Reminisces about ‘Lovers’ Quarrel’ annual encounters from inception 1905 – By Sunil Thenabadu
On 25th July 1814 Rev Benjamin Clough started first Wesleyan Methodist School in then Ceylon and Asia at Walawwa called Doonburg, Upper Dickson Road, Galle which is exists . It was named ” Galle School”. Due to lack of premises and social class and caste issues, Wesleyan Mission started branch schools in the Galle Circuit. In 1857 Rev Joseph Rippon purchased Silary Hill known as Semage Kanda to continue and expand their educational works. The Hill was renamed as Richmond Hill. This was mainly because they all came from Richmond- in Surrey England.
Then all the schools located in Galle started to shift to the Richmond Hill and Mission was supposed to upgrade the school status to a High School, It was named ‘Wesley College’. But the plan got shifted to Colombo and Wesley College was established in Colombo 8.
Named as Galle High School with Rev Samuel Langdon becoming the first Principal in 1882, when the school was named Richmond College. The game of cricket was started in year 1887.Richmond College played the first inaugural inter school cricket match against Galle Central School named later as All Saints’ College Galle on May 1at 1888.In year 1901 Richmond College played against Wesley College ,Colombo 8 for the first time This encounter to date is played annually for ER De Silva Memorial trophy.
The first Richmond Mahinda big match was played termed the ‘Lovers’ Quarrel’ which still continues to date at the then Galle Esplanade. The big match is played annually barring the period of the first and second world wars in the decade of 1940 for the past 118 years. It is pertinent to quote that the Principals of the two schools had stood as the on field umpires on many instances. This early duo been Rev James Home Darrel of Richmond College and Mr Frank Lee Woodward of Mahinda College. It had been Richmond College who had won the inaugural encounter in years 1906 and 1907 while Mahinda College had been victorious in year 1908 After a deadlock , ‘Hoodoo’ of drawn matches the Mahindian’s under the able leadership of Rajith Priyan won an emphatic win in year 2008 which is evoked to date as it was after a long passé of 45 years. In year 2014 and year 2015 Richmond registered victories in successive years. However, it is Richmond College who have won more “Lovers’ Quarrel” big matches with the majority ending in no decisions some as boring draws much to the disappointment of large audiences probably as either school did not prefer to lose.
In year 1953 Mahindian Somasiri Ambawatte captured all ten wickets for 44 runs exceptional rare feat which stands tall as the best performance by a bowler to date. The previous best bowling feat recorded was by a Richmondite RMMde Silva who captured 8 for 19 in year 1922 over a century of years back. Incidentally RMMde Silva records the best all round performance in scoring 97 and capturing 7 for 6 runs in the same encounter which all round feat will be very challenging to surpass. In the “Lovers’ Quarrel” in year 1972 Richmondite Prasad Kariyawasam scoring 156 runs erased a long existed record of 155 runs held by Mahindian Sirisena Hettige in 1939 Sri Lanka’s present skipper of T 20 and ODI’s Charith Asalanka had scored 100 for Richmond in year 2015.Since then Dhananjaya Lakshan 102* for Richmond in 2017, Dhanuja Induruwa of Mahinda scored 101 for Mahinda in 2023 while last year in year 2024 three scored centuries were recorded, Gehan Subasinghe 100 for Richmond, Malsha Tharupathi 111 also for Richmond and Dinura Kalupahana 124 for Mahinda which was highlighted as a galore of tons unlike in previous encounters the centuries scored were infrequent since year1905. Altogether only nineteen batsmen had notched centuries from the inception of the big match. In the wins tally Richmond leads by just one winning 24 matches to Mahinda’s 23.
There are many notable players who had played for both colleges namely HW Amarasuriya,Douglas Dias Jayasinha,Sirisena Hettige,Basil Gunasekera,DH De Silva, DP De Silva, DLS De Silva,Athula Samarasekera, Dileepa Wickremasinghe, Jayananda Warnaweera,Upul Chandana,Lasith Malinga, Rumesh Buddhika,Thikshila De Silva, Nisala Tharaka, Navod Paranavithana etc. for Mahinda College while from Richmond there were CWW Kannagara, DM Rajapaksa, DA Rajapaksa,RMM De Silva,RA De Mel, Prasad kariyawasam, Nadasiri Jaysunthaliyana, Ravi Arunthavanathan, Champika Ramanayake,Chamila Gamage, Suranga Lakmal,Dhananjaya De Silva,Waninidu Hasaranga De Silva, Charith Asalanka,AK Tyronne,Kamindu Mendis and Dhananjaya Lakshan.
The connection between Richmond College and Rippon girl’s school is historically long as Richmond College. Rippon Girl’s school is situated in the same land as Richmond College.It is learnt that initially girls had attended Richmond College too.The name was originally called Rippon Boarding school later changed to Rippon Girl’s school dedicated in memory of Rev.Joseph Rippon.
There have been several old boys in both schools who have excelled in the game of cricket. One such distinguished old boy Douglas De Silva Jayasinha a College Head Prefect who played cricket for the national team and was a initially a selector in the Board of Control for Cricket in Ceylon who later was the Chairman of the selection committee for ten long years had quoted ‘”Cricket is not only a game, but it is a way of life. Cricket is not only with the bat and the ball, but in the head with discipline in the head vitally very important. You must never to jealous of anyone, because cricket is a team game. It is a marvellous game. Although we play for different schools or clubs, at the end of the day, we were best of friends and lifelong friends. That is the spirit that you must play cricket”
Prior to the big encounter over the past years under the theme ‘Brotherhood Beyond Boundaries’ the Richmond College Union, Richmond College Cricket Club had connived with Mahinda Club and Mahinda College Cricket Foundation, had organised two cricket encounters between the old boys of the two schools the ‘Lovers Quarrel’ at the Galle International Stadium, was played at the Bloomfield cricket grounds, Colombo 7.
The Veterans (50+) T20 encounter was played for the Douglas Jayasinghe Challenge Trophy. This year the encounter was won by Mahinda under the captaincy of Geethanga de Silva.This encounter is played in many overseas countries too more predominantly on Melbourne Australia, Dubai, UK etc..There will be two matches like in Colombo ,a Legends match and the other between young Mahindians and Richmondites commencing at 10 am on the 16th March.This tradition has continued for nearly thirty years which was informed by stalwarts old Mahindian Isuru Wickremasinghe and Richmondite Suren Dissanayake citizens down under.In Melbourne too the intention is mainly to have the links to be cordial also for youngsters to continue the traditions they experienced in Sri Lanka.
In the decade of the seventies a nephew of illustrious Dougles Dias Jayasinha, Ranjan Dias Jayasinha played for Richmond for four years from year 1972 captaining the team in year 1974 .After leaving school in 1976 he had opted to join Air CEYLON cabin crew team ending an illustrious career as the CHIEF CABIN CREW MANAGER AT Sri Lanka Airlines, presently is a Digital Creator
All old Richmondites and Ripponists would appreciate the services rendered by Ranjan Dias Jayasinha for his toil
