Hockey is to be revived by the present committee headed by R. Maheswaran and his committee. Kandy, the hill country capital, is where hockey was first played, with a proud record of producing some of the top national hockey players and captains both men and women. Hockey in Kandy dates far back as far as 1907, when the Indian Rajput Regiments occupied the Kandy Military Barracks, currently known as Police Barracks. During that time St. Anthony’s College was housed at the present St. Sylvester’s College premises and they used the barracks square for all their sports. The boys of that era felt drawn to the game themselves and tried their hand at knocking the ball around with a borrowed stick or two. The fearless youngsters found some places vacant whenever the military men did not turn up for their games. Gradually, more boys found the glamour of the game irresistible and in a matter of few months threw down the gauntlet themselves and were soon at grips with the Indian Military men.
Glancing through some old records, the first “Bully Off” in Kandy was in 1907 at the Bogambara grounds, when the Kandy Sports Club and the Industrial School Team met. The leaders of these two pioneer clubs were Europeans, S.R. Hamer and R. Sparks. These two clubs played regularly and had opposition from the Regiments stationed in Kandy.
The Kandy SC packed with European planters, also met Dimbulla ACC and Dickoya MCC. Somewhere in 1910, a new club was formed, the Kandy Rovers. They had the Vanlangenberg brothers Hugh and Lloyd, Wicky and Percy, all first class players. In addition, they had Edwin Boulton, a teacher at Kingswood College, and H. John Gaye a teacher at SACK.
Charlie Hamilton was a little 10-year-old prodigy from SACK, who played at centre-half. This lionhearted midget had learned the game the hard way, in the company of the Indian stalwarts. That year, a team from Kandy travelled down to Colombo to play against Colombo Municipal Council and Bloomfield C & AC. The first match was drawn 1-1. The hero of these two games was Charlie Hamilton, whose display had evoked repeated rounds of applause. The anti-climax of this was that, following the team’s return from Colombo, Charlie suddenly took ill and died on Nov.5, 1909 after which, the game too, died a natural death.
Once again in 1926, Kandy SC with Europeans, started a tournament. It was revived again in mid 1930s when P.T. Rajan stepped in to re-introduce the game to the schools and clubs along with M.S. Jainudeen. V.D. Paul and J.O. Mendis. At that time only a hand full of clubs showed interest. As the years rolled by hockey flourished in Kandy with several schools in and around Kandy taking to the game. During the World War a large number of clubs and schools including foreign teams played in Kandy. Hockey in Kandy was well organized with local tournaments in full swing. In 1944, the Kandy District Hockey Association conducted one of its finest tournaments where 14 teams participated in the league. Kandy Rovers had the distinction of winning the league championship and also played that year in the Connor Cup and the Andriesz Shield tournaments in Colombo.
In 1950 P.T. Rajan presented a trophy named the P.T. Rajan Cup for the league tournament. Matale who played in the Kandy League, were gradually making their presence felt and won the league championship under George Mant, the man who took hockey to Matale from Kandy.
As years rolled by hockey flourished in Kandy with several schools in and around Kandy taking to the game. During World War II, a large number of clubs and schools, including foreign teams, played in Kandy. For the good service done by late Rajan, H Marikar who was the Sports Committee chairman of the Municipal Council named Wewalpitiya grounds, popularly known as Rakade grounds, as PT Rajan grounds, which most have forgotten now.
There is an old Antonian who was involved in Hockey, P. Thangavelu, who was on the staff of St. Sylvester’s. He has now passed his 90s and knows the entire history of Kandy hockey. He says, during that era, the high standard of hockey was because it had tournaments. Some of the people who kept the game going were Rev Fr Robert M. Perera, S.R. Hamer, G.H. Robinson, K. de Lanerolle, P.T. Rajan, Dr. V.H.L. Anthonisz, George de Saram, Fr. Dom George, Dr. Samad Ismail, R.B. Wijekoon, P. Thangavelu, E.L.Fernando, Leslie Handunge, later people like Paul Jeyaraj, B. Kiridena, I.M. Anwer, Roy de Silva, Rohan Wijenayake, M.D. Rupasinghe, Lakshman Seneviratne DIG, H. Marikar, Aroos Salimdeen, Malcolm Perera, R. Maheswaran, M. Ashroff and G.G.Dharmaratne.
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