Sipping wine from a glass of water

SHARM DE ALWIS

Douglas Nugawela phoned me to say he had seen when he was a ten year old boy at Trinity’s Juniour school C.I. Gunasekera scoring a blitzering century at Asgiriya in 1938 or ‘39. With amnesia knocking on the front door of his octagenarian mind, he couldn’t remember the details except that it had been a pulverising assault on the Trinity who even had C. Dharmalingam of the double hat-trick and who would snatch 29 wickets in just four other matches.

I have never pretended to sip wine from a glass that contained only water and so I asked.

Rohan Madena the Manager of the TCK Old Boys’ Secretariat searched the records to find it had been 32 and 47 by CI. Then I asked the Prince of Denmark directly who told me, “Sharm, I can’t at times remember my own name and you ask me of what happened when I was a teen-ager. 32 and 47 would have been more likely because a century was never in my ethos as a schoolboy as it was with all cricketers of the era.

And then did my own memory go on a re-wind. S. B. Pilapitiya and Frank Sirimanne formed the best opening pair in the mid 40s when Frank told his partner that he had got 35 and was “retiring to go for a smoke.” Pilla threatened to clobber him after the match and so he stayed on and helped notch 120 for the first wicket.

Ronnie Reid hammered 158 not out in the Royal-Thomian of 1956 and it came on the heels of P. I. Peiris’ gallant 123 in 1953, a knock that propelled him into the All-Ceylon team. In the meanwhile there have been pedestrian centuries and the one that caused most yawns would be by the Trinity captain of 1954 had not Percy Balalle chipped in with a grand cameo of a half century.

To revert to the Royal-Trinity game of 1939, the impressive reading was that Trinity got 188 in the 1st innings on the back of S. B. Dissanayake’s 20, Beck Wright’s 40, stylist left hander Vernon Ratwatte’s 37, Douglas Aluvihare’s 24 and Dharmalingams’ 20 with the Royal captain E. F. E. de Kretser snaring 4 wickets for 36.

Royal’s answer was 147 with C. I. Gunasekera 32, E. Hubert 32, O. W. Wanbeek 28 and Brainerd snatching 3 scalps for 19.

In the second essay Trinity got 232 for 8 wkts declared with M. Kannanagara 84, G. P. Schoorman [captain and Lion] 68 not out, Douglas Aluvihare 26 and E. Hubert of Royal getting 2 wickets for 31 runs.

Royal played out time with 185 for 3 wickets with V. H. Gunasekera’s 50, C. I. Gunasekera’s 47 and E. F. C. de Kretser 67. Trinity sorely missed Dharmalingam.