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The Royal-Thomian match - 'I don't remember'

by Krishantha Prasad Cooray

There can be no argument that of all team sports, cricket has come to take pride of place in our country. No longer is the game regarded as the preserve of the elite.

The love of cricket has overflowed all bounds like a tsunami and the mere prospect of a test match or a one-day international engulfs the entire nation in a wave of enthusiasm beyond description, even if the national team is not doing well. At the moment, for example, although the glitter seems to have gone out of the national cricket side, especially after losing to lowly Bangladesh in a one-day encounter and not having things their way in the first test either, there has been no lack of interest. Everyone wants to know the score and wants it updated frequently. The nation cheers or moans as the result goes our way or against us. That is the way with cricket at that level. Not so when it comes to school cricket. The unique characteristic of inter-school matches is that the result does not seem to matter. Both sides are keyed -up by the very anticipation of the Match and even in past students of all ages, shapes and sizes the flame that burnt bright in the days of their youth is rekindled.

There is an indefinable quality about the "Royal Thomian" as it is popularly known, so much so that it is almost superfluous to refer to it as a cricketing event. It is by far the best-known event in the social calendar. Even those who never had the privilege of attending either school grudgingly admit that this is the benchmark and foundation of cricket in Sri Lanka.

The month of March is a festival of cricket and a nightmare for motorists. The throaty yelling of the school boys as they career abroad the City of Colombo in their comic attire and generally making a nuisance of themselves are part and parcel of what have come to be known as the Mad March Days. As one "Big Match| succeeds the other the mounting frenzy unleashes itself to reach a climax each weekend in different colours but not different ways. In all this everyone agrees on one thing: the Royal-Thomian is the trend setter. Almost every school has a 'Big Match' because Royal and St. Thomas' have one. They have festivities associated with their big matches because that's what the Royal-Thomian is about. They also have cycle parades, 'stag nites' and carnivals. Why? Because that is the 'done thing' and it is the 'done thing' because Royal and St. Thomas' did it first.

By hook or by crook

Sports writers and statisticians looking at the numbers will give the public a great deal of information to chew on, but who can forecast the result with any degree of accuracy and is that even relevant in the larger context? In the build up to the event the preparations by way of contacting kindred spirits and getting a ticket by hook or by crook is the main calorie burner. By the time the big day comes round many a heart is throbbing with celestial fire recollecting bygone days at the old school. The nostalgia of their own schooldays comes flooding over aged heads as they regain the spirit of their childhood vigour. Out come the souvenirs and the musty relics of their past glories or defeats. The many 'Old Boys' Group Dinners and revelry signifies to them much more than the revival of ties that have frayed or even snapped as the years have sped. Once again the doings of the 'great' are dug up and their feats recounted with reckless embellishment.

The Royal Thomian leaves a mark. Those who scored a century, came up with a brilliant spell of bowling or conjured up an amazing run out, are accorded legendary status and get written and talked about again and again. So too the failures, the captains of teams that lost the Big Match, those who dropped the vital catch and those who got out for a duck, are not allowed to forget, and it is not just the boys in the field. We are often remembered for the great acts of courage or embarrassment we've been part of at the Royal Thomian. Indeed there are many for whom Royal Thomian encounters are critical referents in their lives.

In trying to recall with any accuracy the proceedings on the field, the writer finds himself severely handicapped. Such things are not remembered except by those rare people who actually come to watch the cricket. There is a typical path that a student of either school follows. As a little boy seated trembling with excitement in the Boys Tent he would clutch his flag in one hand and in the other the sandwich lovingly packed by a doting mother. Very soon the boy loses himself in the pounding rhythm of Baila as the brass band belts out an ear splitting racket mistakenly referred to as music. The game wears on and by the tea break the concentration has snapped. The focus shifts from the pitch to other things unless there is some excitement like a lot of lusty hitting or a rapid fall of wickets.

In the more mature years the youth is not so much involved with the progress of the game but the displays of fashion and allure by the coy presence of the fair sex in the Visitors Tents. It is amazing how so many girls have suddenly become devoted to the game of cricket. The real reason lay elsewhere and was always poorly concealed.

Cricket fashion

No one ever complained. The passing of years will later force a move from the Old Boy to the Colts tent, the Stallions and the Mustangs, wherein the unchanging spirit of the Big Match, that great encounter that happens outside the boundary line, is embraced with untrammeled joy. Is the Royal Thomian a contest between two schools, two teams? Some would say, yes. The distinctions however are more or less cosmetic for it does not take long to understand that the school is less important than the atmosphere that arises from coming together.

One recognises in a Royalist the same enthusiasm, same abandon and same irreverence for what is happening in the middle. Teams and their supporters rarely let defeat dampen their spirits.

In fact an outsider who has not been following the scoreboard would never be able to say who has won judging by the cheers and celebrations. Royal, as everyone knows has not won a Big Match in ages, but even in defeat the blue-gold-blue has fluttered as merrily as the blue-black-blue outside the respective dressing rooms. The reverse is true as well.

Work, family and studies tend to come second to the Royal Thomaian when these three special days of the calendar come around. Saturday is for most old boys a date with history and remembrance. People go out of their way to catch even a few hours on Thursday and Friday. It is that important. The same holds for the girls, especially the young ones and they probably spend anxious days trying to get permission from parents to attend the one event that really counts for them. It is after all the one place you just have to be seen at. No other big match can stand up to the Royal Thomian in this regard and this is something that others will concede albeit grudgingly. So what is the Royal Thomian? Does anyone have an answer 127 since the first encounter? A meeting place? A fountain visited annually to recover youthfulness? A social event? An atmosphere where all known rules cease to apply? A cricket match? None of the above? All of the above and something else? Who knows? I would say 'undefinable'. It can't be captured, not in an article or a thesis. That is the last word about the Royal Thomian.

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