Kandy Sports Club continue their dominance in Clifford Cup tourney

S M Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Spots Corr

Kandy Sports Club once again proved that they are a dominant force in the field of rugby when they annexed the coveted Clifford Cup for a record 18 times during their chequered history when they beat Havelocks Sports Club 10-5 at the Bogambara Stadium, Kandy on Sunday.

By a strange quirk of fate Havelocks Sports were the first winners of the Clifford Cup when they won it in 1950 when it was on offer for the first time. They repeated this success in 1951. They had to wait for ten more years for their next title win in 1961 during an era which was mostly dominated by CR and FC.

The first winners of Clifford Cup have won it 11 times and their last win coming in 1981 exactly 31 years ago when most of the players from the present team would not have been even born.

CR and FC who were a major force could be termed as the dominant force till 1991 when they have been winning time to time totting up in all 13 wins. Twice CR and FC had performed the hat-trick of wins winning 1954 to 1956 and again from 1987 to 1989 during the troubled days of insurrection. These six wins helped them to tot up 13 wins in all. Their last win was in 2006 when the defending champions Kandy Sports Club did not participate. Dimbula Athletic and Cricket Club though fielding very strong sides have been successful only once by winning the Cup in 1953 and they shared it with CR and FC in 1959. But with the exodus of the British planters during that time saw the downward trend of rugby at Dimbula though they won the league title in 1970.

Police have shone briefly when they first won the Clifford Cup in 1970 as a ‘B’ Division and they have won it in all five matches the last one in 1991 which signaled their end and the beginning of Kandy Sports Club’s success streak.

Army and Air Force have won it once each. On three occasions the Cup had been shared.

Once by CR and FC Dimbula (1959) than Police-Havies (1970) and the last time was in 1973 by Army and Police when the present tie breaker system of ‘sudden death or penalty kicks at goal was not known.

Came 1992 and the present Clifford Cup champions Kandy Sports Club had been just ‘also rans’ upto that time not winning the title though they figured in four Cup finals but always the second best, never the winners.

They were unlucky not to have won it in 1954 when the finals was played at the picturesque Darrawela grounds where the local interest was not there. Kandy Sports Club first won the Clifford Cup in 1992 and there was rejoicing in the town as the ruggerites were taken around the town in an open truck followed by a motorcade by a hand of grateful rugby fans led by their famous cheer leader I Kwang popularly known as ‘Cheena’ a much loved name in Kandy and dreaded by those opposing Kandy.

Kandy won the Clifford Cup again in 1993 but lost it to CH and FC in 1994. They scored their first hat-trick of wins from 1995 to 1997. There was no tournament in 1998.

When the tournament was resumed in 1999 they continued their winning streak by lifting the Clifford Cup from 1999 to 2005 by winning it for seven years in a row.

But in 2006 they pulled out of the tournament as a mark of protest for unfairly shifting the venue from Kandy to Colombo without any plausible reason. When status quo was restored in 2007 by former DIG Nimal Lewke as the President of the SLRFU Kandy Sports Club was back in the saddle to continue its winning sequence from 2007 to 2012.

They have the record of having the longest sequence of wins seven years in a row and now they have won it six times in a row. In all they have won the Clifford Cup for a record 18 times.