Royal College hockey celebrates Golden Jubilee
 

by Richard Dwight

Royal College celebrates 50 years of Hockey this year. The game has been played throughout this period, which is certainly a milestone worth celebrating.

The game was introduced way back in 1955 at the tail end of J. C. A. Corea's stewardship as Principal. Since Cricket and Rugger were both team games, which were popular, then J. C. A. Corea was aware of the need for another team sport. He was instrumental in selecting his erstwhile friend and energetic colleague Lennie de Silva to handle this task.

Lennie de Silva set about this task in his usual meticulous manner. Being a sportsman himself having played Cricket, Soccer and Tennis during his school days at Kingswood and Government Teachers' Training College, he took up this challenge in a workman like manner.

Firstly he had B. S. de Silva and subsequently R. Kathiresan to help him and they responded with great enthusiasm. House matches were organised in order to introduce and popularise the game. Since at that time the game was played mostly at the Club level with the British nationals then resident in Ceylon leading the way.

Lennie de Silva then obtained the services of three outstanding Royalists namely Hugh Aldons who excelled in rugby having played cricket and rugby for Royal and represented Ceylon at rugby and hockey. The other being Budge Metzeling another sportsman of repute. Having represented Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known) at both rugby and hockey.

The third was Chandi Chanmugam another outstanding product of Royal who excelled within the four walls of the classroom and on the playing field.

He had a special affinity for hockey since his father the late Dr. W. R. Chanmugam was a well-known philanthropist; President of the Tamil Union a highly respected personality and was known as the father of Ceylon Hocky. Dr. W. R. Chanmugam spent much of his time and resources in promoting the game at Club level and International level when Sri Lanka came within the first five in Asia.

Chandi excelled at hockey when he played for Tamil Union and Government Services in the Senior Nationals where he captained both teams with distinction. Chandi gave much of his time from 1960 till about late 1965 coaching Royal and then again as Vice President of the Royal College Hockey Club since 1994. His invaluable contribution towards hockey at Royal is very much appreciated.

These three formed a fine team along with Lennie de Silva, B. S. de Silva, C. Kathiresan, R. M. D. Wickramasingha and T. Kirubaithilaken together they laid a solid foundation, which has withstood half a century.

Lionel Almeida an outstanding sportsman at Royal having played cricket, rugby and basketball for Royal was selected as the first captain of hockey in 1955. Others in the first team were K. Rajendran, V. Sri Skandarajah, T. K. N. Thilakan, J. D. S. Watson, A. R. Tampoe, D. S. Athuraliya, T. Kirubaithilaken, W. Vipulanandan, N. Ramanathan, G. D. Daniel and H. C. Rasiah.

In 1956 the team was led by H. C. Rasiah and the team comprised: T. Kirubaithilaken, Godwin Daniel, Lionel Almeida, T. K. N. Thilakan, J. D. S. Watson, V. Sri Skandarajah, R. K. Samarasinghe, A. R. Tampoe, W. Vipulananda, D. S. Aturaliya, N. Ramanathan.

In 1957 the team was led by Godwin Daniel and the team comprised T. Kirubaithilakan, H. C. Rasiah, N. Ramanathan, G. I. M. Vanculenberg, S. S. Wickramasinghe, A. R. Tampoe, M. L. Loos, M. P. C. Jaimon, H. N. Wickramasinghe, N. S. Kodituwakku, C. Kathiresan and N. Ramanathan.

During 1950 to the 1970 there were instances when Royal produced some outstanding sportsmen who played with distinction in more than one sport including hockey, They are:

Lionel Almeida - Rugger, Cricket, Hockey and Basketball (Captained Rugger and Hockey)

H. C. Rasiah and M. L. Loos - Hockey and Rugger

Nanda Senanayake - Cricket, Hockey and Tennis (Captained all three sports)

Lalith Senanayake - Cricket, Hockey and Tennis

S. C. Samarasinghe - Cricket, Hockey and Tennis (Captained Cricket)

S. D. Jayaratne - Cricket and Hockey

N. S. Kodituwakku - Cricket and Hockey

C. P. Samarasinghe - Hockey and Rowing

S. S. Kumar - Cricket, Hockey, Tennis and Table Tennis (Captained Cricket and Table Tennis)

Hamza Macan Marker - Cricket and Hockey (Captained Cricket)

L. A. D. Sirisena - Cricket, Hockey, Basketball, Athletics and Badminton

U. C. Jayasinghe - Hockey, Basketball, Athletics and Swimming

M. H. Subasinghe - Hockey and Basketball

P. N. W. Kannangara - Hockey, Basketball and Table Tennis

N. G. Pattikorale - Hockey and Rugger

H. D. Caldera - Cricket and Hockey

L. D. Ramanayake - Hockey and Badminton

Asita Jayaweera - Cricket and Hockey (Captained Cricket,

Eran Wickramaratne - Cricket and Hockey (Captained Hockey)

It is also recorded that Royal produced many talented hockey players, Some of them who excelled during school and afterwards are Harry Rasiah, Nanda Senanayake, H. N. Wickramasingha, K. N. Wimalaratne, Y. Wijayanayagam, M. H. Subasinghe, P. N. W. Kannangara, P. Ramanathan, T. Kirubaithilaken, R. Rudran, N. Mendis, S. S. Wickramasinghe, M. R. Pillai, A. P. de S. Wijesundera, S. J. Senananayake, N. Chellappah, M. Kumararatne all played for school as well as the University of Ceylon. S. S. Kumar was an outstanding sportsman of Royal who excelled in cricket, hockey and table tennis.

He went on to represent Tamil Union at cricket at the P. Sara Trophy and hockey at the Andriesz Shielf Tournaments. He was unfortunate not to have represented Sri Lanka both at hockey and cricket.

There was also the Sellayah brothers M. W. and S. P. who excelled in athletics and hockey and both played centre forward and was a treaty to watch, however their early demise cut short promising careers.

There was also Mahinda Illangage who captained in 1965 and played as full back and his deputy the crack centre half Nihal Nilaweera during which year Royal recorded their first ever win against their much fancied traditional rivals St. Thomas' by a solitary goal.

In 1968 they also had the mercurial centre forward M. I. de Silva Vice-Captain who led Royal throughout the season in the absence of the captain who was indisposed and went on to captain the Sri Lanka Schools in the same year against the strong visiting Bhal Mandal team from India.

In the recent times Royal produced some outstanding players like K. N. Kudagama who led Royal in 1995 led the Sri Lanka U-23 team, S. Gajanayake currently playing for Sri Lanka. Damith de Silva, Maduranga Boteju, V. Jayaprakash, Manoja Gunawardane, Mahesh Jayawickrama, M. A. M. Shihar to name a few. The Royal hockey is indebted to Rohan Dissanayake their coach for the excellent manner he has handled the teams of all age groups.

The Royal College Hockey Club, which was formed in 1990 with Chandi Chanmugam and Lionel Almeida at the helm. Since the inception the club has made an immense contribution towards the game at Royal. The club committee is very active and also organises the annual Singer Blue & Gold Schools Hockey Sevens, which attracts all schools in the Island including teams from Jaffna.

They also have their annual fixtures played for trophies namely J. C. A. Corea cup against Trinity, Orville Abeynaike Trophy Vs S. Thomas' Mt. Lavinia and Lennie de Silva Trophy Vs Kingswood College, Kandy.