BY
F. C. DE SARAM

I started watching Royal-Thomian matches In 1923 and was a spectator till 1927. I took part in the matches between 1928 and 1931. The results of these matches are available elsewhere and I shall not waste space setting them out. Suffice it to say that out of these nine matches we won six, S. Thomas' won two and one was drawn.

I shall deal with what are, perhaps, little known facts and what struck me in particular.

I joined the school in 1924 because I had failed the Entrance to the 2nd Form in 1923. My father gave me another chance the following year and I got in. Perhaps, if I failed again I would have tried to join St. Thomas'.

I remember the 1923 match only because of Henry Meedeniya's bowling and also because Cecil Dias caught and bowled Rudolph Jayatilleke with the third ball of the last over.

Henry Meedeniya had a beautiful high action. His pace could be described as medium-slow and he was ever so accurate.

Chippie Gunasekera later told me that Cecil Dias had asked Cecil Belleth to bowl the last over and that he had refused.

We lost the Royal-Thomian in 1924 and I believe that was the year In which we lost every match. I have heard there was dissension in the side.

The matches in 1925 and 1926 belonged to Neil Joseph. Up to that stage of my life I had never seen anything like his batting. He square cut or off drove, it struck me, as he willed. Of course, it must have been more scientific than that.

As a small boy I noticed in 1926 that Harold de Soysa and Neil Joseph took several wickets with leg spinners. Barney Gunasekara who was in the same Form as I was from the day I went to school until he took to science and I took to Arts perhaps, it was in the Upper Fourth, was already bowling leg breaks and googlies.    We discussed the matter and I started practising leg breaks and googlies and enjoyed some success with them.

Later my uncle D. L. de Saram advised me to give up slow bowling and to bowl as fast as possible, like he did. He said one did not have to practise bowling that way as much as one would have to do, if one was a slow leg spinner for that is the fate of the slow leg spinner. I can only say a good leg spinner often helps his side to win, and that on occasion he can be devastating.

Come 1927 and I was more conscious of the defeat that year than the one In 1924. My form began to set its sights on playing in the match.

            In 1928 there were two of us, Hilton Poulier and I, the others were all older than us.

In the Jubilee Match of 1929 there were four of us, George Hubert, Barney Gunasekara, R. Jeganathan and 1. The others, with the exception of my younger brother F. R., were all older than us.

In 1930 there were six of us, Barney Gunasekara, Gammon Labrooy, Russell Heyn, R. Jeganathan, H. S. R. Goonewardena and I with Sargo Jayawickrama and E. G. Labrooy older than us and Louis Mendis, A. I. Weinman and my brother younger than us.

In 1931 there were five of us, Russell Heyn, H. R. (Podgy) Vandort, H. S. R. Goonewardena. Gammon Labrooy and I. The others were all younger than us.

             I suppose that is the usual pattern of selection of school teams. Occasionally a boy is injured and cannot play in the Royal-Thomian. A. L. Gunasekara would have played in 1930 but he broke a finger and H. S. R. Goonewardena played instead. In 1931 my brother F. R. was diagnosed by a doctor as having a murmur in his heart and Podgy Vandort kept wickets in his place.

            As I pointed out there was only one draw in the nine games I have referred to. That was in 1928 but the match was very exciting with the Thomians struggling for survival with two wickets In hand after we had declared.

             In the Jubilee Match of 1929 at lunch time on the second day S. Thomas' had four runs to make to avert the follow-on with the last pair in. N. Kandiah's father was seriously ill, so he went home for lunch. When we walked out to field N. Kandiah had not returned. Sargo Jayawickrami as Vice-Captain was about to bowl when N. Kandiah ran on to the field with a shy smile of apology on his face. He then bowled out the last man in his first over and S. Thomas' followed on and we won a few minutes before time.

            In 1930 we won easily and the match could be called "Barney Gunasekara's match." The histories contain the details.

           In 1931, late on the second day the Thomians were playing for a draw. At the rate they were going they would have taken too long to get to 200 runs. We remembered that Chippie I Gunasekera had told us that a new ball always upset a batting side. We gave them the necessary number of runs by bowling wides on the leg side, each of which went for four. Very quickly we got the new ball and the chance we needed. Tom Rock got N. A. de S. Wijesekera who was our stumbling block, having made a brilliant century, and the rest went for very few. We made the] required runs just before time to win by 8 wickets.

          I shall attempt to give some reasons why drawn games were rare In those days.

         In my opinion this was the era of Chippie Gunasekera (L. D. S.) and to those who knew him, he represented a man who knew what he wanted and knew how to get it, observing at all times the spirit and the letter of the Laws of the game. He played in the first three games 1 referred to and I know he coached the team from 1928 onwards. I cannot remember what he was doing in 1926 and 1927.

        To put it shortly, it was reliably rumoured that Warden de Saram once prayed to his God that Chippie Gunasekera should be destroyed. Later, when he had met him, he confessed to me that he could not understand how he could have been such a wicked man, since he found him to be, an awfully nice little chap. But that was the extent to which his opponents feared and hated him j before they got to know him.

        As to how he helped me, one story will suffice. He told me I was unfortunate in that my family had a reputation for being bad fieldsmen and that I would be suspect in this regard. I was slow on my feet and he advised me to stand at first slip and never to take my eye off the ball, I had to catch my first two catches and then what happened did not matter. I believe that in due course I took my fair share of catches.

        So far as I remember, consequent on his advice, we gave very little away in the field. A j man was run out if he gave his opponents half a chance and very few catches were dropped. We were trained never to give two runs, if the shot deserved only a single and to cut off boundaries if humanly possible.

        These few paragraphs may contain the reasons why Royal was so successful in this era and why a drawn game was so rare.

        In 1979 we propose to play a 3-day game. Is this a sign of frustration and despair? ! trust that the cricketers of both teams will be determined to play for a win from the start.

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