BY CHRIS Dhambarage

St. Joseph's College will be all out to end a thirty three year long wait when they take on their traditional rivals St. Peter's College in their 71st annual inter school Big Match for the Rev. Fr. Maurice Le-goc trophy at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium starting today.

The Josephians have all the reasons to feel confident having maintained an unbeaten record in addition of registering nine outright victories in the current inter-school season. The last time they beat St. Peter's College was way back in 1972 under Rohan Fernando.

But this time they are all geared up to end a series of draws and to conclude the season in a spectacular manner. Their preparations for the all important Big Match has been quite outstanding and the most significant fact is that all their key players are in tremendous form.

Skipper Hashan Goonethileke has been getting some good scores in the limited overs tournament and their batting seem to have no difficulties in running up a first innings total of over 250 runs.

The Josephian batting will also revolve around Roshane Silva, Anton de Livera, Dhanuka Hettiarachchi and Ruwantha Fernandopulle.

In the bowling department they will have the services of two good fast bowlers Angelo Mathew and Christopehr Fleming and they will be backed up by the spinners Ranesh Perera and Rajeeva Weerasinghe.

The Peterites with a pretty ordinary season this year are under pressure to perform well with the expectations high on the senior players.

They have a tremendous task ahead of them having recorded just a consolation win over S. Thomas' College this season. But still they have some talented players in the side who could rise to the occasion with a matchwinning performance.

Shanaka Wickremasekera has been outstanding as an all-rounder and Dasun Randhika is probably their best batsman with a number of half centuries to his credit. They will also have the services of Lahiru Peiris the Schoolboy Cricketer of the year 2004 who has good experience behind him having captained the junior teams too.

The Peterites recorded their previous victory in 1978 under the captaincy of off-spinner Suraj Abeysekera. However St. Joseph's College lead the series with a total of 11 victories and St. Peter's College have triumphed on 7 occasions.