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Sunday, 3 February 2002  
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Old Joes, Old Petes meet for Gary Melder Trophy

by PELHAM JURIANSZ

The Old Boys of traditional rivals St. Joseph's and St. Peter's will battle it out on the cricket field for the Gary Melder Memorial Trophy on February 24, 2002 at the Josephian grounds, Darley Road.

This trophy which was inaugurated last year was won by the Old Joes led by that veteran cricketer of yesteryear, Rohan Fernando, who was the late Gary's captain in 1972 when the Josephians last beat St. Peter's in their "Big Match".

Gary, unfortunately met with an untimely death a few years ago and Sri Lanka lost one of its finest schoolboy cricketers when in 1973 Gary led the Josephians.

Gary was part of the Sri Lanka schools team that played against the visiting Australian under 19 team led by Robert Goldin that included Graeme Yallop, who captained the Aussies later.

This star studded outfit included such luminaries as Asitha Jayaweera (perhaps one of Sri Lanka's finest schoolboy captains), Bandula Warnapura (Sri Lanka's first Test captain), Gajan Pathmanathan, Roy Dias, Duleep Mendis, Flavian Aponso, Kamal Samarasinghe, Ajit de Silva, Ray de Silva, Ranil Abeynaike and of course the great Rajiv Benedict who single handedly orchestrated the Josephian victory in 1972.

Gary also won the coveted Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award in 1973.

After school, Gary joined NCC and played under the genial Michael Tissera but thereafter he was lost to cricket as he took to planting as a career.

He coached his alma mater and the team won the best team award in 1997 under Trevin Matthews where Michael Van Dort played in that season.

This year, this 30-over affair for over 40s will be held at Darley Road and it will be the second year when the Old Joes will try to retain the trophy which was presented in Gary's memory by another staunch Old Joe, Brian Obeysekera, who was Gary's first skipper in 1969.

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