Wednesday, 4 February 2004  
The widest coverage in Sri Lanka.
Sports
News

Business

Features

Editorial

Security

Politics

World

Letters

Sports

Obituaries

Archives

Mihintalava - The Birthplace of Sri Lankan Buddhist Civilization

Government - Gazette

Silumina  on-line Edition

Sunday Observer

Budusarana On-line Edition





Shelley Blake here on a brief holiday

by Sharm de Alwis

Hot on the heels of my reporting that three past captains of Havelocks, Rajah Sumanasekera, Jeyer Rodriguesz and Jeffrey de Jong have been in town painting it a shade of red, I bumped into Shelley Blake on the telephone.

Shelley is also a past captain of the 'chocolate club' for which he first played in '54 under Basil Henricus, '55 under Dicky Ernst '56 under T.B. Pilapitiya, then under Letcho Ephraiums in '57,. Shelley's year of captaincy was in '58 when CR&FC led by Ashy Cader clinched the Clifford Cup.

The Capper Cup encounter of '54 in which Shelley played in his customary position of full-back was a closely contested game in which Colombo beat Up-Country by a razor's edge of 10-9. Summa Navaratnam, Ivan Diaz, Ago Paiva, Clarence Senanayake, Alan Drieberg, Devaka Rodrigo, Ashy Cader, H. Numan and seven ex-pats pitted their might and skills against Up-Country's Malcolm Wright, S.B. Pilapitiya and thirteen expats.

At the All-India Tournament of '54 held in Calcutta, Ceylon lost to the hosts 13-17 despite having in her ranks a powerful team comprising Shelley Blake, Anderson, McPherson, Dewing, Summa Navaratnam, Ago Paiva, S.B. Pilapitiya, Fraser, Drieberg, Maruice Perera, Vickers, Liddle, Numan, Ironside and Cameron.

What I remember best of Shelley's play have been his impeccable collections, his booming kicks and the crunching tackles he unleashed in the last line of defence. He had the guts and the glory for the man to man combat because he had, apart from having been groomed by the maestro Archibald Perera, represented St. Peter's and Shell in Boxing.

He had also been in the SPC athletic contingents and a Lance Sergeant at Cadeting. Shelley and his brother Willie of the perfect film camera had had their early education at Trinity before they joined SPC.

In those far-off days the Old Trinitians Vs the Old Royalists annual fixture was a game that even Selectors attended to pencil their preferences. SBP got Shelley to play for the Trinitians in a star-studded team of '54 which SBP, himself, skippered. The school, in the hills ran in victors and Ago Paiva, very much in jest, asked SBP whether he could play for Royalists in the following year, declaring his credentials as having been in the corridors of Royal when it rained.

I have known Shelley at close quarters, having worked together at Shell and many were the rapscallion incidents we got under way, including fisticuffs. And now, in the winter of our years, when I remarked on the indisciplined motorists he gave a nonchalant reply: "Didn't we do it all in our won youth? We rode our bikes on the wrong side of the rod and at times on the pavement".

Then I remembered. We did have a raw youth and how Shelley one night borrowed Reggie Byrd's Indian without the knowledge of the owner. An Indian, mind you, built on the grandiose line of the Harley Davidson and power-packed by nearly a thousand CCs.

Strong, sturdy Shelley on the seat and five of us perched precariously with even a small branch of a Christmas tree which we adoringly called the tree from Brooklyn, taking a late night film at the Empire and returning the bike to a snoring owner.

Shelley, like his brother Willie, always had a penchant for the outdoors. At the teen age of seventeen he journeyed down the Mahaweli and that had been my own cherished passion but Juggie Gunawardena couldn't tear himself away from the tea bushes he was tending tenderly.

So, another life span, same river.

www.lanka.info

www.continentalresidencies.com

www.ceylincoproperties.com

www.srilankaapartments.com

www.ppilk.com

www.singersl.com

www.crescat.com

www.peaceinsrilanka.org

www.helpheroes.lk


News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries


Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager


Hosted by Lanka Com Services