Nico de Silva was an outstanding ruggerite of Trinity-by Hafiz Marikar

Nico de Silva

Source:Dailynews

Old Trinitians S.C. Ruggerite Nico de Silva was a knowledgeable rugger player, who played for Trinity College way back in ‘1961 and 1962 as a ‘lock’ and ‘third-row’ forward. In 1961 he played under Jayantha Jayawardena, That is the year he won the rugger colours with N.M. Ameraeekara, A.H.C de Silva, Tyrone Howie and U.M. Weerasinghe and in 1962 played under the leadership of Noel Brohier. Some of the other players who played with him for the school were Tyrone Howie, S.M. Zacky, N.T. Madugalle, C.D. Elhart, Mohan Sahayam, M.T.M. Zarook, Sarath Illangatilake, R.G. Geddes A.R.M. Faizer. Ananda. Piyasena, .Later Nico played for Kandy Sports Club and moved over to the CR & FC in 1964, he also had an opportunity of playing for the Havelocks SC under his friend and teammate of Trinity College Noël Brohier against his former club CR & FC.

In 1965 he took up to planting and first played for Uva Gymkhana Club Later he turned out for the Kelani Valley Club (KV) which at one time was a top rugby playing club situated by the banks of the Seethawaka River at Talduwa that has a history going back to 1884. Later when he was planting at Ukuwella, he gave a big hand to his former club Kandy Sports Club, at that time in late 1970’s, the ruggerites used to travel to Colombo by Bus or train, Nico came forward with Allien Wanigasekara and helped the club by providing their vehicles for players to travel out of Kandy. He was one time president of the Old Trinitians Sports Club and gave a big hand to promote sports.