Remembering early years of Bradby Shield

Coming Saturday the cards are stacked heavily against the Trinitians and the Royalist who are sure to present a good game of run and pass rugby for which both schools are famous. This will be the first leg of a two game.

This writer goes back to the 1948 game where Royal beat Trinity for the first time in Bradby. It took three years for Trintiy College to beat Trinity College after the Bradby Shield was presented. These two schools have been playing since 1920 and have produced a galaxy of national players, coaches, referees, and administrators.

These two schools first scrummed down on July 31, 1920. Trinity College had no problem they won all their matches from1920 to 1940. Then in 1926 and 1927 there was no rugger at Royal College, in 1929 they did not play. Trinity College played only with Zahira College. The first ever win for the Royalist came in 1941 under the captaincy of M.N. Jilla.

Till 1944 there had been twenty two games out of which Trinity won nineteen and Royal three. During the War all schools had to ‘forget’ rugger. The principal of Royal E.L.Bradby initiated a two match series and the Trinity principal at that time was C.E.Simtharchchi who agreed and then came the Bradby shield in 1945, to the team that scored the highest aggregate in both legs. The first leg was kicked off in Colombo in 1945 and Royalist led by C.D.L. Fernando beat the Trinitians led by Robert Sourjah 3-0. The scoring was done by F.D. Schockman. Then came the second leg in Kandy.

Trinity were able to score 6 points and win the Bradby in the inaugural year, the second leg was captained by S.B. Pilapitiya. Later in 1946 Trinity under S.B. Pilapitiya beat Royal led by Mahesh Rodrigo, in the first leg which went in favor of the Royalist 3-0, and the second leg Trinity won 8-0. In the 1947 game, G.Shanmugam guided Trinity to beat Royal led by N.W. Karunaratne. Trinity won the first leg 6-0, and the second leg was a nil all draw.

Every time this game of Bradby is played in a friendly manner where the coaches, old boys have refereed this vital game with no problem from either teams or their officials. The first Bradby wining team under the watchful eyes of former Royalist Sidney G de Zoysa a Police Officer.

A product of Royal College where he excelled in rugger. Later he played for Police SC, CR & FC from 1928 to 1940, Led CR & FC in 1934 and 35. Sydney joined the police in 1931 as an ASP, at a time when the high ranks were the monopoly of the Bristishers and rose to the rank of DIG.

He was clean and a tough Police officer and a superb sportsman, excelling in rugger, athletics, cricket, boxing and polo. He played for Royal in 1928 under H.S. Roberts. His team mates were E.G.Labrooy, R.E.Blaze, W.E.Eliyathamby, T.F. Jayewardene, E.R.M de Fonseka, L.K de Fonseka, L.D.Munaweera, J.W. Searasingeh, C.F.Roberts, S.W.S.W.Dassanayake, L.Jinendradasa, R.G.W. Paulusz and N.W.Weerasinghe. That year Trinity were led by M. Kin Maung who beat Royal by 23-6. A few days after the Bradby, captain of Royal Ashroff “Ashley” Cader received a Telegram – via Cable and Wireless Ltd – (Best Congratulations to Royal Fifteen on Double Victory over Trinity.

Trinity Team – D. Ratwatte, D.L.P Pakstun, S. Ellepola. L.D. Williams, L.V. Wadsworth, T.B. Pilapitiya, Lakshman Kadirgamar, C,.B. Halangoda, L.N. Panaboke, K. Armugam, C.J. Senanayake, A.R.A.Mohamd (Capt), H.L. Fernando and S.S. Bambaradeniya.