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DAY TO REMEMBER: What a thrill it will be for former Trinitian and Rugby Lion Dilshan Senanayake as he partakes in the Olympic Torch bearing Relay as a Torch bearer, running a 300 metre stretch in the Huntingdon precincts near Cambridge, London. His turn is today. He is one of three Sri Lankans to have been picked to carry the torch. They were selected from among over 150,000 nominees over a 12-month period with proven track records and accomplishments.

Dilshan, attached to John Lewis Finance was nominated for his role as a Coaching Champion and Mentor for John Lewis’s Partners in sport program (in association with Sports Coach UK). Through this program over 500 individuals have gone onto achieve coaching qualifications in a sport of their choice and are presently engaged in volunteer coaching in their communities.

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RUGBY: The sunshine that shone on the school rugby ecosystem in 1987 – 25 years ago to this very season – is worth recounting if anything to bring to the fore the quality and spirit of rugby that was, in schools such as Trinity, Royal, Isipathana St. Peter’s and Kingswood in particular and other rugby playing schools in general.

In the crucial games it boiled down to rabid, and yet healthy, rivalry between the Bonza-Bijja combination of Royal, the Tikka-Shah tactical Combine of Trinity and the Sudesh-Rambo Combo of Issipathana – all stars that radiated their brilliance. More on this later.

The Royal ’87 side was an exceptional team although the record shows that they lost to Isipathana and to Trinity. What the record masks is the high quality players and a terrific fighting spirit that the Royalists possessed. That team was captained by the finest of wing three-quarters in schools at that time, and an even finer young man, Suren Madanayake.

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RUGBY: With the sad news of the untimely passing away of Shafi Jainudeen, a collage of images and memories adorn the canvass in our mind’s eye.

For those of us who grew up with him and his family in Kandy, the story begins at Castle Street where his friends would visit the Jainudeen household often, ostensibly to keep Shafi company but in reality to admire-or “cap” as we colloquially called the exploit- his beautiful sisters Merl and Mazaya.

Papa M.S. Jainudeen was the live-wire of Soccer and its development in the Central Province.

His house-nay home-was the base for all things soccer, as budding soccerites from in and around Kandy would line up to gain from the benevolence of the soccer promoter. This was where Shafi was inducted to the art of caring for others. And he practiced this fervently.

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RUGBY: As many highly spirited revellers and others spirited highly, made their way through the early hours of this morning in Colombo, they surely would have recalled with reverence memories of the Rugby Greats from Royal and Trinity enshrined in the Bradby Pantheon. Unfailingly on each anniversary of the Bradby, there is one sportsman-I would say an Icon- who gets particular mention especially at the Royal re-unions. He is neither a captain nor a coach. He is neither a forward, a three-quarter nor a full back. He is Kadalay, the gentleman gram seller who through half a century of association with the school, was Royal’s flag-bearer; or for want of a better description, Royal’s Mascot.

If Kadalay belonged to Royal, it is equally safe to say that Royal belonged to Kadalay.

If that is a stretch, then one needs to explain why he was honoured by being the subject of a special Editorial in the Daily News of April 4, 1991 under the heading ‘Kadalay of Royal’ when he passed away. The Editor was the respected journalist Manik de Silva. One can hardly recall any head of school or staff in our time being honoured in this manner.

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RUGBY: The way Royal’s Captain Lakshman Kaluaaratchi led his team into Longden Place in 1962 wearing their Gold and Blue striped jerseys with the crowd exploding in cheers, it had all the signs of a Battle Royale. With a purposeful John Wayne cowboy gait and his hand ready for the draw, ‘Gunman Kalu’, as he is affectionately called, was ready for the rugby shoot out.

The Royalists had been warned by coach Mahes Rodrigo that when the Trinitians run into the field in their stunning Red, Yellow and Blue jerseys it will be so psychologically striking that opposing teams are already 5 points down! And Mahes would add: ‘You are the best, the game is in your hands and give it all you can.’

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RUGBY: When several rugby stars of yesteryear scrummed down in Washington DC for the inter school Rugby 7s last Sunday, it was a carnival atmosphere. Seventeen teams participated in the tournament organized by the Trinity Alumni Association of Washington. Some of the best known players in Sri Lanka Schools’ met at this Tag Rugby event.

It was preceded a fortnight earlier by a Rugby Festival played under floodlights against the stunning backdrop of the New York skyline. This event was organized by the Old Thomians in the New York region. In both events, the flagging talents of seniors were put to the test as well!

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RUGBY: In the galaxy of Sri Lankan Ruggerites Dr. Larry Foenander was a complete star a dazzling player, a shining leader, a trail blazing coach, a fair referee and, at 88 years of age, he remains a luminous gentleman. In his own words in Melbourne Australia “I am still standing, strong!”

Larry’s induction to Rugby was at Royal College where the constellation, in 1941, included such well-known names as Minoo Jilla, Miles Christoffelsz, EV Pieris, Summa Navaratnam, Gemini Salgado and the Aldons brothers.

And it was under Minoo’s captaincy in 1941, when Larry played, that Royal beat Trinity for the first time, after 21 years.

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SWIMMING: They called him the ‘Black Dolphin’! Conrad Francis’ performances were as breathtaking as they were artistic. Here was a ‘Dolphin’ who in his career minted Gold, Silver and Bronze as if he was running a precious metals commodities exchange! Two Golds in the 2003 Asian Games in Macau, China; two Golds, Silvers and two Bronzes’ at the 2004 South Asian Games in Pakistan; and a Silver and a Bronze in 2010 at the Games in Bangladesh. He was also the first Sri Lankan to swim the 100m Butterfly under 56.00 seconds in the FINA World Course Championship in Indianapolis, USA.

What is more, he held 111 National Records – yes, One Hundred and Eleven, lest someone thinks the number is a printer’s devil! And some of those records still hold.

The Conrad Francis story, as Captain of Sri Lanka Swimming in the years 2000 through 2006, is as fascinating as it is inspiring.

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RUGBY COACHES: They called him the “Small Giant” of Peterite Rugby. In those fabled rugby days when bigger giants bestrode the rugby scene, Archibald Perera took them on, head on and squarely. No wonder then that one of the bigger giants, Queen’s Counsel Noel Gratiaen, the CR & FC captain, decided that if you can’t beat ’em, recruit ’em! Such was the genesis of Archie being inducted into the winning CR side of the late 1930’s.

Archie was truly the mythical Hermes of Ceylon rugby, as it was then known. As one of the finest fly-halves in the country and being one of the first Ceylonese to play in what was an exclusive preserve of the British, he would trick opposing sides with his dexterity.

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RUGBY: It’s a penalty awarded some fifty yards out, far left and near the touch line. It’s a defining moment as the fate of the game hangs in the balance. The crowd hushes into a stony silence at Havelock Park as the kicker, the handsome full back, digs his heel into the ground in a calculated manner. He then places the ball with what seems as quadratic precision, working out the relationship between angle and velocity and distance. He steps back purposefully and confidently, eyes the distant goal posts, which seem miles away. He takes a deep breath and moves in swiftly and strongly. And kicks. It’s a Torpedo kick with the toe of his boot. There is poetry in motion as the ball defies the forces of gravity and sails, it seems, forever and then over the upright. The linesmens’ flags go up and there is burst of cheers and joy and lumps in throats. If he has done this once, he has performed this act many times before. Wonderment is enacted each time. The magic boot and toe, that fashioned that bullet-torpedo kick, was that of Trevor St. C. Anghie. Little wonder that he had such a double barreled name.

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