By: Sujith Silva – Editor, SPC-OBU. 
Third term fixtures of the 1st XI Schools Cricket Season has commenced, as you know the defending joint Champions of Schools Cricket Peterites led by Master Lakshina Rodrigo have been able to notch up two outright wins so far. This weekend, 21st and 22nd October they will take on Trinity College Kandy at Asgiriya grounds for the Philip-Eddie Buultjens trophy donated by former Peterite captain (1980) and outstanding Cricketer Rohan Buultjens. Rohan is the son of late Eddie Buultjens.
The Buultjen brothers born in Matara but studied in Kandy; Philip and Eddie have been two brilliant versatile sportsmen, Lionsmen produced by Trinity College who represented the hill capital school in both Cricket & Rugby with distinction. They went on to represent Ceylonese and All Ceylon teams (Philip in Cricket & Rugby and Eddie in Rugby) between 1930’s -1940’s. Elder brother Philip was a member of the champion 1st XI Cricket teams (1923 and 1924) under V.C.Shokman that hit a purple patch in annals of Trinity College where they recorded 29 wins in a row, back to back against all whom they played between 1920-1925 a record yet to be broken. Philip Buultjens excelled in Rugby and regarded as one of the finest centre three-quarters of Sri Lanka (back then Ceylon) and also carved a name for himself in the fields of Football, Hockey and Athletics. He was the 1st XV captain of Trinity College Rugby during 1923 and 1924 which gave a thrashing to hapless Royal College 1st XV sides (interestingly in 1924 Royal College 1st XV was captained by late President Hon. J.R. Jayawardene). The younger, Eddie went further by captaining the School's 1st XI (1932 & 1933) and 1st XV (1933).
What his sibling, Rohan Buultjens achieved when he turned up for St. Peter’s College between 1978-1980 is well known, two double hundreds at Joe-Pete, that too all not outs, countless other centuries against formidable opponents, the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and Best Batsman awards, 1000 runs in a season, representing Sri Lanka youth teams but unfortunately for reasons best known to national selectors or unknown to many he couldn’t make it to Sri Lanka test team. Whilst he was knocking on the door for a Test call up, another door was opened for him when Rohan migrated looking for greener pasture. Oh what Sri Lanka missed, another Aravinda or a Sanga perhaps? There are many interesting stories about Buultjens clan; unfortunately space doesn't permit hence parking them for another chapter.
Getting back to the all-important match on this, a tournament game and now a traditional encounter St. Peter’s College Vs Trinity College will be a cracker of a game for sure. Ironically though both schools having started their Cricket much earlier, Trinity College in 1893 and St. Peter’s College in 1927, did not play against each other till 1970. Since then there had been 43 matches with Peterites enjoying 7 wins against 2 wins by Trinity College. Peterites had a winning streak of four games in a row from 1978-1981 and their last win came in 2015 when the trophy was introduced for the first time in Asgiriya. In this year’s (2015/2016) 1st XI Tournament quarter final match, St. Peter’s managed to beat Trinity on 1st inning at the same venue. Trinity College last won against St. Peter’s College in 2011 and prior to that their solitary win was in 1998. However, since of late (since 2011) Trinity College is on their second purple patch in their Cricketing history winning Championships across all formats and beating all their traditional rivals. This year too, the Lions under the captaincy of Shanogeeth Shanmughanathan who has scored two centuries so far from four outings are on prowl with two outright wins under their belt. So the game is evenly poised, unless weather god spoil the party. Here’s wishing boys to do well up in Asgiriya. You can follow the match updates on our facebook page.
