Wesley cricketer Errol Smith's 199 not out in Galle - the highlight of career

by A. C. de Silva

CRICKET: Right now in Sri Lanka is a distinguished sportsman - an old Wesleyite Errol Smith who has come from far off Australia to meet old friends.

Errol was a top-class left-hand batsman during his playing days at Wesley in 1961. One of his memorable knocks came in 1961 when the Wesley played against Richmond at the Galle Esplanade.

He made the memorable knock of 199 and that as the figures show, was a innings that the oldsters talk about even now.

Attack the bowling was his idea when he goes to bat and besides this huge score against Richmond, he had many other knocks to his credit. That year - 1961, Wesley had a power-packed team to do duty on the cricket field. Among the other top players who played along with Errol Smith, were: Dharmaratne Kodituwakku, Sarath Wickremaratne, Milroy Bulner, L. C. R. Wijesinghe, Kenneth de Silva, Everard Schoorman - those names comes to mind in a flash as they were Wesley's leading players at that time.Errol Smith was in front and he had something like 12 innings being not out on three occasions scoring around 400 runs for an average of around 44.00.

While cricket was his pet game, Errol also played soccer and table tennis for Wesley in 1961 during the time Mr. Harold Nonis was Principal of the school.

He was also happy to meet former Wesley College cricket captains Mahendra Dissanayake and Danesh Dissanayke of the younger lot of cricketers, having met both of them in Australia earlier. A Sportsman of Wesley that cannot be missed is Edmund Dissanayake - the lawyer who was Wesley's never-say-die cricketer and coach in the good old days and Errol Smith was hoping to meet him.Wesley's great cricketers will never forget their home - Campbell Park. Campbell Park was used by Wesley from 1940 onwards and Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club used the grounds before.

In 1990, Wesley joined the other schools and laid out turf strips and they had their old matting wicket too.