Sri Lanka’s First International Cricket Half-Century – By Vinod Moonesinghe Source : roar.media On 5 September 1832, a notice appearing in the Colombo Journal inviting “gentlemen who may be inclined towards forming a Cricket Club” to attend a meeting at the Colombo Library three days later, resulted in the formation of the Colombo Cricket Club (C.C.C.). Shortly after, the first recorded cricket match in Sri Lanka took place between the C.C.C. and the British 97th Regiment of Foot (now the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment), on the Rifle Green in Slave Island. The C.C.C. faded away afterward, but revived in 1863. Ethnic Cricket The players on both sides were all White British—in fact, the C.C.C. remained European-only until 1962. British planters formed the Radella Club (officially Dimbula Athletic and Cricket Club) in 1856, and the Darawella Club (Dickoya Maskeliya Cricket Club) in 1868—which year saw the first Dimbulla-Dickoya cricket encounter. Other, all-European outstations clubs, such as ...
Blog Archives
History of Royal College Crest – By Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam (Excerpts from the book History of Royal College published in 1981) Royal College crest serves to identify the school from other schools and gives a seal and significance to documentation. However it had not been mentioned in any writing prior to 1892. As Ceylon was crown colony of the British Empire, the imperial emblem – The Lion and the Unicorn was the badge of the country. As Royal College, then known as Colombo Academy, was a government educational institute, it had to use the British Royal Arms. The first display of Royal crest was in the first College magazine of 1893. Subsequently there had been alterations made to Royal crest in 1910 and 1912. In 1922, the government sanctioned the issue of the new crest in place of the one used in the past. Description of the ...
Brief History of Royal College Boarding House (Hostel) – By Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam (Excerpts from the book “Royal College School of our fathers” compiled by D.L. Seneviratne) The first boarding house of the Colombo Academy was established in San Sebastian in 1868. It had about 20 to 30 boys and the principals who lived in the premises, joined the boarders often for breakfast and dinner. Mr. Ashley Walker became the first boarding master in 1876, and cricket teams at the beginning were composed mostly of boarders. The boarding was on top floor of the main building, which was previously the Government House overlooking the Beira Lake, with a splendid view of the sea. The boarding was closed on around 1905. There was stern resistance to establishing the boarding again, as it was deemed to be a day school. However in 1939, due to much effort by RCU, a spacious bungalow ...
