the Royal batting weaknesses were.

In the previous match-free weekend, the entire team were generously given off school on Friday by the Warden to watch Royal play St. Peter’s College at Reid Avenue, this we did for two whole days seated in the Royal College pavilion. Every scoring stroke made by the Royal batsmen was marked on paper and then systematically analysed overnight for any areas of weakness. As expected there were plenty; the problem was how to exploit them.

Shaw Wilson and Kevin Sockanathan started briskly, true to form, a two here, a four there, a single here and a single there. But Sockanathan gave us the first breakthrough when he was caught off Balasingham, Royal 1 wicket down for 13.

‘Porky’ (HN) de Silva joined his skipper and these two steadily brought the score to the forties and we then had our first bowling change, Chelliah in place of Barney Reid. We had seen Wilson’s weakness against a ‘yorker’

pitched on the leg stump in their previous match and we also knew that Chelliah was the only bowler who could effectively bowl this type of ball. Good ‘Ole’ Chella did not let us down and produced the magical ball in his very first over to bowl Wilson neck and crop for 30.

De Silva stood as if petrified till Mevan Pieris’ first ball of his first over rattled his stumps and Anketell left a little while later. Royal were 52 for 4 and we had them reeling.

But two dropped catches off Sugi Rajaratnam and Cedric Fernando cut us down to size before close and Royal ended the day at 96 for 4, just 66 runs to avoid the follow on. So from the very comfortable position we ended the day in a rather dicey situation.

Saturday morning 14th March 1964 – the day of reckoning. The wicket had begun kicking up a bit of dust late on Friday and Royal, utterly confident of their position opted for the heavy roller to crack the wicket further. Little did they realise then that they were digging their own graves by this act.

However, if Royal scored their required 66 runs I was surely going to have a problem. Already the thought of a sporty declaration had sent shivers down the spines of some of our prominent supporters. So anyone could well imagine why I was praying that the right-royal telling off I had given the team in the College Prefect’s room about our shabby fielding the day before would have had the desired effect, since there was no way we would afford another fielding fiasco.

Play began, and poor Shaw Wilson’s problems commenced increasing in geometric progression. The hitherto unconsidered 60 odd runs to avert the follow-on appeared impossible right from the time Rajaratnam lofted a simple catch to Tennekoon at long-on, the latter having cleverly hidden himself from the batsman, so much so that, till he was caught Sugi was grinning from ear to ear thinking that he had hit the first of the many sixers he had planned.

Although Cedric Fernando was still playing confidently some of the Royalists found the guile of Barney Reid a bit too much, ably supported by off-spinners, Perera and Rajapakse.

Finally, to our utter relief Royal folded up 10 runs short of the follow-on, well before lunch and I had no hesitation in inviting Royal to bat again. The wicket was turning appreciably but our opponents had wanted it that way by the use of the heavy roller in the morning.

Wilson and Sockanathan commenced the Royal 2nd innings as if they did not have a care in the world. We had dispensed with our pace attack after a couple of token overs and runs were not freely available off the spinners.

To apply pressure attacking fields were set, but none of these seemed to worry the two openers one bit and soon the first fifty run partnership by Royal for the entire match was hoisted, 60 runs to make the Thomians bat again, all wickets in hand and about four more hours to go. Our chances of winning the game were slowly but surely slipping further and further away.

But we plugged on nevertheless, the bund had to breach sometime, and at long last it did. Sockanathan painfully resisting his favourite pull shot right through his gallant knock, spooned a catch to the leg-trap (caught by substitute Nihal Dias) rather than play the stroke he loved so much. Royal were 55 for 1. Shaw Wilson followed soon after, caught behind off Reid and Royal were 55 for 2. True to his sporting spirit, he never even bothered to wait for the Umpire’s decision.

CAPTAIN OUT – Royal Skipper J.D. Wilson is caught by Boralessa – the faintest of edges off the bowling of Barney Reid for 28 in the 2^nd innings.

We had got rid of two headaches and we wanted no more. So the new comers ‘Porky’ (HN) de Silva and ‘Grubber’ Anketell were given the full works. Tightest of fields to back up the tightest of bowling and we knew we had them worried.

Finally ‘Porky’ got fed up with this cat and mouse game and decided to rectify the situation. By using his feet to the spinners, especially Reid, he found that his score had trebled before you could call his name. ‘Porky’ was happy, at last he found a solution to end his misery. Our match winning chances depended a lot on Reid and I did not want him collared by any batsman. He was pulled off the attack and replaced by Sarath Seneviratne, with specific instructions to encourage ‘Porky’ to let off his steam and cook himself in the process. ‘Porky’, now with a vision of a Royal victory, danced down the wicket to crack the scoreboard clock off Sarath’s bowling, missed and found himself stumped (87/3).

Anketell (Royal) is caught by Anura Tennekoon off the bowling of Reid for 23 in the 2^nd Innings. (Royal 112/4)

We had managed to remove a dangerous batsman, thanks to himself, and Anketell followed a little later. The next to go was Cedric Fernando, trying to steal a run that was not there. Royal were 112 for 5 and the mood in their camp was anything but joyous.

RUN OUT – C.M. Fernando, who top scored with 46 in the first innings for Royal, is run out for 15 (Royal 112/5).

Macan Markar and Sugi Rajaratnam dug themselves well in, purely to save the game and defended gallantly. The Thomian attack was beginning to feel the effects of a hectic day. Then it happened again. In the Peterite-Royal game we had observed Sugi’s fondness for the back-foot drive past extra- cover, which he sometimes lifted slightly. At last Sugi obliged and trying to force Rajapakse, lobbed a simple catch to L.S. Perera. Our late Warden never had to regret giving that Friday off to watch the Royalists.

BEWILDERED – S. Rajaratnam (Royal) arms akimbo in surprise as L.S. Perera snaps him up off Sriantha Rajapakse for 10 (Royal 138/6).

Thalayasingham and Kurukulasuriya came and went and Royal were 139 for 8 with well over two hours of play left. Only rain could save them now and even this was unlikely.

Win we finally did, but our opponents truly made us sweat for it in no uncertain terms. The 9th wicket stand between Macan Markar and Samarajeewa produced two of the most dogged knocks I played against. They took absolutely no chances. Samarajeewa was content in dropping the ball a foot in front of his bat, so much so that we were happier bowling to his senior partner, who at least was getting the odd run or two. At 4.30 pm Royal had very quietly built up a lead of 60 runs and we were slowly running out of time.

To make matters worse Balasingham drops a ‘sitter’ off Macan Markar at mid-on. Naturally, every one of us felt like throttling him at first but quickly changed our minds when it was known that the unlucky fielder was almost assaulted by the distinguished old Thomians watching from the Mustangs Tent.

The glorious uncertainties of cricket. You can say it again. Just when Royal College thought they had saved the game, they did not. All due to two absurdly uncalled for run-outs. Runs were the last thing they required at that time, yet they looked for them.

Samarajeewa who was a solid rock of defence, tentatively answered a call from Hamza (Macan Markar) for a short single but was beaten by Seneviratne’s sizzling throw from the covers. Two runs later Tommy Sivanesarasa suffered the same fate, when Macan Markar now attempting to farm the bowling, went for another risky run. The Thomian supporters erupted like a volcano and charged down the wicket to greet us.

70 runs to get in 50 minutes. Not the same as getting 210 runs in 150 minutes, it should be easier.

I had very few instructions to give the openers. Little did I imagine that Lasantha Perera and Kumar Boralessa would have taken me that seriously and the first two overs produced a blistering 18 runs, just the start required for the occasion. 52 to get and now we had 44 minutes for them, the time

factor disadvantage had been eliminated in just two overs and there was no way Royal could stop us from winning now.

The balance runs were wiped off in another 9.3 overs and after a poor first knock, I had the unique privilege of getting the winning runs by hooking Thalayasingham for four. We had won by eight wickets and with 10 minutes to spare.

Needless to say there was pandemonium from then on at the Oval. The 10- year old drought of draws had finally ended and the Thomians unleashed a spasm of emotion to celebrate the occasion.”

– Premalal Goonesekere (STC 1st XI 1961-64, Captain ’64)

Reminiscing 1964 – Dr. Sarath Seneviratne

In 1964 Premalal’s year, Barney Reid was indeed the best spinner we had. L. S. Perera was a good offspinner. Balasingham was the best fast bowler. Chelliah was the other good opening bowler in 1964 with Balasingham. He was a good left arm fast bowler and was effective at the Oval. He bowled Royal skipper Shaw Wilson with a yorker as Shaw played over it and yorked himself.

Anura Tennekoon was easily one of the most orthodox batsman in schools, in the same mould as Buddy Reid was in Lareef Indroos’

time. He was perhaps one of the best that U16 coach Mr. Lassie Abeywardene produced.

Prior to the 1964 Royal-Thomian, The Warden (Mr. C.H.L. Davidson) had suggested that we have a “ home and home “ match to see my prowess as a batsman. The opposite team to mine was captained by L. S. Perera and had Barney Reid, Balasingham, Mevan Pieris who were the leading bowlers. I scored a brilliant 100 and that helped me with my confidence.

Furthermore I also top-scored against the STC Old Boys, against a strong bowling attack that comprised Chandra Schaffter, Neil Chanmugam and a couple of other national players. As usual I scored when “our backs were against the wall”.

Sriyantha Rajapakse played as a good all-rounder. He was a great fielder with a brilliant arm. He threw most accurately.

The opening batsmen L. S. Perera and Kumar Boralessa were great. They were technically correct and were determined.

Boralessa was the greatest slip fielder in schools for sure during the 1963 season under skipper Randy Morrell who kept wickets. His powers of concentration were exceptional. You could virtually see him, telling himself “watch the ball, watch the ball” as he fielded at gully, to snap up catches that perhaps Bobby Simpson of Australia would applaud. Boralessa took over the wicket keeping gloves for the 1964 season and did a fabulous job.

Ranjan Samarasinghe was an aggressive batsman and a good fielder. He threw very accurately too. He was an off spinner who was perhaps underused. A great colleague.

Ranil De Soysa was an all-rounder who bowled off spin and was a good right hand batsman. Of course only eleven could play. A great colleague.

Robin Mendis was a medium pace bowler, a great athlete and good fielder. Another wonderful colleague.

Nihal Días Abeysinghe was a good all-rounder and another great colleague.

Reflecting briefly on the 1965 RT it is unbelievable that I had to go in when we were up against the wall once again with the score 18 for 2. I batted confidently and got to 97 which helped to stem the team from a likely collapse.

However, I missed the century because I could not cross over for a single and take control of the batting. Had I taken a single, I could have easily got to 100 as the offspinner was easy to attack and would have given me the confidence to play my normal game. Nothing except my own aggression could have stopped me if I got the 100!

However the astute Royal captain realising that I was dead tired, having batted long under the hot sun, took the new ball and I fell to a superb outswinger that went almost along the ground and was caught brilliantly by Sirisena at gully. I couldn’t get close enough to be well on top of the ball.

Que sera sera!

–    Sarath Seneviratne (STC 1st XI 1962-65,

Captain 1965)

*Sarath Seneviratne would go down as perhaps the unluckiest batsman in the annals of Royal-Thomian cricket. Who would ever forget two of the finest innings scored under pressure in a Big Match when in 1964 and 1965, Sarath batted brilliantly to score 96 and 97 respectively – narrowly missing out on deserved consecutive centuries.

One of the stylish batsman of our era, Sarath walked into bat at both RTs after an early collapse on the first morning of the match, when the bowlers were getting plenty of assistance off the wicket and the side was under immense pressure. On both occasions he batted with great determination, resilience and flair.

Together these classy innings are often remembered for Sarath’s Thomian grit – showcasing the true fighting spirit of cricket.

Sarath was also a superb outfielder who patrolled the covers, especially cover point, where he was noted for his fearless diving on our bone-hard grounds, either to stop boundaries or take catches. Sarath was all elegance!

In his Junior days (U16) Sarath was also a highly talented leg- spinner. He fondly recalls, “My best bowling performance was against Christian College Kotte, in Kotte. They had raced to 50 for no loss against our pace attack. Then I got 6 wickets for 0 with my leg spin and We won…Another inter- school match I got 4 wickets in 4 balls- double Hat-Trick… after coming to first eleven (1962), skipper Keith Labrooy who was himself a spin bowler used me well. In the game against St.

Joseph’s, last wicket to fall, last over, he says “Sarath all yours” and throws the

ball to me. I was hardly 16 then! Great Captain. Fourth ball L. S. Perera at silly mid-off held the catch and we won!”

**It must also be noted that Sarath’s father Hinton Seneviratne was a former Vice-captain who played from 1918-20.

Hinton Seneviratne made his outstanding debut in 1918 (39^th encounter at SSC) by taking 7 wkts for 38, in 24 overs in the 1^st innings, including 3 wickets in an over, and 4 wkts for 22, in 17 overs in the 2^nd innings for a staggering match haul of 11 wkts for 60 runs (in 41 overs for an average of 5.45).

In the following year (1919) Hinton Seneviratne captured 5 wkts for 34 in the 1^st innings. In his first three bowling stints against Royal, Hinton had taken 16 wickets for 94 runs for an incredible average of mere 5.88!!

– (RR)

Anura Tennekoon recalls the 1964 Royal-Thomian victory

“I would recall that the Big Match in 1964 played at the P. Sara stadium as the most memorable Big Match that I have played in, as we achieved an outright victory after 10 long years of drawn games and that too in two playing days rather than the three playing days as at present. Our victory could be attributed mainly to the meticulous planning and astute Captaincy of the late Premalal Goonesekere, who in my view, was a Captain beyond his years to win a Royal-Thomian in two days after such a long drought.

Premalal won the toss and elected STC to bat first and we were not doing too well having lost 3 early wickets for 45 runs.

At this stage I was joined by Sarath Seneviratne and as we were settling down and I cut Anketell straight to the cover point fielder who dropped the catch.

Thereafter I made full use of this chance and established a partnership of 146 runs with Sarath for the 5th wicket which enabled us to score 262 runs for the loss of 6 wickets and declare by the tea break.

In this partnership with Sarath, I was more watchful in scoring my 78 runs while Sarath at the other end was more aggressive in playing some delightful strokes and was very unfortunate to miss a well-deserved century by just 4 runs. Thereafter, fresher Sriyantha Rajapakse, a talented left hand batsman, scored a breezy 40 not out enabling us to make the declaration at the appointed tea time.

Royal commencing their 1st innings after tea kept loosing wickets at regular intervals and were 93 for 4 wickets at stumps on the 1st day with Sugi Rajaratnam and Cedric Fernando having an unbroken partnership of 40 runs showing great resistance and keeping Royal’s hopes alive for the next day.

Shaw Wilson the Royal Captain who opened the batting was scoring freely when our skipper Premalal Gunasekera introduced left arm medium pace bowler Chelliah to the attack and in his 1st over, Chelliah bowled Wilson neck and crop. Chelliah was played in the Thomian side specially to get the wicket of Wilson as Premalal had spotted a weakness in Wilson against left arm medium pace bowling.

Prior to resumption of play on day two, we planned to break the partnership between Rajaratnam and Fernando early if we were to be in with a chance of forcing a victory in this game. Rajaratnam was known to be a player who liked to go for big hits and we planned to bowl our off spinner Lasantha Perera at the start of play and I was placed at long-on straight in line with the deepish mid-on fielder in the hope that I would not be spotted by Rajaratnam and he would try to clear the mid on fielder. Our plan worked to perfection when Rajaratnam came down the wicket to a delivery from Lasantha and lofted it over the mid-on fielder only to be caught by me on the long-on fence. Rajaratnam admitted after the game that he had not seen

me on the long-on boundary as the mid-on fielder had covered me. This wicket led to a Royal collapse and they were dismissed for 153 prior to the lunch break.

1. Thomas’ enforced the follow on and with some tight bowling and good fielding applied pressure on the Royal batsman, most of whom got starts but were unable to convert them into anything substantial. Macan Markar was the only batsman to offer resistance towards the end of the Royal innings in scoring 41 not out. Brian Reid was the main wicket taker for S. Thomas’ with 4 for 53 in 26 overs.
2. Thomas’ was left with the task of scoring 70 runs for victory in even time. Lasantha Perera and Kumar Boralessa who opened the innings gave us a brisk start in scoring 39 runs when Lasantha was run out for 18 runs. The next wicket to fall was at 60 runs when Boralessa got out after scoring a breezy 25. I joined skipper Premalal Goonesekere and we scored the balance 10 runs required for victory. This saw many Thomian supporters invading the centre to celebrate this victory.

The Thomian team went across to the Royal dressing room and shook hands with the Royalists who were obviously upset by having lost the Big Match. However, after the traditional get together of the two teams later on in the evening and the camaraderie that prevailed enabled players of both teams to remain life-long friends.

– Anura Tennekoon

(STC 1st XI 1962-66, Captain ’66)

1964 Big Match – Amusing Incidents from Behind the Stumps

By Kumar Boralessa

“Premalal’s article says it all. His decision to include Left arm fast bowler Chelliah to dismiss the Royal Captain Shaw Wilson was a master stroke of Captaincy.

The other was his decision to bat first on a very grassy wicket. Having faith in the strong batting lineup paid dividends as the wicket started to turn on the second afternoon.

I had some amusing incidents to relate that I experienced from behind the wicket. HN (Porky) de Silva was going along well,

batting with confidence when our Skipper Premalal brought up an unexpected change bringing on Sarath Seneviratne, our First Innings Batting Hero to toss up a few of his leg breaks.

Porky having enjoyed a few half trackers, after battling his way through a tight bowling spell, lost concentration and ran down the wicket to launch one of Sarath’s skyscraper balls (well flighted tempting delivery). He missed the ball completely and was stranded in the middle. The ball was so slow to come into my gloves that I gestured to Porky get back, which he tried so desperately – but to our delight I had all the time in the world to take one bail off.

Now came one the most amusing incidents in the match. Having got through the top order Hamza Macan Markar and Asoka Samarajeewa got engaged in a stubborn partnership eating into valuable time. Barney was bowling from the scoreboard end and he bowled this beautiful delivery that looped and spun across Hamza’s batting taking the outside edge. Plumb caught behind! The close in fielders LS Perera at first slip, Anura Tennekoon at gully, 12^th man Nihal Dias Abeysinghe at short leg and Sriantha Rajapakse leg slip. They all went up in one loud chorus HOW’s THAT?

Head Umpire M A Jayasinghe, a tall man remained unmoved! Frustration was growing and in my excitement I foolishly appealed to the leg umpire and in that moment of fury I dashed the ball on the ground in a very un- Thomian like behaviour which was quite out of character.

I was in disbelief that it was given not out and Hamza had this guilty smile on his face. I then told Hamza “Saint Thomas is up there, he will fix you”. It didn’t take long for him to get his partner Samarajeewa run out and a little later ran out the last man, Tommy Sivanesarasa, as well. So my fellow Thomians it is a true story that ‘St Thomas’ did really help us in the 1964 victory!

Now comes the final bit to this hilarious episode. In the evening after the Team dinner we found ourselves at the CR&FC for a traditional drink. We were at the bar with drinks pouring out from the delighted old boys. Also at the bar was the great M. Sathasivam who said to our skipper Premalal, “where is that little keeper of yours”? Premalal gestured to me and I was thrilled that M. Satha wanted to speak to me.

Oh my gosh! What happened in the next few minutes was a shocker! He said to me if he was the Warden of St Thomas’s he would have given me SIX of the best cuts for dashing the ball on the ground after my appeal was disallowed.

In my defence I said, “it was 11 years since we had last won and I was very upset that a plumb catch was disallowed”. Next moment he handed a beer to me and said, “Well-played Son”. Great man Satha, to observe that incident from the Tamil Union Bar!

–    Kumar Boralessa (STC 1st  XT 1963 & 64)

*Kumar Boralessa made a rapid 25 in the run chase to victory over Royal and also had five victims behind the stumps for the match, including four off the bowling of Barney Reid. Six weeks earlier, in the game against Ananda College at Campbell Place, both Boralessa (132) and Anura Tennekoon (127*) combined to compile a massive 2^nd wicket partnership in excess of two hundred. Sarath Seneviratne rated him as one of the finest slip fielders in school cricket and a very fine wicket keeper.

Premalal (Lena) Goonesekere was a ‘One Off’

–   by Barney Reid

Premalal Goonesekere – Never had I seen before nor after, a schoolboy so one eyed or so determined to achieve the goal he had set himself.

We bore the full force of his wrath when in the first, 1^st Term Match of the 1964 season we lost to St. Benedict’s off the last ball of the game at Kotahena. His glare as he walked off the field taught us that cricket was not just a game.

‘Bora’ (Kumar Boralessa) and I kept well clear of Premalal until the next practice session the following Tuesday. Stories as to what happened on that last ball

abound. Each player had his own account as to what occurred. However, the term ’Boralized’ lasted through to the production of the Thomian Souvenir for the 1964 Big Match. No traditional Team Dinner nor 9.30 movie that Saturday night.

Premalal’s slight frame bore no relationship to the power he generated whilst playing his front foot strokes. On the practice session we had with England Test Player and subsequently Captain, Brian Close, Lena pulled out one of his signature Cover Drives. The Master Coach could not believe his eyes. He walked up to Premalal and wrapped his thumb and first finger around our captain’s skinny forearm and shook his head in disbelief.

Prior to the Big Match, Premalal convinced Warden that he should give us a day off to watch the Royalists in their final outing before they met us a week or so later.

While we were fooling around, happy to get another day off, Lena, with pen in hand, wrote copious notes on an exercise book. What he was jotting down, none of us knew, even cared about or bothered to find out.

One of Premalal’s masterstrokes was his theory that to get Shaw Wilson, Royal’s captain out, he needed a Left Arm Pace Bowler who could bring the ball back into the Left Hand batsman. I myself, could not fill the breach, because my action took the ball away from the left hander.

With three games to go before ‘D Day’ he went to the Small Club Grounds and returned with brother Tiny Reid and selected the 15-Year-Old to play against St Joseph’s and Trinity College. His figures of 2 wickets for 9 runs in Kandy did not convince Lena that Tiny fitted the bill, thus depriving the Reid family of the possibility of having a Captain in our midst.

Chelliah made his appearance for College in our final School game for the season against St. Peter’s College and did enough to convince the skipper that he was the man for the job.

(It took me more than a decade to work out the logic behind Lena’s theory. Wilson, the bulky left hander had enough freedom to force the ball swinging away from him into the covers.                                  How he worked out, at that tender age, that the in-swinger coming into the batsman from outside his

off stump did not give him sufficient room to play his fluent off-side strokes, I will never know.)

Premalal’s main strategy to win the Royal Thomian was, no matter the score, we needed to declare our Innings closed at Tea on the first day.

The Sarath and Anura partnership of 146 made the decision relatively easy. Sarath’s 96 runs was the most technically classic Innings I had seen from any schoolboy batsman. (However, that Innings paled into insignificance when he went one better the following year with his 97 in quick time when he flayed the Royal attack to all parts of the Oval.)

Following Premalal’s declaration, the Royal Captain, with the minimum of effort showing his style and fluency raced along to 30 out of a total of 42.Chelliah was brought into the attack. My recollection was that he got through Wilson’s defence with his very first ball. (Was it the second ball? Who cares.)

‘Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man’ – This idiom covers both Chelliah and Our Captain.

I would like to pay tribute to the sportsmanship of the Royal Captain. In his second Innings, Shaw Wilson (below), going for a Backfoot Drive off me, got the faintest of edges that went through to Bora. Without waiting for the Umpires decision, Shaw, chin up, bat under his arm, strode back to the Pavilion.         The morning following the eventful day, Shaw’s Prep School mate Balasingham and I, knowing how badly he must have felt, visited him at his

home and sat quietly with him. Not too many words were spoken.

Returning to my recollections: Target: 70 Runs in fifty-eight minutes!

Bora (l) and LS (r) got us off to a flyer, bringing the Target down to a run a minute, when L.S. was run out.

Premalal, decided to promote himself in the Batting Order. The otherwise calm and composed Captain was beside himself. No more the elegant stroke maker, Premalal swung his bat at everything in sight, slashing balls to

third man and elsewhere. Finally, and befittingly, he scored the winning runs by pulling Thalayasingham to the mid-wicket boundary for four.

Bat held high, charging back to the Pavilion to avoid being mobbed by the ecstatic spectators, Lena made it safely to the Thomian Invitees section.

After accepting all the praise and back slapping he headed to the Dressing Room. Upon seeing Mr. Orville Abeynaike, Premalal rushed up and with one arm around one shoulder Lena bunched the Coach!!!

Premalal was a One Off! There has never been or ever will be a Thomian Cricket Captain like him.

Unfortunately, the passing of sixty years has had its toll on the combatants of that epic encounter.

The Royalist did bid farewell to:

K Sockanathan. S Rajaratnam, L Thalayasingham and N. T. Kurukulasuriya. The Thomians have lost:

1. N. W. Goonesekere, L.S. Perera, G Balasingham and 2^nd reserve H.R.J. de Soysa.

They are sorely missed. R. I. P. boys.

We will meet again where the grass is green and the pitch much less lively leading to a drawn Game, just as all Royal Thomians should be.

– Barney Reid (STC 1st XI, 1963-65)

• Ganendran Balasingham in his junior days attended STC Prep

He went to Jaffna during the 1958 communal riots and attended Hartley College where he excelled in cricket and represented a National Schools Cricket Association team that toured Australia. Bala moved back to Colombo and joined S. Thomas’ College where he was part of the successful 1964 & 65 cricket teams – two of the finest teams produced by STC.

Barney Reid – Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year (1965)

The Most Remarkable Cricketing Journey – Barney’s phenomenal rise to fame

(by Ravi Rudra)

The famous 8 wickets for 2 runs against St. Sebastian’s (1962 Term 3) was just Barney’s 2nd game in the 1st XI, and it was also his Debut Match on the College Ground. This could be a record that will be hard to better. As an 8-yearold I watched with glee, from the lower-school end boundary line, as St. Sebastian’s batting first were routed within an hour during that Friday lunch interval.

The 8 wickets for 9 runs in Barney’s second home game (against Prince of Wales) will also make it a tough record to beat for a Fresher’s first two Matches on the Big Club Grounds. The 8/2 Ground Record was also just his fourth match playing Leather Ball Cricket, which is quite staggering!

Barney feels he should not have ever played cricket. At the end of the 1962 season, he went for 2nd X1 practice, simply to get his Activity Chart signed, because his Term report always reported ‘No Activities’ even though he was representing Sri Lanka at Table Tennis.

Barney recalls, “Had coach Mr. Orville Abeynaike signed my form and stopped me from wasting his time, I would have gone home, never to return again, because I had achieved getting his signature on my activity chart. However, Mr.

Abeynaike asked me to have a bowl. Being only a Tennis Ball bowler, I did not even know how I should hold the leather ball. At the end of that session, he named me in the 2nd X1 Team. I was embarrassed because there were so many of my friends who had attended practice all through the season and had never got a game. My friends were happy for me. However, it was favouritism at its worst.

The Coach may have thought that because my three elder brothers (Claud, Ronnie & Buddy) played that I may be worth a try. I got 5 wickets in that first game.

I was given the New Ball in only my second game of cricket, which was the Mini Royal-Thomian. I got 7 wickets and 5 wickets in that game. We won that Game by an Innings (I think) on the Royal College Grounds.

I was then an automatic choice for the 1st X1 for the start of the 1963 season (beginning with the traditional 3rd term fixtures in 1962). The first, 1st X1 game was against Zahira College at their grounds. My first match on the College Grounds (also, my 4th Game of Cricket ever) was against St Sebastian’s. It seemed unreal to think that at that point, I had only been playing leather ball cricket for just 5 months!

I bowled slow swing in my first season. However, the following year, Balasingham came from Hartley College, Jaffna and took over the New Ball bowling along with Mevan Pieris. I was relegated to first change. This I did not like, because it took too long for me to get the ball into my hand.

Even though it was only my second year of playing leather ball cricket, I was capable of working out that if you don’t have the ball in your hand, you cannot get a wicket. I then decided to take a long run up and bowl a lot quicker. For my good fortune, Orville and Premalal thought that they should try me with the New Ball. I reverted to spin half way through my 4th or 5th over, trying not to give any runs in that over, so that the Captain would not consider taking me off.

An amusing side issue was that when we went on our after-match dinner and movie, the entire Team got into Randy Morrell’s car (his Mum’s Morris Minor). We had Roger D’Silva, Cecil Perera and I who were large. We had four in the front seat, with Boralessa sitting on Randy’s right. Couldn’t have more on the

front seat, because Randy needed to change gears The other 7 were in the rear pew!!”

Barney also grabbed 8 for 17 against Wesley in 1965 (including 13 wickets for the match). He bowled 52 overs on the second day of the 1965 RT, more than any bowler had ever bowled in one day, in the history of the Big Match.

What is even more incredible was that Barney was voted Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 1965 – after only three and half years of taking up cricket. A year when there were some brilliant cricketers going around including the calibre of Anura Tennekoon, Sarath Seneviratne, Ranjith Fernando…

Barney’s ability to turn orthodox Leg-Spin on any surface with accuracy mixed with a surprise in-swing made his selection at National level inevitable. He was picked to play for Sri Lanka President’s X1 after merely four and half years of cricket!

Barney is eternally grateful to coach Mr. Orville Abeynaike. “In 1955, older brother Ronnie Reid started in the 2nd XI. Michael Tissera had got Chicken Pox and was required to be quarantined for two weeks, so the coach Gauder came to 2nd X1 practice and asked Orville Abeynaike for a batsman to join the Senior squad.

Orvile said “Reid, you go.”

Ronnie started off as a lower middle order batsman and secured the opening spot when they were trying to find a consistent pair to be ready for the Royal Match.

Mr. Abeynaike was instrumental in giving both Ronnie the opportunity to win the College Batting Averages three times (1955, 1956 and 1957) and I the Bowling Averages three times (1963, 1964 and 1965).

As to why he picked us, I will never know. I wish I had the courage to ask him.” – Barney

Memorable Big Match Victory – by Sriantha Rajapakse

“My best RT game was as a fresher in 1964 where my personal performance played a major role in the win. For me it was the best of the RT games I played in my three years both with bat and ball as a fresher amidst six exceptional coloursmen. Mind you even the freshers were a class of their own and to shine amongst such stars was no mean task. We all played as a well- knit team and we produced the results.

I must also add that Shaw Wilson who Captained Royal was a great Sportsman and I raise my hat to him as he amidst all

protest by the Royalist led his team out for the fourth innings.

The culmination of the match was to see our late Captain Premalal hitting the winning 4 runs which was amazing. The excellent opening stand by Kumar Boralessa and the late Lasantha Perera in chasing the runs did help immensely in the win.

Unlike now to create a victory in two days play I consider it a miracle. Premalal (best ever captain) was an astute leader. He was determined to win and he did. As a cricketer I believe there may have been other RT matches that have been equally good but none will match the nail-biting finish we produced.

In my first ever innings at the RT match, my skipper Premalal’s instruction to me was to score as fast as possible as he wanted to declare at Tea. It was no easy task as I was facing Sugi Rajaratnam who was swinging the ball (with the 2^nd new ball) both ways. My partner at the other end was Bundo (RP) Samarasinghe. Bundo was getting beaten neck and crop with the swing which was not encouraging to our chase for runs. I took Premalal’s advice to heart and attacked Sugi as never done before in my life, with

straight drives and cover drives which put him off his length completely. I scored 40 runs in next to no time. A batting performance I will never ever forget, as at that time I was not such an aggressive bat.

Declaration was made and then the plan was to get the Royalist out quickly and put them in to follow-on. The first day went well, to plan. The second day the Royalists were really putting the shutters up and even the recognized bowlers could not get through. Instead of LS Perera, the recognized off spinner, Premalal the never-say-die Captain and tactician called me and said “Gira” bowl. I was nervous as well as overjoyed to get to bowl in the RT match.

In my first over I had two wickets with my flight and my 23-yard delivery which was different to LS Perera. I ended with the figures 5 overs 2 maidens 3 wickets for 8 runs which helped us to enforce Royal to follow-on. In the second innings too I bowled well and had figures of 11 overs 7 maidens 2 wickets for 13 runs. The rest was the crowning glory for Premalal to hit the winning four chasing a target of 70 runs in a short time.

Must admire Shaw Wilson for his Captaincy and Sportsmanship as he led his team out to field despite many of his players objecting to light.”

-Sriantha Rajapakse (STC 1st XI 1964-66, VC ’66)

*Sriantha Rajapakse’s bowling figures for the Match at the 1964 RT was a remarkable 16-08-21-05 (average 4.2)! He was an attractive and attacking left-handed batsman as well as a brilliant fielder, especially close-in on the leg side where he took some breath-taking catches. As the best Thomian left hander during our era, it was such a delight to watch him bat. He was a genuine all-rounder. His averages over the three Royal-Thomians that he played are highly impressive, including the magnificent century he scored in 1966 to avert a total Thomian collapse in the first innings. He belligerently counter-attacked while losing his partners at regular intervals.

*In 1966, Anura Tennekoon (Captain) and Sriantha Rajapakse (Vice- Captain) being the only two coloursmen, along with 9 freshers went onto record 11 outright victories in 14 matches with 3 games being drawn – an exceptional achievement, thanks to the brilliance of these two champion cricketers.                                                                                              (RR)

“Memories of the 1964-Battle of the Blues”

“The Oval had now seen 10 consecutive draws when the 1964 match was played. When the final innings started STC needed 70 runs to win in 50 minutes, and got it with 10 minutes to spare. The feature of the match was undoubtedly the brilliant innings of 96 runs made by Sarath Seneviratne who in the following year too missed a well-deserved century by just three runs and could be labelled as the most unlucky cricketer of the series.

Another fine Thomian batsman Anura Tennekoon stamped his class during the same period to later captain Sri Lanka and emerge as one of the finest batsmen this country has produced.”

– Mevan Pieris (STC 1st XI 1964-65)

• In 1965 Mevan made a blistering century against Ananda College in only 86 minutes with 14 boundaries, when the Thomian top batting had This innings remains as the fastest century to have been ever made at Mount Lavinia.

Crucial Catch by the Athletic 12th Man – Nihal Dias Abeysinghe

“I was 12th man for that match. While Royal were batting in the second innings having been forced to follow-on, L.S. Perera got a cramp and had to come off the field. I was both delighted and nervous to run onto the field even for a short while.

Rajapakse who was bowling to Sockanathan placed me at short leg. Then about the third or fourth ball Sockanathan played forward and the ball took off the top of his bat and came towards me.. it was reflex action I just grabbed at it and took the catch. I was

momentarily stunned when a huge cheer went off from the crowd and Kumar Boralessa the wicket keeper came running up to congratulate me patting me on the back and head. Shortly after that LS came back onto the field and I trotted back to the Pavilion to a rousing cheer from the Thomians.

The icing on the cake for me was when the Daily News report of the match the next day had a picture of me taking that catch. After that I gained a bit of a reputation of taking the Match winning Catch, not sure whether that’s accurate.

Crucial Break! Sokanathan is caught by Thomian substitute Nihal Dias Abeysinghe off the bowling of Sriantha Rajapakse to break the stubborn resistance shown by the Royal opener in the 2^nd innings.

(photo courtesy: Nihal Dias Abeysinghe)

Being 12th man and having access to my dad’s car made me a useful and popular member of the team. I remember dropping off Premalal and a couple of others at Royal for speeches and dinner while I took off for a biriyani at an aunt’s place.

As I was not a colours man I didn’t wear the college blazer which the boys proudly wore before and after the match at the grounds. I wore a normal blazer with our crest and my athletic prowess stitched below. So I had RFC (Rugby), AC (Athletics), 2^nd XI cricket, which I proudly displayed.

Once we went to the SSC for an evening out where we met Lassie and after chatting with us for a while he walked past me saying “you’re the guy who took the catch!!

Interestingly my dad was also 12th man for the RT in his day. He told me he would have played the following year had he been in college. He was a better cricketer than I was and he went on to University and captained the team later. Once he got into Government service he captained the “C” division Local Government team that won the tournament that year where the plaque was presented by D.S. Senanayake the PM.

Great Memories!”

– Nihal Dias Abeysinghe (Captain STC 2nd XI 1964)

Anura Tennekoon – a Winner all the way in 1964

Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 1964…………… Anura Tennekoon – that fine

batsman from S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia who headed the batting averages in the Schools and led the Ceylon Schools team to “Test” victory against the Indian Schools was, for his fine showing, selected the Ceylon Daily News “Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year

– 1964” by the Special Panel of judges nominated by the Cricket Umpires

Association of Ceylon. He was also voted as the ‘Best Schoolboy Batsman for 1964’.

“In the 1964 Royal-Thomian, Tennekoon’s steady and assuring 78 paved the way for Premalal Goonesekere to break a long spell of draws in the series. Together with Sarath Seneviratne, Tennekoon, flayed the Royal attack. Prior to the Royal-Thomian he had notched his first century in School Cricket by getting 127 not out against Ananda.

The victory in the Royal-Thomian cricket encounter in 1964 was something that Tennekoon and other members of the team will never forget. For Tennekoon it

inspired him more and that year specially he will never forget as he was picked the “Daily News” Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year.

Tennekoon never forgot the advice and guidance given to him by his two cricket mentors Messrs Lassie Abeywardene and Orville Abeynaike. It was they who aided him to give vent to his run hungry potential.

“My first real coach was Mr. Lassie Abeywardena at U 16 level. He was an excellent coach to impart technique to his proteges. One of the finest things he taught me was to use my feet to spin bowlers. This proved invaluable to me when up against renowned Indian spinners like Bedi, Prasanna, Venkataraghavan in International Cricket.”

– Anura Tennekoon

Here’s the 1964 selection

Schoolboy Cricket of the Year 1964: Anura Tennekoon (S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia). Runners-up: 2. Ranjith Fernando (St. Benedict’s),

3. Premalal Goonesekere (S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia).

Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year: Sumithra Fernando (St. Sebastian’s, Moratuwa).

Best Batsman: Anura Tennekoon (S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia).

Best Bowler: Travis Fernando (St. Peter’s College).

Best Allrounder: S. Rajaratnam (Royal College).

Best Fielder: David Heyn (St. Peter’s College).

Best Captain: Sunil Fernando (St. Benedict’s College).

Best Wicket-keeper: Ranjith Fernando (St. Benedict’s College).

Best Team in Western Zone: St. Benedict’s College.

Best Team in Central Zone: Trinity College, Kandy.

Best Team in Southern Zone: St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa.

RP Samarasinghe who top scored against St. Joseph’s (50) and Trinity (64*)

“Ranjan Samarasinghe was an aggressive batsman and a good fielder. He threw very accurately too” – Sarath Seneviratne

1964 WINNING COACH – MR. ORVILLE ABEYNAIKE

Mr. Orville A. Abeynaike brought credit and honour to S. Thomas’ College as a cricketer and coach. Apart from coaching the successful 1964 STC 1^st XI team that defeated Royal, after eleven years, he was also an outstanding schoolboy opening bowler who played for STC under the captaincy of R. Proctor.

In 1941 at the 62^nd Royal-Thomian, Orville opened the Thomian bowling attack with Vernon Prins and had a sensational RT debut with figures of 25.2-03-60-7. In the 2nd essay his bowling analysis read 20-6-36-2 for a match bag of 9 for 96

– Great Achievement indeed.

Orville Abeynaike was a highly respected Teacher at S. Thomas’ College. He was one of the Best Coaches and Master-in-Charge of Cricket and he also served as a Selector of the Sri Lanka School Cricket Association in 1968/1969.

1964 STC 2nd XI Team

Seated (L-R): C.L. de Silva, P. Seresinhe, N. Dias Abeysinghe (Captain), Mr.

C.H. Davidson (Warden), A.O.C. Kuruppu (Vice Captain), D.L. Peiris, Mr.

1. Israel (Master-in-charge).

Standing (L-R): D.V. Gunatunga, S.R. Jayawardene, Sarath De Mel, Kumar Abeygunawardena, A.M. Perera, R. Ondattjie, T.M. de Silva, M.D.C.W. Jayasekera, N. Welgama.

Captain – N. Dias Abeysinghe (S)    Vice-Captain – A.O.C. Kuruppu (S)

“The season under review was quite a successful one. Of the 9 matches played, 6 were won, and 2 lost. The match against St. Peter’s had to be abandoned on account of incessant rain. Our batting, though strong on paper, never really clicked. As a result, our bowlers had very few runs to play with. The fact that we won 6 matches shows how well the bowlers did their job. Finally, a word of thanks to our Master-in-Charge, Mr. Q. Israel, for devoting so much of his time solely for our benefit.”

(1)        S. Thomas’ vs. St. Peter’s at Bambalapitiya

Match abandoned.

• Thomas’ vs. St. Joseph’s at Maradana STC: 103 (H.R.J. de Soysa 21, H.S.M. Pieris 36*) SJC: 109 for 4 (H.S.M. Pieris 2 for 21).

Lost by 6 wickets

• Thomas’ vs. St. John’s Nugegoda at Mt. Lavinia

STC: 204 for 8 dec. (A.O.C. Kuruppu 54, M. Jayasekera 44, S. de Mel 45)

St. John’s: 71 (D.L. Peiris 6 for 20)

St. John’s: 60 (D.L. Peiris 6 for 26, L. Chelliah 4 for 8)

Won by an innings & 73 runs

• Thomas’ vs. St. Benedict’s at Mt. Lavinia

STC: 105 (T.M. de Silva 23, R. Ondaatje 31)

SBC: 158 for 9 dec (D.L. Peiris 3 for 41, P. Seresinhe 3 for 36)

STC: 94 for 9 (P. Seresinhe 25, R. Ondaatje 24, M. Jayasekera 21)

Lost by 53 runs

• Thomas’ vs. Prince of Wales at Moratuwa

STC: 229 for 9 dec. (T.M. de Silva 102, C.L. de Silva 27, A.O.C. Kuruppu 24, M. Jayasekera 24*, N. Dias Abeysinghe 33) POW: 113 (T.M. de Silva 3 for 2, N. Dias Abeysinghe 2 for 2)

POW: 83 for 5 (D.L. Peiris 2 for 24, P. Seresinhe 2 for 26)

Won by 116 runs

• Thomas’ vs. St. Mary’s at Mt. Lavinia

St. Mary’s: 89 (T.M. de Silva 4 for 38)

STC: 161 (P. Seresinhe 41, T.M. de Silva 35, N. Dias Abeysinghe 28)

St Mary’s: 76 (N. Welgama 3 for 9, D. Gunatunga 4 for 26)

STC: 9 for 1

Won by 9 wickets

• Thomas’ vs. Trinity at Mt. Lavinia

Trinity: 51 (P. Seresinhe 5 for 14, D.L. Peiris 3 for 24)

STC: 204 for 7 dec. (P. Seresinhe 64, A.O.C. Kuruppu 29, C.L. de Silva 30, N. Dias Abeysinghe 35).

Trinity: 77 (D.L. Peiris 4 for 17, N. Dias Abeysinghe 5 for 18)

Won by an innings & 76 runs

• Thomas’ vs. St. Anthony’s at Wattala

STC: 93 (M. Jayasekera 32)

St. Anthony’s:77 (P. Seresinhe 7 for 26) STC: 105 (R. Ondaatje 36)

St. Anthony’s: 98 (P. Seresinhe 3 for 38, D. Gunatunga 5 for 34)

Won by 23 runs

• Thomas’ vs. Royal at Reid Avenue STC: 178 (P. Seresinhe 79, A.O.C. Kuruppu 45) Royal: 58 (D.L. Peiris 5 for 13)

Royal: 152 for 8 dec (D.L. Peiris 3 for 27)

Won by 120 runs

At the end of the season 2^nd XI Colours were awarded to:

1. Dias Abeysinghe, A.O.C. Kuruppu, P. Seresinhe, D.L. Peiris, C.L. de Silva,

and awarded to:

1. Ondaatje, M.D.C.W. Jayasekera, T.M. de Silva, N. Welgama and D. Gunatunga.

–     A.O.C. Kuruppu (Vice-Captain)

CELEBRATIONS – Back Then (1911)

“The above image is copied from the Times of Ceylon Annual 1911 shows how Royalists and Thomians celebrated at the Big Match in those days.

Note the near formal attire replete with pork pie hats etc. Name of the ground not given, but I found that it was the Colombo Cricket Club grounds. Also note the subdued nature of the revelry. Times that we knew ever existed!”

– Hugh Karunanayake, a Royalist hanging out in Melbourne (Source: Critiquing Cricket)

(Compiled by Ravi Rudra – March 2024)