GH Rupasinghe Archives

Rupa: A hero and legend-BY DENNIS DE ROSAYRO Source:Sundayobserver GH Rupasinghe could not have had a better debut when he represented the Matale HA at the first-ever National Hockey Championships in 1956 as a 17-year-old. The pint-sized Rupa as right half stunned the large and knowledgeable crowd with a superlative exhibition of both attacking and defensive hockey, enabling Matale to be joint champions with the favourites, Mercantile HA. He continued to play at every Nationals until 1974, representing Government Services, Defence Services and Nationalised Services HAs with many victories on the way. He joined the Burgher RC in 1960 and was a vital cog in many of their victories, captaining in 1970. In between, he joined the Army from 1962 to 67 where he also represented them as a scrum-half in rugby and boxing. He had to wait until 1960, but what a wait to represent Ceylon versus the Indian ...

When Ceylon’s stickers beat world-class Madras and Mysore-BY DENNIS DE ROSAYRO Source:Sundayobserver Before continuing from my series on Ceylon/Sri Lanka’ great hockey players, I would like to touch on some noteworthy performances by our hockey teams. After not being able to participate at the 1960 Rome Olympics, the Federation’s next target was the 1962 Asian Games in Djakarta. Freddie White, who was the vice captain on tours to India in 1957 and 1959, was selected as the captain of Ceylon for the 1963 Asian Games. Unfortunately, he withdrew from the team, citing the non-selection of two players, whom he felt were automatic choices. The reserve goalie, K. Tharmarajah, whose idol was Freddie, followed suit. This was a huge blow and our performances were below par, losing to lower ranked teams, Indonesia 0/1 and Singapore 0/3, among others. Ironically, Freddie was selected to captain the 1966 Asian Games team to Bangkok ...