Adastrians bundled out Bloomfield for 63 runs

By Dilwin MENDIS - Moratuwa Sports Special Corr

CRICKET: Adastrians Cricket Club - a team comprising cricketers from the Air Force has had a name change over the years and are now known as Sri Lanka Air Force and they won the Donovan Andree Trophy - the tourney for division two in the tournament conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in 1966/67. They were thus promoted to play top grade cricket in the Saravanamuttu Trophy Tournament. In this tournament, Saracens Sports Club were the runners-up.

Adastrians - a latin word meaning 'Through Perseverance to the stars' was a team drawn from the then Royal Ceylon Air Force personnel and they were led by old Sokian K. M. Nelson.

Nelson, playing for the Adastrians led the team well and his fine bowling enabled him to take 69 wickets in the tourney and proved to be a match-winning combination with Mohamed Faleel who had 39 wickets. Old Nalandian and 'baby' of the Nalanda side in 1951 in their 'Big Match' - Donald Perera, Sebastianite Norbert Fernando and Cambrians Dilwin Mendis turned out to be the consistent scorers of the victorious Air Force side.

Adastrians were promoted to Division One Tourney - the Saravanamuttu Trophy and they played their first match against the formidable Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club. Bloomfield were led by veteran cricketer Noel Perera and had players in the calibre of Dhanasiri Weerasinghe, W. A. N. Silva, Franklyn Burke and speedster Vas Gunawardena.

Donald Perera who first led the Adastrians in Division One cricket had the services of Old Josephian Keerthi Caldera, K. M. Nelson, M. Faleel, Norbert Fernando, Sarath Fernando, Nihal Cooray, Wilfred Basnayake and Dilwin Mendis.

During this period of time most of the matches were played on the matting. The Adastrians won the Division Two Tournament Title. However, the Adastrians didn't appear to be geared to battle with teams like SSC, Bloomfield, Moratuwa Sports Club, Nomads Cricket Club who were in their group.

The manager of Adastrians Squadron Leader Levelyn Fernando arranged a one week training camp at Diyatalawa in order to give his team the much needed practice against the better equipped teams. He was particularly keen in fielding and on fitness. The matches in those days used to start at 1.45 p.m. on the first day (Saturday) and at 10 a.m. on Sundays.

In one of the first matches, Bloomfield won the toss and put Adastrians to bat at Rifle Green. Adastrians were out for 140 runs with Burke and Gunewardena sharing the wickets. Keerthi Caldera scored a fluent 53 and Donald Perera made 39 for Bloomfield. Heavy rain in the afternoon put paid for cricket to continue and that was the story at close on the first day.

Then on day two, Bloomfield were skittled out for 63 runs when the game started after the lunch break. The Adastrians' accurate bowling was backed up by keen fielding. Former Richmondite Hemasiri Fernando ripped through the Bloomfield batting to claim 6 for 13 with Faleel taking 4 for 27.

Then Bloomfield made every effort to dismiss Adastrians cheaply in the second innings. However, Adastrians openers Leslie Ratnapullai and Dilwin Mendis batted stubbornly and made 68 for no loss with Mendis making 43 and Ratnapullai 24 runs respectively.

So, with this stubborn batting, the newcomers to Sara Trophy cricket - Adastrians were able to beat the better fancied Bloomfield team by 77 runs on the first innings in their first Sara Trophy match.