Air Force's memorable win 46 years ago likely to haunt CR

RUGBY: The second game of the Caltex 'A' Division League Rugby Championship between CR & FC and Air Force at Longdon Place, on May 3, will bring nostalgic memories to certain Airmen who thrashed the 'Red Shirts' 21-0 at Katunayake in 1962 - 46 years ago.

This is a game that the Airmen will never forget, when Rodney Ingleton's star studded CR faced humiliation. The Airmen were coached by a former commander the late Air Marshal Goonetilleke.

The CR and FC had players in the calibre of Ashey Cader, Ago Paiva, Geoff Weinman, Eric Roles, Sari de Sylva, Didacus de Almeida, Grahan Hamer, Baila Samarasinghe, Edward Buell and Vivien Direekze to name a few.

The Airman had won the Bladon Trophy beating both Army and Navy and were never overawed. They had earlier entered the semi-finals of the Clifford Cup in 1961 and were led by that dashing and debonair flanker Ranjith Abeydeera.

CR's wily fly-half Ago Paiva was bottled up by Abeydeera who 'banged' into Paiva without any show of mercy time and time again that caused the CR threes to be smothered in their stride. This was CR's opening game for the 1962 season.

CR were all out to pile on the points, but plans backfired. The blue jersied devils were all alight on them from nowhere.

The Air Force forwards felled the CR pack with a vengeance - Sandy Gomes, the Khalid brothers, Raj Rodriguesz, Dougie Perera, Hillary Sela and Sam Abrahams together with skipper Abeydeera had CR's forwards groping. Among the others in this famous Air Force side were Jeff Ratnam.

Bertie Ekanayake, Bunny Van Twest, Eddie Williams, Tissa Boteju and Fabian Coonghe. This sensational Air Force victory was no flash in the pan. The following Saturday they held the defending champions, Havelocks, to a scoreless draw at "The Park", but the next week, the Airman lost to the robust CH & FC at Katunayake. L.G.