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| Sunday, 15 September 2002 |
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Bloomfield 110 not out - well deserved celebration by A. C. DE SILVA Grit and determination has been the hall mark of the cricketers and administrators alike at Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club and members of the club will certainly celebrate their existence for 110 years at a gala dinner dance on Thursday, September 19 at Trans Asia Hotel. 110 not out is an appropriate theme the club has thought of for the dance celebrations, as the club went through many trials and tribulations in the early days before they came to make their permanent abode at Reid Avenue in the early 70s. Bloomfield is a club that has been pushed around for many years for want of a permanent club house and they even won the P. Saravanamuttu Trophy Cricket tournament, even without a ground of their own, Bloomfield won the P. Saravanamuttu Trophy tournament for three successive years. At first, the club was known as the Wheelbarrow Club' as the club house was on wheels at Campbell Park, Borella because of a Municipal by law which prevented permanent buildings in parks. The Club House was somewhat of a joke amongst more sophisticated clubs like - the SSC, CCC, Tamil Union and NCC. Did I say the club had to go through difficult times in the early days? Yes, there were plenty of problems, but in those early days, there were three gentlemen - Hinton Gunaratne, Danny Liyanasuriya and Shelly Wickremasinghe who worked like Trojans to keep the club on its feet against severe odds. Hinton Gunaratne - a dapper little man with a large heart and sincerity of purpose carried Bloomfield literary in his brief case. He was a wicketkeeper in the same class of Ben Navaratne of the SSC and Gunaratne was able to win support of a wide range of sportsmen. When the Punjabi Regiment took over the club during the war years, Hinton kept the club alive in the brief case that he carried - the minute book and somehow meetings were convened and fixtures arranged, sitting out under trees. The players even lopped off the branches of the huge mara trees that got in the way of the outfielders. They also got together to mow the outfield, roll the matting, mark the creases and lay the boundary lines. Hinton gently nudged the players and they responded without any grumbling as the club could not afford the then luxury of having ground staff. But the hard work done by real dedicated lovers of cricket like Hinton Gunaratne, Danny Liyanasuriya, Shelly Wickremasinghe, supported by major C. D. D. Weerasinghe, Bonnie Wijesinghe, Lucky Abeywardene, late J. M. C. Jayasinghe, Bobby Wickremasinghe, Mohan Amalean, Charlie Warnaskulasuriya, Noel Perera and late Edwin Tillekeratne brought up the club through difficult times and now the club stands in somewhat luxury surroundings with air-conditioned rooms and modern facilities for the cricketers. The above are names that come to mind in a flash and any omissions are regretted. |
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