Online edition of Sunday Observer

The Jubilee Royal-Thomian cricket encounter in 1929, saw plenty of merry making, fitting the occasion. The match was played on March 14 and 15 at the SSC grounds.

Though the Thomians' had done well in the matches leading to the big game, they just could not match the royalists in the jubilee match and lost the match by seven wickets.

Royal won the all important toss and Kandiah who was captain of the team, never let up after that.

Though the Royalists lost an early wicket - that of G. S. Hubert for five they quickly recovered through a second wicket partnership of 65 runs between F. C. de Saram (72) and J. R. Wilson (34) and they went on the offensive thereafter and tore up the Thomian attack.

A seventh wicket partnership between H. E. Poulier (63) and skipper N. Kandiah (26) which yielded 63 runs really put the Royalists on top.

Royal made 293 in their first innings - the second highest total until then. The highest total was 304 by Royal in 1926.

For the first time in the series, three sets of brothers participated in the match. Dudley Senanayake and Robert Senanayake for S. Thomas', A. Abeygoonewardena and D. Abeygoonewardena also for S. Thomas' and F. C. de Saram and F. R. de Saram for Royal.

When the Thomians batted, they were up against a steady Royal attack and lost the first two wickets for just seven runs. Then Dudley Senanayake (32) and A. J. D. N. Selvadurai (31) added 59 runs for the fourth wicket and this was the only productive partnership for the Thomians thereafter.

S. Thomas' were forced to follow-on, as they failed to make four vital runs to avoid it.

The follow-on turned out to be a grim struggle between bat and ball as the Thomians faced the ignominy of an innings defeat. However, there was A. J. D. N. Selvadurai who stuck it out in thy middle to make 55 and with skipper R. Hermon making 30 and it was Royal skipper Kandiah who turned the champion bowler with a haul of 4 wickets for 38 runs and the Thomians were all out for 138 in their second innings with 22 minutes to six o'clock. Royal was set 12 minutes to score 35 runs for victory and their batsmen threw caution to the winds and threw their bats at almost everything and they reached their ultimate goal - and what a match to win!

J. R. Wilson c Hermon b Gooneratne 34, G. S. Hubert b Hermon 5, F. C. de Saram lbw b D. Senanayake 72, D. B. Gunasekera st. Sivasambo b R. Senanayake 9, S. S. Jayawickrema run out 32, N. Kandiah b R. Senanayake 26, H. E. Poulier b Gooneratne 63, E. G. Labrooy b de Silva 15, R. Jeganathan run out 8, F. R. de Saram run out 4, H. Willie not out 5, Extras 20.

Bowling: A. J. D. N. Selvadurai 20-4-34-0, R. Hermon 21-6-56-1, M. O. Gooneratne 17-3-49-2, R. Samarasekera 7-1-34-0, R. Senanayake 18-4-42-2, O. de Silva 7-2-22-1, D. S. Senanayake 6-0-36-1.

H. G. Wickremasinghe b Poulier 1, R. Senanayake st. F. R. de Saram b Willie 46, R. Hermon run out 10, D. S. Senanayake b Kandiah 32, A. J. D. N. Selvadurai st. F. R. de Saram b Gunasekera 31, R. Samarasekera b Gunasekera 11, O. de Silva b Labrooy 25, L. R. Gooneratne b Kandiah 3, A. V. Sivasambo c Willie b Jayawickrema 9, D. Abeygoonewardena not out 0, A. Abeygoonewardena b Poulier 0, Extras 19.

Bowling: H. E. Poulier 18-9-26-2, N. Kandiah 36.4-16-47-2, S. S. Jayawickrema 19-6-30-1, H. Willie 13-6-17-1, D. B. Gunasekera 13-2-36-2, E. G. Labrooy 3-0-15-1.

H. G. Wickremasinghe b Kandiah 6, R. Senanayake c Kandiah b Jayawickrema 2, R. Hermon c Willie b Kandiah 30, D. S. Senanayake b Willie 14, A. J. D. N. Selvadurai run out 55, R. Samarasekera b Gunasekera 19, O. de Silva b Gunasekera 4, L. R. Gooneratne run out 4, A. V. Sivasambo c Poulier b Kandiah 0, D. Abeygoonewardena not out 0, A. Abeygoonewardena b Kandiah 0, Extras 8.

Bowling: H. E. Poulier 11-2-25-0, N. Kandiah 22.5-11-38-4, S. S. Jayawickrema 8-2-28-1, H. Willie 9-1-15-1, D. B. Gunasekera 11-3-20-2, F. C. de Saram 2-0-4-0.

S. S. Jayawickrema c O. de Silva b Hermon 17, H. E. Poulier c Senanayake b Hermon 1, R. Jeganathan c Wickremasinghe b Hermon 6, G. S. Hubert not out 4, F. C. de Saram not out 8, Extras 1.

3 sets of brothers

For the first time in the series - three sets of brothers played in one game. Dudley Senanayake and Robert Senanayake for S. Thomas', A. Abeygoonewardena and D. Abeygoonewardena also for S. Thomas' and the De Sarams -FC and FR for Royal.