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| Sunday, 27 April 2003 |
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Funeral of oldest Thomian cricket captain Artie Lankatilleke today by A. C. DE SILVA Thomians young and Thomians old will bid goodbye today to their oldest cricketer Punchi Bandara (Artie) Lankatilleke who died on Thursday. The cremation will take place at 3.30 p.m. at the General Cemetery, Borella. The remains lie at Jayaratne Funeral Parlour. Till Thursday, he was the oldest living cricketer of either S. Thomas' or Royal and Artie Lankatilleke had fond memories with Royal too, though he was out and out a Thomian.
He was 99 years-old at the time of his death. He would have reached the magical century mark on July 30th. The Royal-Thomian cricket match carries happy memories for Artie as he captained the Thomian team in 1923, having played for the team from 1920. It was one of the few occasions this year that he was not present at the 124th Royal-Thomian as he was feeble, following a mild 'stroke'. Earlier on, at the turn of the century in the year 2000, he was present at the SSC grounds at the match that carries him fond memories. It was as a 16 year-old boy that Artie first played for S. Thomas' and he was small made that he wore shorts and played that year, though the rest of the team were clad in long trousers. He was a wicketkeeper but he was taken for his batting. He later turned out to be a bowler too. Low scores were the feature of the Royal-Thomian match in those early years and Lankatilleke's best was 25 and 37 in 1922 match - the highest individual scores in that game. C. E. L. 'Kalla' de Silva (now dead) was the Thomian captain then. S. Thomas' won that game, having made 143 and 137 while royal made 128 and 95. The win for S. Thomas' was somewhat of a tonic for Artie Lankatilleke as well as his was on the losing side in 1920 and 1921 when S. Thomas' was led by P. B. Bulankulame (now dead). It is said that one should play the game according to the best traditions of cricket and Artie Lankatilleke was one cricketer who didn't bother too much on a defeat. In 1923, when he captained, the Thomians lost again but that was after a sporting gesture by him. In the match played on the old SSC grounds at Victoria Park, the Royalists won in the third ball of the last over. Artie was first at Mutwal and came to Mount Lavinia in 1918 and it will be a right-royal salute to this GRAND OLD MAN of Thomian cricket in his final journey today. Lankatilleke's wife Sittamma Wanduragala of Kurunegala predeceased him, he is the father of six daughters - Chandrani, late Malkanthi, Amitha, Vinitha, Dr. Umanga and Indra and father-in-law of S. L. D. Abeygunawardena, Ata Khan (Pakistan), Tissa Bandaranayake, James Jolly (UK) and Mithra Siriwardena. He is also grand father, great grandfather and great, great grandfather of 32 and one of them is Ajit Abeyugunawardenw ho also played for S. Thomas'. |
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