Ronnie Stephen his original name goes as Ronald George “Ronny”Stephen, but popularly known as Ronnie, was one of the top class cricketers of St. Anthony’s College,. He passed away peacefully on October 25 at Aladeniya – Weralagama at the age of 87 years and was laid to rest three days later at the Mahaiyawa Cemetery Roman Catholic section .
He was a fine right hand batsman, played for St. Anthony’s College from 1950 to 1954 and was famous for scoring runs. St.Anthony’s College is a school which has been a major force in school cricket, they have produced some of the finest cricketers who have done the Kandy city proud by their achievements, and one of them is undoubtedly Ronnie Stephen. He was a technically correct batsman who strode the local cricket scene like a colossus and often reeled off good scores off any school attack. Every season he had been making big scores.
Those were the days when schools played only their traditional fixtures which numbered around eight matches per season. . It is said that never seen him sitting idle at training. He knows when he should go the extra yard with his batting, what works for him, what doesn’t. He has the record for making two centuries in the big match against Trinity College in 1952 and 1954.
He put on a memorable opening partnership with A.C.M. Lafir against Trinity College at Katugastota grounds in 1954. That was the year Antonian’s became the Unofficial Schools Cricket Champions and he carved his name in the cricketing annals.
Ronnie made his First XI debut as a 14-year old in 1950 under the captaincy of Stanley Jayasinghe and played out the full season with modest success, scoring a total of 110 runs in 13 innings with 18 as his top score. However, in the following year, Ronnie made a name for himself by scoring a faultless knock of 130 against St Benedict’s College at Katugastota and won his Colours for cricket and the Eagle, the highest honour awarded for outstanding achievement in sports.He went on to break further records in1952, becoming the first Antonian to score a big-match century at Katugastota, and also had the credit of scoring the first hundred against Trinity in 34 years, since Jack Anderson’s 111 in 1918. In addition to his 108(15 fours and 1 six) against the arch-rivals, He also had good knocks against St Josephs (48) and St Peter’s, where he put on 118 runs for the first wicket with A.C.M. Lafir and finished the season with 260 runs.
In 1954 he with A.C.M.Lafir set the record for the highest opening partnership in schools cricket. Ronnie scored 108 and A.C.M. Lafir 176 runs in a mammoth 266 opening stand and St Anthony’s made 399 for 7 wickets on the first day of the match that started at 1.30 pm. They declared the next morning and Trinity College was trounced by an innings. That year the Antonians were coached by Maurice Perera, Rev. Bro D.C. Macky POG, Rev. Fr D. Rosati, OSB Principal, and the team was made out of W. Premaratne,Tom Deen, A.C.M. Lafir (Captain), Ronnie Stephen, S. Doranagama, C.Perera, R. Doranagama, S Sivanandan, C. Rodrigo, N. Bernando, A. Berenger, J.Abdeen, G. Fernando S.A. Pamunuwa.
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