Get-together at CR&FC today:
Trinity College’s Bradby Shield winning team will get together today at CR & FC to celebrate that famous victory 50 years ago, a day before the 2nd leg of the Bradby.
Celebrating this landmark will be the players who are in and around with their families. Ajith Abeyaratne who captained the winning side of 1967 is one of those involved in organizing the 50th anniversary reunion. Every player who was involved in that team, and who are living today are very much looking forward to their reunion.
One of the players of the team who is in Kandy is Iswan Omar. Recalling fond memories of that year will be the main tropic at this get together.
Abeyaratne who was the leader of that 1967 team has made all arrangements for this celebration. Whenever the Bradby Shield rugby encounters between Royal and Trinity are discussed Abeyratne’s indomitable and invincible team of the 1967 is bound to figure quite prominently.
This year, its 50 years since Abeyratne led Trinity College that created history in this time immemorial series. It was the year (1967) in which Trinity was unbeatable and were able to carry all before them. Royal was beaten in both legs of the Bradby Shield - 16-3 and again 17-3 – a record for Trinity since the inception of the series in 1945 until 2005 when with the change in the points system in 1992 Trinity won 33-7 and 36-6.
In 2007 Abeyratne was the chief guest for the Kandy leg. He excelled not only in rugby at school but also in other fields of sport like cricket, basketball, athletics and tennis. He attended Trinity from 1956 to 1968; he captained the unbeaten rugby team of 1967 and the following year was awarded the Lion. He also won the ‘Ryde Gold Medal’ for best all-round student which is the highest award at Trinity. He also led the Combined Schools team and played cricket for his alma mater from 1966-68 and won the best bowler’s prize in 1968. Against Royal he scored a century in 69 minutes off 62 balls that included 11 fours and two sixes.
Some of the players in the 1967 rugby team were Ajith Abeyratne (captain), Shafie Jainudeen, Iswan Omar, Gamini Udugama, Alex Lazarus, Stephen Paul, Anil Siriwardene, Dudley Dissanayake, Mahendra Thalwatte, M. Affif, Errol Warne, Mohan Balasuriya, Jadi Dissanayake, Gogi Tillakaratne, B. Shanthi Kumar. N.T.B. Dassanayake, Ranjan Nadarajah, Rafi Ismail, Mark Sundaralingam and Prince Nayagam. The coach was Lt. Denzil Kobbekaduwa and the Principal was C.J. Oorloff.
After leaving school Ajith went to Colombo and played cricket for CCC and rugby for CR & FC. He led CR and FC from 1968-1974 and also played for Low Country and the Country 1968-1971. Later he was CR & FC and national rugby coach from 1985-87, when Sri Lanka entered the Bowl finals twice in 1986 and 1987. He was national selector and director of coaching of the (SLRFU) for many years during the nineties. He also coached St. Peter’s helping them emerge champions in 1995 and guided them to the final in 1996.
0 comments:
Post a Comment