The Blue And
Gold From Outside
When I was asked to contribute an
article for this publication, my first question was, why me? After all, I'm
not a Royalist let alone a Royal cricketer, and for that matter, thankfully
I am not even a Thomian. After a bit of thought it dawned on me that the
fact that I had attended every Royal-Thomian except one match, since the age
of 5 could be a reason for this. This is no mean feat when you consider that
I have attended 40 Royal-Thomian matches.
Attending the Royal-Thomian when I was a child was virtually a family
ritual. This I suppose was a result of being born into a "Royal family." In
this case it was a bit more than just a Royal family as so many in mine had
been Royal cricketers. My mother's father and only brother had not only
played for Royal but had captained the College team. My father on the other
hand was one of three brothers who had played for Royal. Coming from such a
strong cricketing background, although I had no brothers to play for Royal,
my sisters and I grew up surrounded by all things Royal. So it was only too
natural that we supported The Blue and Gold and I guess I went head first
into it.
For
us in those days the match fever began approximately a month earlier with my
father playing a key role of announcing the dates, ensuring we fly the
college flag whenever we travelled in the car and instructing special blue
and yellow clothes to be made for the match every year. My father who lived
out station arrived in Colombo a couple of days before the match heightening
the sense of anticipation in our young minds.
When
I was a child the Royal-Thomian was a two day match played at the Oval. Till
I was about 10 years old I only went to the match after lunch on the first
day as my grand mother would insist that I couldn't miss school. "Match
Friday" was an exciting day in school with hardly any work being done as
everyone was more interested in the trucks and the boys who always seemed to
lose their way near the girls' schools. When school closed at lunch time it
used to be a mad rush through all the "match activity", as we made
our way from Visakha to a home of a relation in Wanathamulle, where we had a
quick lunch and a change of clothes before arriving at the match prior to
the tea break. Hence the first highlight would be the two parades of the
school boys round the grounds during the tea break- the Royal parade greeted
with vigorous waving of flags and the Thomian one with shrill shrieks of "Parippu"!
My
recollections of the match in those early days are a haze of loud music and
singing, trumpets being blown, cheering intermingled with occasional
jeering, school boys with blue & gold and blue & black flags parading round
the grounds and invading the field on and off and every one taking it in the
spirit of the game. I don't recall any scary looking security personnel in
black, barbed wire fences separating the school boys from the rest of the
spectators or loud commercial music blaring from amplifiers.
After
reaching the mature age of about 10,1 insisted that I had to be at the match
from Friday morning itself. My father was only too willing to agree with me
and took great pleasure in writing a letter of excuse for absenteeism in
school stating that I "had to" attend the Royal-Thomian. During this period
there were a couple of times that I had to be "smuggled in" (as my father
used to call it) to the match with the rest of my family due to the shortage
of tickets. The match was always keenly followed, and every four, six, and
fall of wicket were duly applauded specially with a bias to the Royalists.
Those were the days of "hang all the Thomians on the kadju puhulang tree",
"one two- thattoo", "Santha Thomasge-Patashalave" and when the word Thora
was quite rightly only followed by parippu.
In my
teenage years I attended the Royal-Thomian with my cousins or school
friends. During those years there were quite a few matches played around us
other than the one in the middle. Many were the catches caught and dropped,
quite a few bowled out, the occasional stumping and mercifully no LBWs. Many
were the times where a poor younger brother or cousin was persuaded to
convey a message to an identified "hot guy" with the occasional slip-up of
the message being conveyed to the wrong person. The ensuing drama had to be
intricately handled in order to avoid unnecessary confusion. These were the
days when the College stewards in their straw hats were pelted with edible
missiles, many Thomian flags flicked, the Royal team cheered till our
throats were hoarse, got hooted by the Thomians when Royal lost the match
and even being carried on the shoulders of boys while I waved the Royal flag
following a famous Royal victory. Through all this action the match was
keenly followed with even the score card in the souvenir filled in as the
match was being played. Whatever happened, the primary reason for being
where every teenage girl in Colombo wanted to be, was to follow the match.
Then
confirming the controversy I had always been, I married a Thomian! The
silver lining to this dark cloud was that he was a Thomian and not a Thora.
After this, followed the years where I steadfastly supported Royal while my
Thomian husband supported his school. This resulted a few years later with
my then 8 year old daughter making the wise declaration that "girls who
support Royal should marry Royalists." This was uttered when she was
supporting S. Thomas' more in an effort to help her father out than anything
else. Very soon her support changed course without much ado, as by then her
brother-who fortunately was a Royalist- provided her enough opportunities to
savour supporting Royal.
To
date I attend the annual big-match but now I'm accompanied by my daughters
who are quite amazed when I tell them to wave the flag more vigorously and
to cheer louder while my husband discreetly sits some distance away.
Hopefully they will soon understand that, 40 years of watching the Royal
Thomian does do something to you. I have gone through the stages of being
asked by other curious spectators whether I am there to watch my brother or
whether I am there to watch my son, to which my reply has always been that I
am there to watch Royal.
Watching so many Royal- Thomians
has been a unique experience for me.
At each phase of this experience I have learnt to appreciate and enjoy
something different. But more than anything else it has given me the
opportunity to witness and enjoy many a record breaking performance of true
Royal spirit and mythical Thomian grit.
Mrs. M. Wickramasuriya
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