MY SCHOOL DAY IMPRESSIONS
By Frank Ondatjie
It was my Intention, when asked by the Editor
to write my impressions of the Royal-Thomian matches I had seen, to
do so in three different periods, namely: my school-boy impressions
as from 1893 to 1903; my later observations of a keenly enthusiastic
old boy from 1904 to 1919; and of my partial control of the match as
umpire from 1920 to 1930.
But to do this properly 1 find is a stupendous
task, so that I shall confine myself to as detailed a reference to
my earliest impressions during the time I was enjoying the happiest
days of my life as a student at Royal College. Having entered school
in January 1893, I made my first acquaintance with this match in
March of that year and had little more recollection of it than that
I went across the lake in a steam boat with a lot of other little
first-formers and that we gamboled about while the first eleven were
playing against the Thomians on Galle Face. The next year I saw -a
little more of the game. It was then too played on Galle Face, for
the last time as it happened.
Though, as I have said, my attention was given
more to the play, there appears to be only one incident in it that
has remained indelibly fixed in my mind, and that is a one handed
sixer hit by Shelly Edirisinghe on the leg side. The 1895 match was
played for the first time on the C.C.C. grounds then newly opened —
a sporting turf wicket. It is from this year in the series that my
interest in it really counted. I remember distinctly how 0. G. de
Alwis raised our wrath by trying to make 34 against our bowlers who
had just been strengthened by Jim Ludovici of theirs coming over to
us at the last moment almost. But we had our revenge and how we
cheered Elmore Jayatilleke when he went on to make his record 72. We
totaled 217 which was the first total of 200, and we beat the
Thomians by an innings and 43 runs. It was Royalists' record that
year.
We were very proud indeed of our heroes and our
pride stayed with us for a twelve months but that great Thomian of
then — and even now — Arthur Scharenguivel backed up by Mother
Greason's son Harry gave our team a sound beating by 5 wickets.
Scharenguivel bowled remarkably to take 11 wickets for 47 runs only,
while I can vividly remember Harry Greason's carefree innings of 48.
By the time of the 1897 match, friends of mine were playing in the
match. They were Bertie Grenier, and 'Peggy'— otherwise A. S.
Peglotte— while Solomon Kotelawala the good humoured giant of my
form was the hitter of the side. Talking of the latter reminds me of
a good story that strictly does not come into this article. But I
think it will be forgiven entry. We always had a fixture on the last
day of term between the Upper 111 "A" and Upper 111 "B" forms. Two
bails were always found for this match the providers being E. G. B.
Lover and D. N. Keith. Well, with due ceremony, the match was
started and the "B" XI captain, having won the toss, Kotelawala was
sent in first. He faced and hit the first ball (Lover's) out of the
grounds towards the beef market where now the Tuberculosis Hospital
stands. Keith's ball was produced and as it was promptly sent
soaring over the Stationers' Hall, the match was over— and there was
Kotelawala grinning all over, the only man who got anything out of
it! We naturally expected great things from our hero, nor did he
entirely disappoint us for he hit up 25 in the second innings of the
1897 match. But he was on the losing side, for the Thomians had a
great bowling side that year.
In the next match two of our fellows were in
the team. They were Tom Marshall and S. E. Scheffer and Royal was
led by Forester Obeysekera who had played the year before, having
transferred his affections to us from St. Thomas'. He was one of the
keenest captains we had but the material he had at his disposal was
not good enough to beat St. Thomas' who still counted Arthur
Scharenguivel in their ranks, while they also had in their ranks
another luminary who had made his debut as a stripling the previous
year. This was of course Douglas de Saram who scored 21 and 42 in
his respective knocks and bowled 4 for 20 in the first innings of
Royal. We too had in our team a man who was going to make his mark
not only in the series, but in Ceylon cricket. This was E.
Weerasooriya one of the most popular figures known in the history of
the game at Royal.
Weerasooriya scored 2 and 27 in his debut, and
failed to take a wicket. In 1899 Prank Goonewardena captained St.
Thomas'—the match being played on Galle Face matting wicket and
consequently being left drawn. He had figured with fair success
previously but here he played a captain's innings of 45, while F. A.
Obeysekera had previously done best for Royal scoring 38. There was
little else of note in this match except that it brought D. B.
Gunasekara into the series. There was a reversion to the C.C.C.
ground in 1900 and Royal proceeded to show their appreciation of
this by winning by 3 wickets. In the Thomian ranks thereafter for
the third time Bonnie Jansz, one of the most correct and pretty
batsmen the Mutwal School of then, ever turned out.
Having by now arrived at the point of being
able to appreciate a good thing when I saw it, I recall easily how
delightfully he batted to score 30 and 24. Douglas hit a lusty 30 in
the second innings but could not save the side of which he was now
in charge. Weerasooriya led Royal for the first time and even thus
early it was considered impossible to beat him in strategy, and an
unerring ability to do the right thing at the right moment. He
scored only 3 and 19 and he took only I wicket for Is runs, but he
"captained" the side. The match was a triumph for F. A. Tirimane the
batsman, 55 and 13 both not out, and for D. B. Gunasekarathe bowler,
6 for 28 and 4 for 35 respectively.
To illustrate Weerasooriya's 'uncanniness' it
is only necessary to say that in the first innings he brought a slow
left-hander in H. A. Pieris to the crease to metamorphose the
innings while he took 4 wickets for 2 runs in 5 overs. Then in the
second innings he suddenly put J. C. Weinman on to the surprise of
everyone, and this bowler bagged 3 wickets for 14 runs! But
Weerasooriya was not done with the Thomians. The next year—my first
of three—saw him again set his wits successfully against Douglas de
Saram, who had made no secret of his intention to smash us up before
he finally left school. 1 know that four of us, newcomers to the
team, the late J. S. de Soysa, T. B. Panabokke, E. Joseph and myself
held these intentions in awe. We made 96 with Tirimane's 24 as the
best effort. When St. Thomas' batted Danny Gunasekara rose to great
heights and bov/ling the most impeccable length he was able to take
8 for 17 and have the Thomians out for only 57. Douglas made 24 of
these— the only double figure scorer, and his wicket did not fall to
"D. B." Weerasooriya kept that honour for himself and he gave
himself for only four overs. How he got rid of de Saram is worth
detailing. The batsman was naturally set by this time though he was
the only man doing anything, and when presently Weerasooriya served
up a half-volley he did what it asked for. We all looked round for
the inevitable boundary but were presently racing down on our
skipper. For bending his right knee down almost to the ground
Weerasooriya took and tossed up the bullet-like drive in the most
nonchalant manner possible. It was as great a catch as any I've seen
for the ball was travelling less than a foot above the ground.
We got 86 in our second knock, Keuneman scoring
36 and our captain 18, while Douglas and Amath took four wickets
each. Then came the last innings, and we were 125 in the lead, the
match looked good for us. After a poor start by St. Thomas' Douglas
and Sethukavalar sat down to throw "D. B." off his length and with
A.S. Eliyathamby also doing well to support his captain the hopes of
the Thomians began to rise. But the followers of this school counted
without Weerasooriya's resourcefulness. His stock of bowlers had all
been tried when quite suddenly he called up Percy Keuneman and
tossed the ball to him. The end came soon after, for, beginning with
Douglas, clean bowled for 28, Keuneman proceeded to send J. de
Livera and G.E.H. Arndt back with successive balls to register what
stands till today as the only hat-trick in the series. Weerasooriya
went on to win by 33 runs. Tirimane's year of captaincy followed and
the Thomians got more than even with us for our two repeated
victories over them. Douglas had stayed back another year to achieve
this and he did so convincingly. They beat us out of sight by an
innings and 9 runs, scoring 258 runs. If the truth of our rout is
told it will not redound to the benefit of Royal, but any suggestion
of mine here, does not detract for the deservedness of their
victory. A polished innings of 68 by L. H. de Alwis was the first
thing that went to the upsetting of our morale, and then Harry
Tringham came along to score 91 and put to rest by a long way the
record set up by Elmore Jayatilleke in 1895. Tringham had some luck
but it was an altogether fine effort especially as he was a
first-year man, and I remember even then thinking that it was a
great pity he missed his century. Tirimane 31 and 1,28 alone did
anything of note in our first innings, and in the second innings, it
fell to my lot to make best bid to stave off an innings defeat after
I had the mortification of seeing my captain with whom I went in
first, yorked by Douglas in the fourth ball of the opening over.
My last year at Royal was 1903 when I had
charge of the side and A. F. Molamure led St. Thomas'. The match was
a memorable one when the crowd rushed to the field. The exchanges
were fairly even right through. They scored 188 first, A. M.
Waloopillai 34, A. S. Eliyathamby 39, P. Daniels 36, E. F. Arndt 34,
(most of them off one over) and G. E. H. Arndt 20. all making good
runs. We replied with 153, R. S. Wijesinghe 32, J. C. Weinman 29,
myself 22, E. Ondatjie 20 and M. Anthonisz 18, being the chief
scorers. The Thomians then put up 116. G. E. H. Arndt and C. Meier
scoring 22, before Percy Daniels was let loose on us to score 40 not
out. Wanting 152 runs for victory we had put up 125 for 9 wickets
when play was interrupted and though there was an arrangement to
play an over the following morning this did not come off, and
ultimately on reference to the C.C.C. Committee, the match was
declared a draw. Following on his good showing in the first innings,
R. S. Wijesinghe, put up a great fight in the second being 41 not
out, and 'Baby' Dornhorst was smacking the bowling about for 14.
It is not for me to say what may or may not
have happened. There were some really remarkable matches that
followed hard on this but as I have suggested above, it is not
possible for me to give proper attention to any further.
(Reproduced from "
Royal-Thomian
Souvenir"—1932 by G. R. S. Gunasekara and E. W.
Goonawardena)
