CENTURIES
OF BATTLE OF THE BLUES
My dream of childhood was realised
in the epoch making year of 1956. In the midst of blue flags, we were, the
young ones of Royal Primary watching their first Battle of the Blues at the
Colombo Oval. Our lust cheering, from the boundary lines were answered by
the flashing blades of our heroes, with a many a ball rollicking over it. T
Jothilingam rescued Royal from the pathetic position of 103 for six with a
fine 121. He had his match in Ronald Reid who made a breathtaking 158
eclipsing the batting record of 151 held till then by Norman Siebel.
Since then it has been a long wait
of seven years for me to make that precious walk to the strip at the centre
from the boundary lines. Every second of that memorable day is etched in my
mind, as I was able to witness the majesty of the blade of Vijaya
Malalasekera from the other end, whilst he went on to score a glorious 112
not out saving the day for Royal and establishing a record for the fifth
wicket which has stood the attempts by many a brilliant Royalist to date. I
was happy to partner Vijaya on that day which surpassed the record by the
legendary F C De Saram and F W Porritt established in 1931.
Royal was captained by S S Kumar
and St. Thomas by R.C. Morrell. The Thomians rattled up 254 for 9 and had
captured two Royal wickets for 11 runs by the end of the first day. Two more
wickets fell soon on resumption - they being the most reliable and
experienced S.S. Kumar and J.D. Wilson. When I took that walk to the centre
to join Vijaya, Royal were tottering at 42 for 4. He who had 23 from those
42 runs took the lead in building up the hopes of Royalists, scoring 46 by
the interval. After the break runs flowed from Vijaya's bat to all corners
of the ground, myself holding up the other end with Vijaya scor-^ ing 112
with 20 boundaries and a six. In 45 minutes after the break we had scored 84
runs bringing the total to 207 for 4, when Kumar called us in, I was 47 not
out and Vijaya 112 not our putting on our partnership of 165 runs for the
fifth wicket surpassing Saram and Porritts 134, a record they held for 32
years. This unbbroken record is 40 years (1963-2003). I was privileged to
witness, the brilliance of some younger Royalists and a Thomian in the
following years nearly a decade later.
Jagath Fernando played a captains innings in 1971 opening the innings racing
to 160 and declaring the Royal innings at an impregnable 295 for 2. Duleep
Mendis held the Thomians to reach 246 for 5 scoring a brilliant 103. Over
five hundred runs in two days speaks for the class of the batsmen the two
teams had.
Duleep continued the good work the
following year, scoring 184 and breaking the record of Jagath established in
1971. In the year 1972, games remembered for the debut-century made by
Jagath Pattiarachchi for Royal - a superb 100 out of a modest total of 194
for 5 by Royal.
Fourteen years later, in 1996, two
centuries from Royal made the Battle of the Blues a match to remember by
establishing a partnership of 254 for the 3rd wicket. A Polonowita (164) and
Y Dharmaratne (124) with their superlative batting helped to erase from a
memory drab first session.
The playing fields of Reid Avenue,
Oval and SSC along with these star performers rekindle a desire to rush over
the boundary, wherever we are in life.
Cedric M Fernando
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