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St. Peter’s & Police Rugby star S. Sivendran takes a stroll down memory lane

Posted on 03 December 2016 by admin

A Tribute and a stroll down Memory Lane – By S Sivendran – 2006.

 

 

RUGBY
With the curtains coming down on Club Rugby and the Schools Rugby Tournament occupying center stage, it is time to take a stroll down memory lane and recount the past Rugby Players of Schools and Clubs who have contributed immensely to this sport.

The first name that comes to my mind is

DARREL WIMALARATNE,
The unassuming ruggerite who captained St. Peter’s College, CH & FC, and represented the Low Country in the Capper Cup, and also Sri Lanka. Darrel also played for Colombo Schools and Combined Schools as a fly half. Having left school, first played for Havelocks SC and then joined CH & FC and went on t become the third Ceylonese Rugby Captain after Lorensz Pereira and Brian Baptist. CH & FC was, previously, an exclusively expatriate club catering to the English. When Darrel captained CH & FC he had some great rugby caps, viz:

LORENSZ PEREIRA
KUMAR BASTIANPILLAI
BRIAN BAPTIST
LAKSHMAN DE CHICKERA
MAURICE MARINNON (an Australian)
JIZWI NIXZAR
JOHN BURROWS
DAVE HUNTINGTON
MICHAEL HAWKE

Darrel also represented the Low Country captained by HADJIE OMAR, who was another Peterite and CR & FC Player who later captained Ceylon for several years and had players such as:-

Dr. TONY DE SILVA
SARI DE SILVA
BUMPY JAYASEKERA
OMAR SHERIFF
GEOFF RATNAM

The Up Country team was captained by ROHAN ABEYSUNDERA, a tall and hefty forward from St. Peter’s College who also went on to represent the Country.

Darrel was also selected to play for Ceylon against England.

Hadjie Omar captained a National Side which included,
JEYER RODRIGUEZ
ROHAN ABEYSUNDERA
ROYDEN DE SILVA
DARREL WIMALARATNE
DIDACUS DE ALMEIDA

All from St. Peter’s College.

DARREL’s CRICKET CAREER
Darrel was also an outstanding cricket player who played for St. Peter’s College as an opening batsman and opening bowler and went on to captain his alma mater and had in his team such greats as:-

RONNIE GUNARATNE
RODNEY PATTERNOTT
AUBREY PATTERNOTT
C NIRMALENDRAN
EVERARD HOFFMAN
STEPhEN DE NIESE
MERVYN FERNANDO

to name a few.

He also played for the Sri Lanka Schools Team under the captaincy of Anura Tennekoon. Having left school he joined Colombo Colts Cricket Club and later the Colombo Cricket Club and played with distinction. He is also a qualified Level 2 Cricket Coach, accredited to the Australian Cricket Board, and has functioned as head coach of St. Peter’s College who won the Schools Limited Over Championship. He also coached the Tamil Union and the Sinhalese Sports Club, later on.

Darrel, a naturally talented sportsman was a dashing fly half and a center three quarter who began his rugby career at St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya and represented his alma mater from 1963, and captained his school in 1965, playing in te pivotal position of fly half. He had, in his young side some brilliant rugby players, such as:

ROYDEN DE SILVA
A towering second row forward who went on to captain Havelocks Sports Club and also represented the country at Rugby and Basketball.

AUBREY PATTERNOTT
Another giant of a second row forward who later turned up for Havelocks, Dimbulla, CH & FC and the Ceylon Barbarians, is now living in Australia.

RONNIE GUNARATNE
A hard running center three quarter, who later played for UVA and CR & FC and presently the Vice President of the CR & FC. He is also a top cricket administrator with Sri Lanka Cricket.

HAMZIE HAMID
A public schools sprint champion who played as a flying winger, and went on to captain the Combined School’s Team, and later played for the CR & FC and Ceylon. He is now a successful businessman in Canada.

M JAINUDEEN
Was selected to play as Scrum Half for Colombo Schools.

DURAND BECKMEYER
Another fast winger now living in Canada.

RODNEY PATTERNOTT
A well built center three quarter, who later played for Havelocks Sprots Club, CR & FC, and the Presidents XV against foreign teams. He coached St. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia and was an ‘A’ Division referee. He now lives in Australia.

RAJAN RAJENDRAN
A fast breaking wing forward and a hard tackler who continued his rugby at CR & FC and Kandy SC.

D WAKISHTA
Another crash tackling wing forward who later played for the University and CR & FC.

Dr. PARAMSOTHY
A well built wing forward who later played for the University, CR & FC, and Air Force, now practicing Medicine in Canada.

MICHAEL DE NIESE
A sturdy prop forward who later migrated to Australia and became a Professor but passed away at an early age.

CHRIS RAZEL
Another strong Prop Forward.

CHELLIAH NIRMALENDRAN
A dusky Hooker who is now in England.

JAMES ALAGARATNAM
An exciting No. 8 now living in Canada.

MERVYN FERNANDO
A lock forward now in the USA.

EVERARD HOFFMAN
A solid full back with a safe pair of hands who represented Colombo Schools and Havelocks SC. Now settled in Australia.

DENNIS KILLERLY
Another center three quarter now living down under in Australia.

HAROLD JANSZ
Another young Wing Forward.This champion team coached by the legendary Archibald Perera and was hailed by all as the best St. Peter’s College Rugby Team since WW II.

 

 

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Burly Anton Perera no more – a legend at St. Peter’s College

Posted on 21 February 2014 by admin

News has just reached us of the passing of ANTON PERERA – a legend of the late fifties and early sixties. Anton was in a coma for the last 2-3 weeks in a Los Angeles Hospital, arising from a complicated medical condition. Sadly, he passed away this morning (Feb.20th) in hospital surrounded by his beloved wife Marlene, only son Yohan (Joey) and daughters Sharlene and Sheryl . Anton has lived in Southern California since 1962, one of the early settlers to the U.S. from Sri Lanka.

Anton Perera was a celebrated Peterite sports icon.

Anton-Perera.jpgAnthony V. Perera, fondly known as "Anton" was a legend at St. Peter's College. He was one of the most celebrated sports icons who left an indelible mark on the Peterite landscape. . He was a prolific athlete, exceptional cricketer and also played rugby until his coach Jackie Van Twest advised him not to play as it would hurt his athletics. Anton was also a good Tennis player and I am not quite sure if he played for college, at the Public Schools Championships. His father was a Tennis player of national repute.

ANTON PERERA

In athletics, Anton was a Publics School champion in the Discuss, Javelin and Putt Shot. He did the 100M, Long Jump and the sprint relays as well. This was a time the Peterites had a crack athletics team. He captained the Junior Athletics Team in 1957 which went on to win the Junior Tarbat at the Public Schools Championships in 1957. Other athletes in this team were Desmond Moraes, Rontjen Perera and Linus Jayawardane (since departed). Some other names of prominent Peterite athletes during his time that come to mind are Ranjit Wijeyesekere, Ranjit Weerasena, Felix Shockman, David Van Dort, Errol de Silva, brothers Andrew & Godfrey Goonetilleke, Rontjen Perera, E.L. Fernando, N.B. Wilson, Didacus de Almeida, Roger Wright, Kevin Ruberu, Vinitha Rakajaruna, Neville Salvador, Elmo Perera, Carlyle Rudolph, Ranjith Alwis, brothers Winston & Stafford Tambimuttu, and a host of others of repute who later went on to join Ace Athletic Club or CT & FC.

Anton dabbled with Rugby and played for college as a wing three-quarter – much to the displeasure of Jackie Van Twest (Athletics Coach).

But it was Cricket that Anton was best known. His baptism into the First XI was in 1957, at the age of 15 – under the captaincy of Jayantha Fernando. In the big match, Anton clean bowled opener Claude Perera and then took out two prolific Josephian batsmen Priya Perera and Tissa de Soysa. He had match figures of 3 for 69 in his first big match that was drawn. Anton played from 1957 to 1960, both years included. St. Peter`s were captained by Russel Duckworth in 1958, Brian Seneviratne in 1959, and Premasiri Athukorale in 1960. I cannot remember which year, but Anton caused a sensation at the SPC V. Ananda game one year. He took 8 wickets for 21 and at least six Ananda players were injured. At this time, he was rated the fastest Schoolboy bowler in Ceylon with Ananda`s Sonny Yatawara a close second.

Anton's opening partners were Maurice Deckker (1960), Desmond Dharmaraja (1958 & 1959) and Anton Paulpillai (1957). Anton best partnered with Maurice Deckker when the Peterites had the most fiery opening bowling attack at the time in school cricket.

Cricket at St. Peter`s enjoyed a great period in the 50s and 60s – there was a galaxy of stars who played for college. Anton`s team mates who played alongside him in the four years are shown below:

  • 1957David Muthumani, Nihal Wijesena, Darrel De Silva, Jayantha Fernando (Capt.), Brian Seneviratne, Russel Duckworth, Lakshman Serasinghe, Premasiri Athukorale, Christy Marthalingam, and Anton Paulpillai.
  • 1958 – Nihal Wijesena, Randy Layman, Russel Duckworth (Capt.), Brian Seneviratne, Premasiri Athukorala, Darrel De Silva, Adiel Anghie, Christy Marthalingam, Desmond Dharmaraja, and Elmo Gunasekara.
  • 1959Richard Alles, Mark de Silva, Randy Layman, Brian Seneviratne (Capt.), Premasiri Athukorala, Adiel Anghie, Richard Heyn, Desmond Dharmaraja, Elmo Gunasekara, Tyrone Le Mercier.
  • 1960 – Mark de Silva, Randy Layman, Richard Alles, Premasiri Athukorala (Capt.), Adiel Anghie, Richard Heyn, Maurice Deckker, Didacus de Almeida, Elmo Gunasekara, Tyrone Le Mercier.

Anton played Club Cricket for SSC whilst in school. He left for the USA in 1962, at age 20, and lived in Southern California with his wife Marlene (Primary School Teacher at college) and their three children. He was involved in developing and promoting cricket in Southern California in the sixties and played locally with Dr. Tony Don Michael (another Peterite), M.L. Idroos (STC), Dr. C. Balakrishnan (Jaffna Hindu), and a host of other players who made California their home in the post-sixties.

Nihal Perera, a Peterite of my vintage who now lives in the U.S. has sent in this comment. “Very sad to hear he is no more. Still remember him almost skittling out St. Thomas' in their 2nd innings ending at 39/9 (St.Peter's almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as they say) and he ended up with 7 for 11. Fr. Arthur Fernando called him on to the stage on the Monday after & presented him with a pair of boot laces (since he had constant issues with the laces coming undone during his Herculean effort). Man with a big heart.“

A Peterite colleague of Anton's – Kevin Ruberu (domiciled in Australia) says, "Anton was one of the best sportsman that we ever had. He was on top of his cricket and athletics. In athletics, he was a superb all-rounder (shot putt, javelin, long jump, 100 m sprint – he excelled at); I think he also played some tennis and rugby (not encouraged by Jackie Van Twest of course).“

Anton visited Sri Lanka often and had many friends all over the world. He was one of the most popular sportsman to emerge from St. Peter`s College. One distinct character trait that stood by Anton throughout his life is that he had a mind of his own. Most times, he was right in his convictions. He would call a spade, a spade and there was no “beating round the bush“ with him. With Anton, it was a case of `what you see is what you get`. He was a good family man, a good human being, loyal to his multitude of friends and a very good Catholic to his dying days.

Marlene was the love of his life, and they were married for just over 50 years. He worked at 3-M for most of his life in Los Angeles and stayed in the Canoga Park area of Southern California. He leaves behind his beloved wife Marlene, and three children Yohan (Joey), Charlene and Cheryl.

May his Soul Rest in Peace!

By Upali Obeyesekere – President, JPAA Canada with assistance from Rontjen Perera (California) – a close friend of Anton's.

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