St. Sylvester's celebrates 70 years on the sports field

By Hafiz Marikar

BOXING: St. Sylvester's College started as a pioneer Christian academic institution in Kandy, remains as the one and only school in the country (if not in the whole world) to have produced a sportsman who was selected to represent two different countries at two different Olympic Games. The sportsman concerned is Malcolm Bulner - the boxer - the eldest of the famous Bulner brothers.

This school is celebrating its 70th year had a series of activities at the school hall.

The founder of St. Sylvester's was Rev. Fr. Don Robert M. Perera OSB, who earlier served as the Vice Principal at St. Anthony's College for nearly 25 years. This great gentleman helped the Antonians in all sports and the school became a top order institution. St. Sylvester's was established in November 1940 in a building vacated by St. Anthony's College at Brownrig Street, now known as Yatinuwara Veediya.

St. Sylvester's began under difficult times and under grave circumstances but Rev. Fr. Robert with initiative and foresight brought up the school. He made his vision a reality in just 15 years to accommodate around 1,500 students, having started with only 260 students and a dozen of teachers.

Rev. Fr. Robert acted promptly in whatever he did and selected some top-notch personalities. One of the top personalities he selected was late D.J.N. Seneviratne who worked tirelessly for the school. There was also late Roy Amerasinghe - a top cricketer from Royal was a Vice Principal. There was also Rev. Fr. Don George, late Fr. P. Paulinus. There was also late W.S. Jansz, B. Nillegoda. The oldest living Sylvesterian at that time Anikanga Samarasinghe - the famous qualified architect who was responsible in drawing the college crest when he was a schoolboy, said that St. Sylvester's had produced some top personalities in every field.

In the field of sports, St. Sylvester's had done well, producing some of the best players in football, cricket, athletics, hockey and boxers without having a playground and other facilities. It was only in 1990s that late Chief Minister W.M.P.B. Dissanayake allocated some land at Asgiriya for sports activities.

At the initial stages, the late L.I. de Silva who was SSP, Central Province allowed the Sylvesterians to use the Police Grounds. The Principal of Trinity College too granted the use of Asgiriya grounds to be used by the Sylvesterians.

Boxing No. 1 choice

It was in Boxing - that St. Sylvester's earned a name in the early days.

The best boxer to come out of this school was Malcolm Bulner. He represented Sri Lanka at the Olympics and became the first to do so from this school, he was later selected to represent Australia in the next Olympic Games. He was deprived of achieving this feat for technical reasons. Malcolm Bulner who later became an Australian national, qualified as a world class boxing judge and officiated at several boxing meets in Australia.

Malcolm Bulner, a south paw, was the best boxer produced by Derrick Raymond, the famous coach, who passed away few years back in England. Malcolm won several national awards and titles in Sri Lanka before he migrated to Australia. His two brothers Noel and Clifford too were good boxers in lower weight categories.

Boxing was flourishing at St. Sylvester's, the Stubb's Shield Boxing competition, was a meet dominated by St Sylvester's.

The first Sylvesterian to win a national boxing title was Donald G. Labrooy the boxer who won the first national boxing title for the school. Donald at that time was shining in the Clifford Cup meets and was a strong claimant to represent Ceylon at the Olympics, the Bantamweight title in the early 1950's. Then there was Ellsworth Pereira, A.M. Nanayakkara, I.R. Hepponstall, Nihal Pelpolla, T.M. Pathirana, R. Aluwihare, Malcolm Marshal, Milroy Soysa, Annesly Soysa, M.E. Marikar to name a few.

This account of boxers is incomplete without mentioning the Master-in-Charge Roy Amarasinghe who was the architect of their victories at the Stubb's Shield competitions.

Boxing was a landmark of St. Sylvester's and in this respect their boxing coaches and masters should be complimented.

The other Sylvesterians who excelled in the ring were Nimal Lewke, one of the stylish boxers in the country who has won many bouts at national and International meets. Nimal was more than once adjudged the best boxer at national meets. He is now a Senior DIG of the Police, M. Reyal, A.C.R. Herathge, S.A. Azwer, H. Edwin, J. Peterson, C. Weerasinghe, T.S. Hassan, Derick Gunasinghe, M.Z. Abdeen, A. Thirukumaran, S.J. Sumanaweera, A. Amunugama.

Athletics: In the early 1940's when the school was only a few years old they produced an athlete who broke a public school record and was one of the country's crack sprinters.

The athlete was Felix Samarawickrema. Felix who later joined St. Joseph's College, Colombo lowered the Public School's 440 yards record with a timing of 51.8 sec. in 1948. At the same meet he won the 100 yards sprint. Felix was chosen to represent the country at the Empire Games in 1949 along with Duncan White but had to pull out due to a muscle injury and Vivan Blaze took his place.

Football popular

Football: That was another popular sport at St. Sylvester's from the inception in 1940 to late 1960's. They were in the forefront of Kandy schools football. Some played for the Central Province and the Country, the best among them were Mahinda Aluwihare who led the country on many times, he was rated as one of the beat mid field players in Asia.

Hockey: Most of hockey players have done well and they have been playing in tournaments from mid 1940's.

Cricket: In 1955, Sylvesterians made a modest beginning by playing a few inter-school matches. Their first inter-college match was against Vidyartha College, which is their big match now.

M.E. Marikar became the first Sylvesterian to play for many local cricket team at a time when St. Sylvester's College had not taken to cricket, he played for Moors SC, Sinha Regiment, Kandy Lake Club, Kandy Sports Club and Central Province, the next was M. Razak who played for Prisons.

It was Nihal Samarasekara who first played for the country, before we got Test status, Ishak Shabdeen was the fist Test player, then there was Nimal, a fine spinner who at one time was second in the Schools Bowling Averages.

Rugby: As in the field of cricket, Rugby football made a modest start in 1954. It should be remembered that Rugger, as it is commonly known, needs much practice.

There were some Sylvesterians who played club rugger without playing for the school, to name a few: Cyril Aluwihare, Hector Gallage, Sarath Basnayake, Gerard David, J. Jamilon, Lucky Peries, E. Peries, Nimal Lewke he is the man who went up in the game of rugby.

He played for Kandy SC, from there he played for Police SC led the side to win the Clifford Cup, and later played for the country, and became a top referee and coach, and had the privilege of being the national coach, and also headed the SLRFU and the Referees Society, and finally became the President of the SLRFU in 2007/8.