Former rugby star Lionel Almeida dies

The death occurred yesterday of former Sri Lanka ruggerite, ex-SLRFU President and leading rugby referee Lionel Almeida.

Lionel Almeida started his illustrious rugby career at Royal College, Colombo for whom he turned out for three years from 1954 to 1956 captaining in his final year and went onto represent the Combined Schools.

He joined CR and FC in 1957 and turned out for the Longden Place club till the early 1960s before moving over to Dickoya Maskeliya Cricket Club.

He first donned the Sri Lanka Jersey in 1959 and turned out for the national team till 1967. The finest moment of his rugby career was in 1959 when he scored a scintillating try for Sri Lanka against the visiting Cambridge-Oxford rugby team.

He turned out for Dickoya with distinction for almost a decade as a full back helping them to emerge as a force to be reckoned with in 'A' Division rugby along with Tony Johnson, Manika Jayakumar, Mohan Samarasinghe and the famous third row of Chris Bean, John Bousfield and David Bretherton.

After hanging up his boots he took upto refereeing and rugby administration ending up as the SLRFU President in 1989-90 during which Sri Lanka had the honour of hosting the Rugby Asiad in 1990.

He coached CR and FC in 1984 helping them to clinch the Premadasa Trophy and also served as Technical Advisor to the Isipatana rugby team in 1978 and 1998.

His remains will be lying at A F Raymonds Funeral Parlour from December 15 (Wednesday) and the funeral will take place at General Cemetery, Borella on December 19 (Sunday) at 4pm.