Categorized | Sports

Some Interesting Trivia of the Joe-Pete Series

Posted on 12 March 2014 by admin

SPC OBU LOGOJOE – PETE – Some Interesting facts Unlike any other Big Match the Joe-Pete is unique in that it not only is between two Catholic schools but between two schools of which one was created by the other. So it is inevitable that there are many relationships when it comes to this Big Match, which is known as the Battle of the Saints or simply the Joe-Pete.


BY: ALGI WIJEWICKREMA – EDITOR, SPC-OBU


Rev. Fr. Maurice Le Goc who was responsible for the creation of St. Peter’s which began as St. Joseph’s College, Colombo South in 1922 decided that there should be a traditional “Big Match” played between the schools and the series began in 1933, by which time the new school had assumed its new name as St. Peter’s College. Rather than going into the history of the series, my intention is to highlight the unique relationships that have existed in this special big match series and instead of giving the facts in one lengthy post, I’ll give them in short bursts so digesting will be easier.

First it is about a couple of cricketers who played for both Colleges, so I can’t call them Josephians or Peterites (I wonder what they call themselves). These two unique individuals are: Douglas Moreira who played for St. Joseph’s in 1933 and then switched sides to St. Peter’s to play in 1934. The other was Keneth R L de Silva who did it the other way round in the same years i.e. playing for St. Peter’s in 1933 and then switching over to play in the 1934 Josephian team. Now to the relationships and it is about fathers and sons who captained their respective Colleges. St. Peter’s had George Jayaweera captaining that inaugural Josephian-Peterite big match in 1933 and his son Ruwan Jayaweera captained the Peterites in 1974.

Then come two Josephian father-son combinations in Hector Perera (Snr.) who captained the Joes in 1939 and his son Hector Perera (Jr.) who captained the Joes in 1970 and then in 1968 there was Lalith de S Wijeratne captaining the Joes and his son Anuk de S Wijeratne who captained the Josephian side in 2001. With many more relationships to write about let me stop here for now and continue bit by bit as we approach the 50 over game on 15th March.


PART II

JOE – PETE – Some Interesting facts

As mentioned in my previous post, many relationships exist when it comes to the Joe-Pete series and today let me share with you some gen about brothers who played in the series.

First to brothers who captained and St. Joseph’s had six sets of such brothers while St. Peter’s had three.

From the Joes, there was Joe Perera who captained the team in 1951 and Rienzie Perera in 1953, Mahinda de Silva in 1955 and Raja de Silva in 1961. Incidentally Raja de Silva is the present Chairman of the Josephian Cricket Foundation. Then there was Lalith de S Wijeratne who captained the Joes in 1968 and his brother Manik who captained in 1971 and Asela Pathirana captained the Joes in 1995 while his brother Danuka Pathirana was the skipper of the 2001 team. However Danuka could not play in the Big Match as he was on an overseas tour.

Continuing with the Joes, there was Trevin Mathews who captained the 1997 team while his more famous brother Angelo Mathews, the current Sri Lanka Captain – and a very successful Sri Lanka captain at that, captained the Joes seven years later in 2006. And the last couple of brothers to captain the Josephians thus far were Rajeewa Weerasinghe who captained in 2007 and his brother Shameera in 2009.

From the Peterite side there was Kenneth Duckworth who led the side in 1956 and brother Russell who skippered the 1958 team and Richard Heyn who captained the Peterites in 1962 and his brother, the Sri Lanka cap of yesteryear, David Heyn in 1964. The other pair of brothers to captain the Peterites were Angelo Perera in 2009, another Sri Lanka cap and Denham Perera in 2011.

Then there is the interesting fact of brothers who captained opposing schools and this distinction falls on Claude Perera who captained the Josephians in 1959 and Ranjan Perera who captained the Peterites in 1976.

Finally about brothers who played for opposing schools including the Pereras mentioned above who captained the two schools. These are:

Dodwell Pereira (St. Peter’s) 1933-35 and Norton Pereira (St. Joseph’s) 1945-47
Eugene Chanmugam (St. Joseph’s) 1944 and Michael Chanmugam (St. Peter’s) 1944-48
Claude Perera (St. Joseph’s) 1956-59 and Ranjan Perera (St. Peter’s) 1974-76 – they both captained the respective schools
Ranga Dias (St. Peter’s) 1998 and Sandun Dias (St. Joseph’s) 2003

Await more about relationships in the series tomorrow.


PART III

JOE – PETE – Some Interesting facts

In this post I will cover the fathers, sons and grandsons who played in this series and there are only 2 sets of father, son and grandson from either camp to cover but there are many of the fathers and sons.

Bernard Wijetunga (Snr.) played for St. Peter’s from 1944 to 47 while his son Bernard Wijetunga (Jr.) played from 1972 to 75 and his son Sheehan played in 2003 and 2004 (by the way Bernard Wijetunga (Jr.) was the Peterite captain of the 1st ever limited overs match played between the two Colleges, in 1975).

For the Joes there was R Alirajah who played in 1950 and his son Ajith Alirajah who played from 1985 to 87 and then his son Shivane Alirajah who played in 2012.

And now for the fathers and sons who played for each College but obviously there will be some repetition of information as those fathers and sons who captained have been covered as well as the Wijetungas and Alirajah from St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s respectively, already covered above.

The Joes have a higher number in this category who played for the College i.e. 13 of such proud fathers and sons while the Petes have 8 and here is the list of Joes first:

1. Fred Perera (1934 – 37) and Gavin Perera (1973)
2. Kingsley P Amarasekera (1935) and Kumar Amarasekera (1958 – 59)
3. Hector Perera Snr. (1937 – 39) and Hector Perera Jr. (1967 – 70)
4. Merle Dalpathado (1944) and Gihan Dalpathado (1969 – 71)
5. James Perera (1949) – 3 sons in Viraj Perera (1978), Pradeep Perera (1979 – 80) and Rohitha Perera (1979 – 81)
6. R Alirajah (1950) and Ajith Alirajah (1985 – 87)
7. Winston Malawana (1955) and Viraj Malawana (1990)
8. Placidus Liyanage (1961 – 63) and Prasan Liyanage (1985 – 87)
9. Lalith de S Wijeratne (1966 – 69) and Anuk de S Wijeratne (1999 – 2000)
10. Garry Melder (1970 – 74) and Dion Melder (2002)
11. Tony Gunawardena (1973) and Shernon Gunawardena (2002)
12. Carlton Bernadus (1975 – 76) and Kevin Bernadus (2011)
13. Ajith Alirajh (1985 – 87) and Shivane Alirajah (2012)

And now for list of 8 Peterite fathers and sons:

1. George Jayaweera – the 1st Peterite captain (1933) and 2 sons, Tissa Jayaweera (1961 – 62) and Ruwan Jayaweea (1973 – 74)
2. Sylvester Fernando (1934) and Rohan Fernando (1974)
3. Douglas De Niese (1940 – 41) and 2 sons, Peter De Niese (1963 – 66) and Stephen De Niese (1966 – 67)
4. Bernard Wijetunga Snr. (1944 – 47) – 2 sons, Bernard Wijetunga Jr. (1972 – 75) and Darrel Wijetunga (1975 – 76)
5. Anton Paulpillai (1956 – 57) and Rohan Paulpillai (1983 – 86)
6. Bernard Wijetunga Jr. (1972 – 75) and Sheehan Wijetunga (2003 – 04)
7. Amal Silva (1980) – Sri Lanka Cap as an opening batsman & wicketkeeper and Anuk Silva (2006 – 08)
8. Trevor Faux (1980s) and Denver Faux (2001 – 02)

Tomorrow we’ll cover fathers and sons who played for the opposing school.

Comments are closed.

Advertise Here
Advertise Here
%d bloggers like this: