THE SIMS BROTHERS 1966-1969

Like the Joseph Brothers, St. Anthony’s College, Katugastota produced trios of Brothers playing Cricket for College. The exceptions to the rule were the Mackys, where George Macky played and Captained College prior to his three sons playing for College, Dicky, Louis and Michael who captained in 1964. The Sims Brothers played for College from 1966 to 1969.

Christopher Sims the eldest of the three brothers first played for the 1^st XI in 1966. In his debut, as a Left-arm spinner he was the leading wicket taker with over 30 scalps, 5 for 56 vs Rajans, 5 for 31 vs St. Benedict’s and in the big match against Trinity he had a match bag of 3 for 51 in the first innings, being sum of his best. He represented the Central Province under 18 schools’ team in the inter-zonal matches that year. His brother Randy was in the squad to play that season.

Christopher captained College in 1967. The Sports News indicated that for the season, Antonians depend much on their batting and that Christopher Sims was an attacking right-handed batsman and left arm spinner. The Antonian order was spearheaded by skipper Christopher Sims assisted by his brother Randy Sims. Christopher was said to be a good fielder at any position. Brother Terence Sims joined them in the squad that year. The performance against Kingswood shone like a beacon in 1967 when we piled up 340 for 5 thanks largely to Randy Sims scoring 154 runs. We then dismissed Kingswood for 114 and 144 respectively, with skipper Christopher Sims taking a match bag of 7 for 42 (4 for 21 and 3 for 21). In that year Christopher scored 55 runs against the Joes. Randy finished the season with over 400 runs, followed by Brother Christopher over 250 runs. The most exciting game that year was undoubtedly the one against the Joes, where we left them in brink of defeat at 81 for 9 chasing 102 to win. The trio of Sims brothers, Christopher, Randy and Terence, scored the bulk of the runs in the first innings with 55, 27 and 28 not out respectively out of a team total of 164. Christopher Sims once again carried out the spinning duties with success taking 25 wickets. His all-round feat (250 runs and 25 wickets) enabled skipper Sims to be selected as Best Outstation Cricketer in the Times annual schoolboy awards.

Randy Sims captained College in 1968. The resounding innings victory against Trinity capped off his season as Captain. We trounced Trinity by an innings and 19 runs with one hour to spare in our Big Match played at Katugastota. Randy made a polished 76 runs in this game. Besides the Big Match success, we also beat Dharmaraja in thrilling fashion, pulling off a last over victory by 4 wickets at Police grounds. Skipper Randy Sims was the architect of this win, scoring a stylish 63 runs and taking 4 wickets for 17 runs in the Rajan’s second innings. Randy Sims was an attractive left-handed batsman. He consistently scored during that season. His knock of 99 (run out) vs Ananda was our biggest individual score for the season and was ranked by a newspaper journalist as “one of the best knocks seen in Kandy for some time”. Randy was gifted with an array of strokes and excelled in the late cut, which was seldom seen in school cricket at that time.

Randy Sims captained College in 1969 for a second year running a feat not known to many Antonians. He showcased his best ever batting during that season amassing 646 runs in 19 games (15 innings) including three hundreds against St. Sylvester’s (172), Kingswood (102) and Trinity (100). Randy hit his century in 180 minutes with 12 fours. He also took 3 wickets for 24 runs against Trinity in that 53^rd Big Match at Asgiriya, the match ending in a draw. Randy became the third Antonian ever to score a century at Asgiriya. In that year his brother, Terence Sims amassed 431 runs for the season with a top score of 105 runs vs Kingswood. In the game against Kingswood, Randy put on a 217-run partnership for the 4^th wicket with his brother Terence. Double hundred partnerships are a rarity in school cricket, let alone by brothers achieving this feat twice in a matter of a few years emulating the Joseph brothers in 1961 followed by the Sims brothers in 1969.

The information provided on the Sims Brothers was taken from “The Story of Antonian Cricket – A Season by Season Review” produced by Afzal Laphir in time for the 100 years of Trinity/Antonian encounter covering all Trinity/Antonian games between 1947 to 2017. This book is a fantastic recollection of memorable moments and significant performances from every season from the early 1900s to 2017.

Unfortunately, I have not seen a team photo for 1967 and 1969. Below are the 1966 and 1968 teams.

Also attached photos of Christopher and Randy.