Kingswoodians and Rajans are all out to come out with this year's big mastch, their most looked forward sporting event, the game is held up due to corono. Big Matches are annual cricket matches played between schools, where some of them are playing for over a century, and big matches form an important part of modern culture with both school children and adults taking part.
The oldest in Kandy and 2nd oldest in Sri Lanka is between Dharmaraja College and Kingswood College. The first match was played in 1893, at the Bogambara grounds. It was not exclusively a schoolboy match as they included a few members of the staff from each school. The first all-schoolboy big match was played in 1899. Referring to a historic game, that was in 1960 - the big match ended in a tie and Kingwood’s Principal, Kenneth M. De Lanerolle, awarded the match to Dharmaraja having gone through the score book for better performance - although the scores were the same, Rajans had taken more wickets, not in catches and LBW’s, runs but in clean bowling wickets. If this happens today the principal will be chased out.
Kenneth M De Lanerolle was a keen follower of cricket, who was the principal of Kingswood College, was at this big match on the two days from the start to end at the Police grounds matting wicket. The match ended in a tie and he wanted the two score books, and after seeing the good work of Dharmaraja College awarded the win to them. Kingswood last pair batted all evening to draw the game. Everything looked set for a draw, when, in the final ball of the match, they went for a needless run. The ball was returned, the stumps were broken, but no one was sure what happened, as the crowds had already invaded the pitch. Kennth de Lanerolle was a stern man, with thick eyebrows and a solemn appearance. He was a man of letters, a master of literature, all set to be a leading, well respected educationist, and a much loved Principal of both Kingswood and one time at Wesley College. He promptly consulted the scores, and conceded the victory to the better performance by the Dharmaraja College.
This year’s game would have been the 114th, out of the 113 matches played so far, Dharmaraja leads with 33 wins against 19 by Kingswood with 61 matches ending in draws. The last win for Dharmaraja was in 2015 under Tharusha Weragoda and Kingswoods last win was in 1958 under Maurice Fernando.
When de Lanerolle took over Kingswood, it was 1957 and the school was still a small, closed off place, housing less than 700 boys.
In 1958 schools like Kingswood were taken over by the government. In that way, de Lanerolle was Principal at a very delicate point in the school as well as the country. when nationalist sentiments were brewing and massive changes were happening to our society and education, according to legend, De Lanerolle always spoke to a boy in English even when spoken in Sinhala.
His Principal’s log had been maintained in good, steady English until the language of administration became Sinhala. Then after, the log would go in good, steady Sinhala and he would, at an official capacity, address in Sinhala even when spoken in English. He was familiarly known to the Kingswood boys as “Lannie”. He had had the habit of routine checking the school’s classes every day, walking from block to block, past every classroom. De Lanerolle’s dog, who was familiar with the master’s route, would walk a few paces ahead, giving the mischief-making boys the trigger to get in shape. All this would later add to the legend of Kingswood, and its stern Principal of the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1918 Dharmaraja were all out for 9 runs, which to date is the lowest score in an innings in the series. This match was played on 15-16 March. Kingswood 1st innings 125 (V.E. Melder 0, S. Baie 15, H.A. Perera 13, R.W. Bartholomeusz 19, L.B.Herath 16, E.Dias 12, J.B.Murray 11, F.M.Abeyakoon 14, L. de Sylva 10, T.H. Cox 9 , H.M. Marikar 4 not out.) Dharmaraja 1st innings 9 (U. Banda 6, C. Fernando 0, C. Abeyasinghe 1, S.Abayakoon 1, C. Wijesinghe 0, C.G. de Silva 0, A.W.G. Perera 1, C. M. de Mel 0, A. Ratnayake 0 not out, M. Perera 0, C.Wimalasena 0) and 2nd innings – (U. Banda 0, C. Fernando 0, C. Abeyasinghe 2, S.Abeyakoon 13, C.Wijesinghe 25, C.G. de Silva 6, A.W.G. Perera 1, De Mel 4, A. Ratnayake 0, M. Perera 1, Wimalasena 8 not out.)
In 1951 Kingswood led by left-hander Shelton R. S. Perera, scored an exciting win over Dharmaraja. Needing to score ten runs in six balls and one run in two balls, which they did with a ball to spare. The winning stroke was hit by the captain himself. In 1952 Chandra de Silva scored 158 for Dharmaraja in the match played at Randles Hill. Asoka Perera scored 148 for Kingswood. The match ended in a draw. De Silva’s 158 was the highest individual score in the series to that date.
In 1956 the highlight of the drawn encounter was the bowling feat of M. Nizar of Kingswood who took 6 wickets for 48 runs. In 1957 Kingswood amassed 401 for 9 wickets with Maurice Fernando scoring 101 runs. Dharmaraja replied with 269 runs in the first innings. In 1958 - Kingswood defeated Dharmaraja by 10 wickets; this was the last time Kingswood defeated Dharmaraja. In this match Kingwood was captained by C. M. Fernando who was selected ‘the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year’. Dharmaraja was captained by D. D. T. Alwis. The Kingswood opening pair, considered the best amongst the schools, was Maurice Fernando and Herly Jayasuriya. They put on an unbroken stand of 102 runs in the second innings enabling Kingswood to win. Herly scored a brisk 50 while Maurice scored 43.
In 1959 C. Ratnavibushana scored 167 for Kingswood, surpassing the earlier record of 158 as the highest individual score. In 1964 the match was postponed due to rain. In the rescheduled game the Rajans were two runs short of victory when stumps were drawn.
In 1967 Kingswood skipper Tissa Jayathilake batting well with Mohan Kodituwakku, declared the innings still short of 9 runs of a century, which would have earned him the distinction of scoring consecutive centuries having scored an unbeaten 100 in the 1966 match. Another feature of this match was the bowling of left-arm spinner Sena Abeygunaratne, who took 7 wickets for 32, runs in the Dharmaraja first innings of 143 runs.
In 1976 and 1977 P. B. Wickremasuriya of Kingswood and Ajith Naranpanawe of Dharmaraja entered the record books by scoring centuries in both years thus becoming the only two players to score centuries in consecutive matches. In 1981 captain of Dharmaraja College Janaka Mendis registered an outright win over Kingswood College after 30 long years. The history is the highest individual score Senaka Dissanayake of Dharmaraja who made a double century in 1983 and for Kingswood Clifford Ratnavibushana is the highest scorer with 167 in 1959.
Add new comment