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| Sunday, 18 January 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Kandy's sports star Maurice Peiris back from Australia on holiday by Upananda Jayasundera, Kandy Sports Special Corr Maurice Peiris - an old boy of St. Paul's, Kandy (now Sri Sumangala) an all-round sportsman who migrated to Melbourne, Australia has come back to Sri Lanka on a short holiday. Peiris is known to have been an all round sportsman, having played cricket, soccer, hockey, weightlifting, bodybuilding, have also participated in karate, athletics, badminton and table tennis. However, cricket was his favourite sport. He was involved in Mercantile 'A' division cricket playing under one-time Sri Lanka cricketer C. Ivers Gunasekera in the early fifties. He also represented Up-Country against Pakistan in 1964. He was a draughtsman by profession attached to Walkers in Kandy. He was also a volunteer Army officer and represented Army against Police in government service tournament matches in the fifties and scored 105 and helped Army to become champions. An attacking right-hand batsman, his highest individual score was 166 representing the Mercantile team against the Planters XI in 1952. He was also selected as the best batsman at the Daily Mirror cricket tournament in 1964. His contemporaries were L. R. Gunatilleke, C. I. Gunasekera, T. B. Marasinghe and Darryl Leverz. After migrating to Australia, he played sub-district cricket, representing Broadmeadow for ten years from 1982 to 1992 and hockey as off-season sport for Essendon. In Sri Lanka, he had represented Madyamalanka and Katukelle United as left extreme. His fellow players in hockey were Duggie Fernando, W. D. Chandrapala, Peter Medawattegedera, T. M. Amidon, to name a few. As a weightlifter, he was the runner-up in the middle weight class at the National Championships in 1964. As a bodybuilder, he won the medium class in 1966 at National Championships. He learnt karate on his own and he won the Brown Belt. In later years, he conducted classes with his brother Anton in karate. Bonnie Roberts started karate in Kandy after Maurice. In hockey, Peiris played for Kandy District from 1956 to 1958 as left extreme together with Roy de Silva (former President Olympic Association) and T. Jumar. In athletics, at the Central Province meet, he won the long jump and came second in 100 and 200 yards (now metres) in early fifties. He was also badminton and table tennis champion for a number of years since 1956 at the Kandy YMCA. For Maurice, this was his third visit to his motherland, having come here in 1984 and 1994 after migrating to Australia in 1974. |
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