EVOLUTION OF THE BATTLE
Cricket
it seems, has been played in some form or the other, since the latter part of
the 18th century. The first reference to cricket being played in recorded
history is that of the game being played between Prince Edward and his friend
Piers Gaveston. The first recorded match however took place at Coxheath in Kent
in 1646, and the first county match was played between the Londoners (Middlesex)
and Kentish on 29th June 1709 at Dartford Brent.
The
Hambledon Club, a small club in Hampshire, brought attention to the sport, as
they challenged the larger clubs with a run for their money. Their historian,
John Nyren, wrote prose literature on the subject of cricket. This team played
its final recorded match in 1793 at Lord's in London, the most important cricket
site in cricket history. Lord's was begun in Dorset Square as a private cricket
field by Thomas Lord, a Yorkshire man who bowled for the club. In 1813, the club
was moved from its second location at St. John's Wood to its present field.
However, the original Dorset Square turf was re-laid with each change. The
Marylebone Cricket Club, (MCC) with Lord's as its 'home base', is considered the
international cricket authority.
Incidentally,
this was also the period in which the game slowly spread to it's colonies. By
the end of the 19th century, Cricket was played by both Oxford and Cambridge,
and indeed, it was because of two Cambridge blues that the first Inter
Collegiate match came to be played. We see that Mr. Ashley Walker, the Assistant
Principal of the Colombo Academy suggested to his Thomian counterpart. Reverend
T. F Falkner that an annual inter school match be played. Thus in 1878, the
first match was played on the Slave Island Green, with players going across the
Beira Lake with their cricket gear and luncheon baskets. What was most notable
about this match was that many of the staff played in
it as well. Mr. F. Stephens another
Cambrian, played for Thomas' as did Reverend Moyrick. The former had played for
C.C.C and several European teams as well. He later coached and supervised
Cricket at S. Thomas' for many years.
The first match played exclusively by school boys took place in 1880 however, and it is at this point that our scorebooks, as well as the true spirit of the Royal Thomian commences. The Galle Face Green thus became the starting point of 125 years of traditional rivalry. It is said that in the early years matches where umpired by the Warden and Principal of the respective institutions. Proof of this can be found in the Great Inter-Collegiate Match photograph of 1909 where we see Warden W.A. Stone and Acting Principal Lewis Walker posing in umpires clothing beside the players. In still later years, famous coloursmen of the likes of D.L de Saram, Frank Ondaatje, M. Saravanamttu, C.W Van Geyzel reportedly acted as umpires. Eventually however, at the request of both parties, umpires were appointed from the Umpires' Association. Thus, the early part of the 20th century saw the evolution of the basis of today's Royal Thomian. Over the next 125 years, the match transformed very little. The venues have changed, the pace of the game has been upped, but the spirit is stands unmoved.
Although the national cricket scene of today is miles ahead of what it was when the Royal Thomian first came into being, the Big Match, is without a doubt, the most eagerly awaited fixture of the season. 125 unbroken years of play, also makes it the longest, continuous fixture between any two institutions anywhere in the world. For more than a century, the Royal Thomian was the very essence of cricket in Sri Lanka. Indeed for many of us, it still is.