Variety

National sports associations of Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation

Twenty one years after its birth in the USA and nearly three decades before the organisation of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball, this game was introduced to Ceylon. Ancient poets of Sri Lanka described young women of the day playing ball games with their hands on balconies, though this was not known as volleyball.

The game of volleyball was introduced to Sri Lanka, (then Ceylon), in 1916 by R. W. Camack, then Director of Physical Education at the Colombo YMCA. He demonstrated the game to players who gathered at Price Park Playground, Pettah. It was led by the late V. A. Sugathadasa who later became the country's first Sports Minister.

Volleyball became tremendously popular and by 1922 the City of Colombo alone had 25 volleyball clubs which formed the "City Volleyball League" organised by Camack himself.

Many enthusiasts at this time thought that one organisation should be formed to control the game in the country. A group of persons led by R. Saravanamuthu met at the Colombo YMCA one day in June 1930 and formed the 'Ceylon Volleyball Association'. The first president of the body was T. F. Garvin.The first 'All Ceylon Volleyball Competition' was held in 1932 at the Maradana Police Grounds. Nine years later, in 1941, the six-a-side game was introduced by a separate group of people called 'Ceylon Six-a-side Volleyball Association' headed by Sir James P. Obeysekera.

In 1951, it was realised that more valuable services to the game could be rendered if the two controlling bodies are amalgamated (joined) and a federation formed. As a result, on September 4, 1951, the two associations joined and the Ceylon Volleyball Federation was formed.

Sir Richard Aluvihare was elected as the President and S. Rajadorai and P. C. Anandappa were elected Joint Secretaries. In 1955, Sri Lanka gained membership in the International Volleyball Federation.

On August 14, 1990 Sri Lanka volleyball came of age. A three-member committee headed by Prof. Vinnie Witharana, appointed by the then Sports Minister, recommended that volleyball has the historical and logical background to be declared as the National Game of Sri Lanka.

National Amateur Aquatic Union

Swimming is conducted in an organised manner since 1931, with the establishment of the Sri Lanka Amateur Swimming Association (SLASA).

All swimming events including the two-mile annual swim in Mt. Lavinia were conducted under the guidance of the Sri Lanka Amateur Swimming Association until 1975. The Mt. Lavinia competition is considered as one of the oldest annual swimming events in the world.

In 1975, the National Amateur Aquatic and Swimming Union (NAASU) preceded the SLASA and engulfed diving, water polo, synchronised swimming too under its wing. Records show that NAASU, now called Sri Lanka Aquatic Union since 2003, got its registration with the Sports Ministry on March 22, 1973 and the registration with the international body in 1975.Sri Lanka's first ever international swimming competition representation was in 1958 at the Tokyo Asian Games. It continued to field swimmers at nine Asiads following the Tokyo Games.

In 1958, Sri Lanka made her debut at the Cardiff, Wales Commonwealth games and then in Kingston (1966) and in Victoria (1994).

- Senior sports writer

Leslie Fernando

Getting the full flavour

We all love to eat delicious food, but do you think we would understand the different tastes of different food if we didn't have taste buds on our tongue?

For those of you who don't know what taste buds are, they are what help you taste all the food you eat.

You may have seen the small pink bumps on your tongue. These are known as papillae and the taste buds are found inside most of these.

Special cells called receptor cells combine to make up these taste buds. These receptor cells carry the signals about taste to our nerves and the nerves take this information to our brains. This is how we can figure out the taste of the food we eat. All different tastes can be felt by taste buds found anywhere in the mouth, although there may be certain areas of the tongue which may be more sensitive than others.

More than 10,000 taste buds are found in the human mouth. You may not know this, but the tongue is not the only place where you have taste buds; they are also found in the roof of the mouth, in the cheeks and throat.

If you thought that's rather unusual, here's something even more unusual. Some fish have taste buds located outside their bodies, while some insects have taste buds on their feet.Despite having taste buds, we still won't be able to get the full flavour of anything if we couldn't smell it. Taste, smell and texture all combine to bring out the full flavour of any dish.

Snippets:

What are the Middle Ages and Dark Ages?

You may have often come across these terms in books or heard people talk of such periods of time that existed in the past.

Generally, what is referred to as the Middle Ages is the period from the break-up of the Roman Empire to the rise of modern European nations. It is also known as the medieval period. It is the first half of the Middle Ages (AD 500-1000) that is called the Dark Ages because culture and learning almost disappeared from Europe during this time.

******

What ancient temple was used as a gunpowder store?

The beautiful and renowned building, the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens was used as a powder magazine by the Turks, who were engaged in fighting the Venetians in 1687. This building which was almost undamaged for more than 2,000 years, was seriously damaged when a chance shell fell on the gunpowder. Portions of the sculptured frieze(sculpture) were acquired by Lord Elgin in 1801-1803. Some years later they were bought from him by the British Government and placed in the British Museum, where they are known as the Elgin marbles. We can only know the exquisite beauty of the temple in the drawings depicting the Parthenon before its destruction in 1687, made by James Stuart (1713-1788) and Nicholas Revette (1720-1804).

******

How does ice differ from snow?

Ice is water in bulk frozen into a solid mass while snow is water vapour condensed at a lower temperature than 32 degrees Fahrenheit and therefore passing straight from a gaseous to a solid form.Ice crystallises in six-sided crystals with angles of 60 degrees and 120 degrees and snow into an exquisite variety of patterns, all deriving from the six-sided star. These crystals normally combine to form snowflakes.