H D R PERERA - the heaviest puncher, pound for pound

Sharm de Alwis

He would take you out with just one punch to the solar plexus. It happened to three of us one afternoon at Fort's YMCA, the epicentre of Boxing in the 1950s.

He swayed to the left and then to the right. And then he brought in the vicious steam hammer left with unerring accuracy to the solar plexus. As I stayed in paralysis, he took on Hilary Seneviratne, brother of stylish Errol to deliver the same coup de grace even as they squared up. Hilary was then a Bantam weight whereas Reggie was a fraction over the Pin weight.

Reggie's next victim was Newton Marthalingam, a robust Featherweight who was then a front row forward in the CR&FC 'B' team. The same sway and delivery and Newton too was doubled up in intense pain. 'Brute' Mahendran wanted to take him on. Reggie was game. I had just regained myself to dissuade Reggie. 'Brute' was the reigning National Middleweight champ, having won the title in one day of glory when at 2.00 p.m. he won the National Putt Shot title, at 5.00 p.m. was in the CR&FC team that beat combined Dimbulla/Dickoya for the Clifford Cup championship and at 9.00 p.m. was declared the Middle weight champ.Reggie was a puny cross between Pin and Fly.

H D R Perera had been too good for his weight at St Thomas' wherein he had pulverized Ivor Geddes after conceding fifty pounds in weight. At the Mercantile Championships, he floored the National Flyweight champ, Anton John, with just his trade mark blow. It is a pity that Reggie never took seriously to Boxing to learn the finer points and to stay hundred per cent in physical fitness or else he would have represented the Country at the Melbourne and Rome Olympics and brought home the laurels.

Reggie was also a hockey play of repute. He was a poolist with the National team when Mylvaganam, Brian Assey, Anamali Nadarajah and Freddie White were team mates, displaying exhilarating stick-work that had Ceylon as the third best in the sport after India and Pakistan. Reggie, with his turn of speed, played left extreme.

But his forte was Athletics in which he was second to Maurice de Silva in the Long Jump but always 1st in the Triple Jump.He beat even Rafer Johnson of the US, the reigning Decalathon champ.

He won the title three years on the trot but lost the Cup because the President of the period wished to have a replica made before surrendering it to the three time champ. Reggie never got it back.

With advancing age and living between Toronto and Colombo he took to Bowling. He joined a small League close to where he lived and was delighted to be declared the Most Valuable Player for his team in one year.

Reggie lives the Winter in Sri Lanka and goes to Canada when the rivers flow, freed from ice. But every year, come snow or shine, he is here to watch the Royal-Thomian cricket.