Flashback to Royal-Thomian cricket series...

Bertie Wijesinghe had wicket in first ball of match

by A. C. de Silva

Bertie Wijesinha - in his young days	Bertie Wijesinha - at his peack

CRICKET: Does the name R. Bertie Wijesinghe ring a bell in anyone's ear? Yes, will be any ardent cricket fan's reply. Bertie Wijesinghe has been a gentleman cricketer to his finger tips and will be remembered as long as the game is played in this country. The Royal-Thomian cricket match the 128th in the series will be on March 8, 9 and 10 at the SSC grounds.

Bertie was a cricketer himself in the good old days at S. Thomas' College in the years spanning from 1936 to 1939 - I mean the years where he graduated to the first eleven team. He then went on to represent Singhalese Sports Club and All-Ceylon. Not satisfied with his achievements, he wanted to give back something to the game that brought him immense joy and pleasure. So, he became a coach and many cricketers have gone through him and have established themselves. That was not the end. He has a good voice and his command of the English language is such that he is able to speak well and has given commentaries on cricket in international matches and the much looked forward to Royal-Thomian cricket matches for many years.

Good players, make good coaches and Bertie Wijesinghe is one of them. Being a cricketer and a student of S. Thomas' College, one's ambition is to play for the college team in the annual "Battle of the Blues" cricket encounter and Bertie Wijesinghe distinguished himself with glory in the Royal-Thomian encounter in the four years he played for S. Thomas' in the years from 1936 to 1939 (that's from the 58th to 61st encounter).

Bertie, as he was affectionately know to all the cricketers have many achievements to his credit, but above all his performances there is one outstanding achievement - that's his dismissal of Royalist V. J. H. Gunasekera leg before wicket in the first ball of the 1939 Royal-Thomian cricket match. This was equalled many years later - in 1992 when Royalist T. Subasinghe was caught by Thomian C. Bodiyabaduge off D. de Silva's bowling.

Baptism

When Bertie Wijesinghe stepped into the Thomian cricket team in 1936 playing under the captaincy of Donald Fairweather, the Royalists had M. Sivanathan as captain. This was a big occasion for Wijesinghe as he was involved in a lucrative seventh wicket partnership of 136 runs for the seventh wicket, taking the score from the dismal looking position of 65 for 6 wickets to 201 for 7 wickets. Wijesinghe was out for 57, while Norman Siebel - king-pin of the recovery made 151 not out. It was batting of the highest grade and many accolades came the way of this due.

If not for this big partnership, the Thomians would certaintly have lost the match.

S. Thomas': 286 (R. B. Wijesinghe 57, Norman Siebel 151 not out; S. Pathmanathan 5 for 27, G. R. J. de Soysa 2 for 46) and 134 for no wkt (N. Schoffer 54 not out, W. Jayatilleke 72 not out).

Royal: 289 for 8 wkt dec (Pat McCarthy 98; R. B. Wijesinghe 0 for 42 in 18 overs) and 32 for no wkt.

In forefront

Came the second year - 1937, that's in the 59th encounter, Bertie was in the forefront again. It was an allround performance by Bertie Wijesinghe that paved the way for the Thomians three-wicket win. S. Thomas' really would have won by 4 wickets, but the match went on after the fall of A. J. de Bruin's wicket and a another Thomian wicket fell.

Wijesinghe was seen in a fine allround performance - he took 3 for 33 and 5 for 67 in Royal's two winnings, while with the bat, he made 55 in the first innings and helped W. Jayatilleke (62) in a big way to add 102 runs for the second wicket in the first innings after Kannangara retired hurt.

With the help of this fine partnership, S. Thomas' made 166 in the first innings after Royal were out for 117 when they had first strikes.

Royal: 117 (Bertie Wijesinghe 3 for 33) and 233 for 9 wkts dec) D. Vollenhoeven 82; R. B. Wijesinghe 5 for 67).

S. Thomas': 166 (Bertie Wijesinghe 55, W. Jayatilleke 62) and 187 for 7 wkts (W. Jayatilleke 100 not out).

Thomians thrashed

S. Thomas' got a real thrashing in the 60th encounter played at the SSC ground by an innings and 89 runs. This was in the 1938 encounter.

It was Royal's batsmen all the way and they walloped 351 runs for the loss of 7 wickets and them declared. D. Vollenhoeven 74, Pat McCarthy 81 and A. Macan Markar 86.

Bertie Wijesinghe opened bowling and took 2 for 83 in 23 overs with 2 maidens.

S. Thomas' were dismissed for 112 in the first innings and Wijesinghe was out without scoring and Kelaart took 5 for 24 for the Royalists. Came second innings, there was a slight improvement in the Thomian batting but they had to face defeat. S. Thomas' made 154 with Bertie Wijesinghe making 22, while E.C. Kelaart took 3 for 29, E. R. Hubert 3 for 30 and C. I. Gunasekera who took one wicket for 11 in the first innings, took 1 for 29 in the second innings.

Stamp of class

Though Bertie Wijesinghe's first sling as captain of the Thomian team at the 'Big Match' ended in defeat in 1938, he turned that defeat into a glorious win the following year- that's 1939 which was his fourth year in the annual clash against Royal.

Never-say-die seemed to have been the motto of the Thomians in the 61st encounter on the NCC grounds and there was skipper Bertie Wijesinghe leading the Thomians from front and helping them to a five-wicket win.

Royal batted first and were all out for 146 in the first innings with C. I. Gunasekera being the top scorer with 59. The Royalists were 100 for 4 wickets but the rest of the batsmen folded up and were all for 146. Wijesinghe took 3 for 21, with Taylor, A. Halangoda and E. D. Cortelingam taking two wickets each.

S. Thomas', thanks be to skipper Bertie Wijesinghe who made 62, were able to somewhat scrape through to a first innings lead of 32 runs, getting 178 in the first innings. E. C. Kelaart (4 for 35) and R. L. de Kretser (4 for 47) gave the Thomians enough problems.

Able leadership

Royal were out for 175 in their second innings and W. E. Taylor took 6 for 46 to put the breaks on the Royalist batsmen getting on top.

In the somewhat low-scoring match, the Thomians had to make 133 runs for victory and it looked as if it was a touch-and-go affair. However, the Thomian skipper Bertie Wijesinghe had other ideas and his able leadership got the best out of the team.

Three Thomian wickets fell cheaply and there was some gloom in the Thomians camp, however, skipper Bertie Wijesinghe cast aside the gloom when he came to bat and he treated the Royal bowling with scant respect and made 70 and with G. F. D. Abeysekera (36) pulled the side out of the rut with their fine fourth-wicket partnership of 93 runs. So, from 17 for 3 wickets, the scoreboard was raised to 110 for four wickets and the Thomians went on to win the match by five wickets.

S. it was not only personal glory for Bertie Wijesinghe, what with the wicket with the first ball of the match, he had a good match - two half-centuries and three Royal wickets in the first innings.

Royal: 146 (C. I. Gunasekera 59, R. L. de Kretser 44; R. B. Wijesinha 3 for 21, W. E. Taylor 2 for 50, E. D. Cortelingam 2 for 15, A. Halangoda 2 for 14) and 175 (E. F. de Kretser 72, E. C. Kelaart 39: W. E. Taylor 6 for 46, A. Halangoda 2 for 23).

S. Thomas': 178 (R. B. Wijesinghe 63, N. T. Wijesooriya 26, K. M. Abeywardena 21; E. C. Kelaart 4 for 35, R. L. de Kretser 4 for 47) and 146 for 5 wickets (R. B. Wijesinghe 70, G. R. D. Abeysekera 36 not out; R. L. de Kretser 3 for 79).