Royal College Cricket Team 1957

Mahinda Wijesinghe is Prof Chnanna Wijesinghe's brother and still writes to Sri Lanka newspapers. Ben Eliyathamby was a lawyer with a lucrative practice whom I used to meet at JC's place until he passed away recently. Perayerawar was a good athlete. I met him once at JC's. NJS de Mel was in the University Science Faculty. EL Pereira is best known as Prof. EOE Perera's son. An outstanding sportsman who is now in Australia. I hva met RK Samarasinghe at one of Senerat Jayatilake's parties. Sarath Samarasinghe is RK's brother and a close friend of Ken Balendra. Their father Dr. AM Samarasinghe was an Appointed MP like Revo's father.

Ananda College Cricket team 1957

Seated L-R: AP Jayasinghe, Palitha Premasiri, Anuruddha Polonowita, Daya Amarasinghe, Ananda Ranasinghe.

Standing L-R: Palitha Wijesekara, Anura de Zoysa, SP Ekanayake, Sonny Yatawara, NG Ekanayake

On the ground: Ranjith Thabrew, Sirisoma Wijeggonewardene, Neville Ratnayake

APJ entered the Eng Faculty and worked as an engineer. Passed away early. Palitha Premasiri (my classmate) never studied. Owned Southern Drapery Stores at Borella Junction. Deceased.

Anu Polonnowita joined the Colombo Municipality. Married Chitranganie (daughter of the late Prof. PB Fernando who was Professor of Medicine before Prof. Rajasuriya.

Daya Amarasinghe joined the Prisons Dept. Ranasinghe was at Ceylon Insurance.

Palitha Wijesekara (deceased) was the elder brother of athlete Vijitha Wijesekara and Dr. Rohitha Wijesekara (our junior batch).

Anura de Zoysa also died some years ago.

SP Ekanayake also did a Physical Science degree in the University and joined the Army. Died a few years ago as a Major.

Sonny Yatawara joined Ceylon Tobacco soon after leaving school. Died early in life.

NG Ekanayake too died some years ago.

Thabrew was in the Science Faculty. Wijegoonewardene joined the Army as an Officer Cadet and retired as a Major. Neville Ratnayake was another classmate of mine who joined the Ventral Bank.

Almost 60 years later, the 1957 captain Anu Polonowita is second from left in this picture with Suren Iyer.

Academics Vs Sportsmen

By Dr Nihal D Amerasekera

I remember Bryan Claessen as one of the finest sportsmen of my era at Wesley College. Although he was eight years my senior we struck up a friendship when he contacted me after reading my article in the 125th Anniversary School Souvenir. He spoke to me many times about the lack of recognition given to academics from school compared to sportsmen. He felt this was grossly unfair. Coming from a sportsman of his calibre I gave serious thought to this issue.

I have maintained the Double Blue International website for 20 years. In the DBI there is a whole page for Sports but no pages for Academics or their achievements. So I am partly to be blamed for this ‘willful neglect’. Even in the daily newspapers there is a section for sports but none for academia although they get a mention in the general news items.

During the school years we always gave respect to those who were clever and did well in their studies. The end of term reports and the year end promotions to the class above depended on the academic performance. The Annual Prize Giving made awards to those who performed well academically. The Medals and the Scholarships were special awards for bright students. So the academics too got their fair share of applause and acclaim.

Over the years I have enquired from many sportsmen and academics. I have also asked sportsmen who are academics. I asked my son who played cricket and hockey for a British Public School and followed a course in medicine at Cambridge where he was awarded the Cambridge hockey blue. He said on looking back he was more proud of his achievements in sports than his academics. He said academic achievements were for his personal gain and career, whereas the sports were for his team and his school and University. This perhaps explains the extra recognition and adulation one gets from the school and friends.

Bryan Claessen was a gentleman in every sense of the word and I appreciate his concern. Team Sports have been in existence since Greek and Roman times. We live in a world that loves sports. Bryan is right, Academic awards are very few even when inventions and discoveries benefit humanity and the society. The recognition is disproportionately poor. Such are the ways of the world.

We all enjoy sports and remember sportsmen more than academics. The clever clogs at school do get their recognition. I will continue to manage the Double Blue International without a page for Academics. They fit in well in the rest of the DBI pages.

Bryan Claessen passed away in Adelaide Australia  on 16th March 2010, at the age of 74.

(This appeared in Double Blue International administered by ND)

St. Joseph's College Cricket eleven 1957

St. Joseph’s College 1st XI Cricket 1957. Standing (L to R) – Ranjan de Almeida, Neville Athukorale, Ranjit Malawana, Emilton Fernando, Claude Perera, Priya Perera, Derrick Francke,
Joe Mustapha, Angelo Rayer, Jerry Fernando, Tissa de Soyza, Neville Jayawardena.
Seated (L to R) – Michael Berman, Zacky Mohamed, Kirthi Caldera, Mr. Joe Ekanayake, Rev.Fr. Peter Pillai (Rector), Mr. John Pulle, Fr. Lucien Dep, Carlyle Perera, Peter Leanage.

 Ranjith Malawana later played for Bloomfield. Michael (aka as Brian). Both of them were my neighbours at Manning Town up to 1956. Michael/Brian entered the Engineering Faculty and is now in Australia. Priya Perera also did so but later did Physical Science. He died very early in life. Angelo Rayer was in the Science Faculty and I knew him well when I was doing the 6 months course. Kirthi Caldera was in the Air Force and died early. Carlyle Perera captained the University team that won the Sara Trophy in 1963. He was in the "300 Batch" and I knew him well. Tissa de Soysa was a good athlete. Zacky Mohamed later played for Saracens.

A bit of nostalgia

This post is mainly for cricket fans who have been following the game from early days. There are well known names among those who had played for their respective schools in 1957. Among them Prof. AH Sheriffdeen (no introduction needed here), the late Lasantha Fernando (National tennis champion) who married our senior Dr. Manel Bogollagama and father of former internationally ranked tennis player Lihini Weerasuriya, Sports journalist Elmo Rodrigopulle, former Army Commander the late Gen. Cecil Waidyaratne (whose brother Dr. Kulasiri did the 6 months course with us in 1961), the late Major General Lucky Algama who died in a bomb explosion during an election rally.

Lionel Fernando  was in the famous Nomads cricket team under DH de Silva  that scored some 900 runs in an innings in a Sara Trophy match. DH's brother DP and  Anu Polonowita also played in that team. DP and DH were brothers of Sri Lanka cricketer DS de Silva. I think Lionel Fernando also played a few matches for All Ceylon. Allan Gunasekara and Rayen were good hockey players as well. Together with Elmo R and Neville Casiechetty, both of them played for Tamil Union later.

Anton Rambukpotha and Ranjit Doranegama were at the Peradeniya Arts Faculty.

Click on:

http://quadrangle.lk/sports/that-1957-school-cricket-season/

That ‘1957’ School Cricket Season - Down Memory Lane ... .

PROUD TO BE A ROYALIST

Sanath Lama has sent in this with a "justification" for inclusion as a blog post.

Professor Sanath P. Lamabadusuriya	06:48 (7 hours ago)
to me

 Dear Lucky,

Would you consider posting this on our blog spot? After all 33 in our batch were old Royalists and quite a few of the girls (Swyrie, Sriyanee, Sura,etc) are married to old Royalists!

Kind regards,

Sanath

Creative Spot by Indra Anandasabapathy

TWO DIFFERENT ORCHIDS IN BLOOM- below the moth orchid, phalaenopsis, above Odontoglossom.

                            Odontoglossum, the Kandyan dancer orchid belongs to this group.

BUDDLEIA- the butterfly bush. Summer bloomer, commoner in the UK than the USA.

                                          TRUE TO ITS NAME- the butterfly bush