Triangular Schools Baseball Tourney Sept. 17 and 18

Baseball: Royal College Union has organised a Triangular Baseball Tournament to commemorate 25 years of Baseball and 175 years of Royal College. The tournament will be held on September 17 and 18 on the main grounds of Royal College at Rajakeeya Mawatha, Colombo 7.

There will be three teams - they are the oldest baseball playing schools in Sri Lanka - Kingswood College, Kandy, Richmond College, Galle and Royal College, Colombo. There will be two tournaments - under 15 and under 19.

Though there is going to be a fine display of baseball, there is no entrance fee.

The principals of the three schools will inaugurate the tourney on September 17 morning and the final is scheduled to be played on September 18 in the afternoon, followed by the awards ceremony and a get-together.

A little bit of history for those interested...

Baseball was introduced to Sri Lanka by the US Embassy during the period 1984/85, at the invitation of two ministers, Mr. Vincent Perera (Minister of Sports) and Mr. Festus Perera (Minister of Fisheries), the latter being considered as the father of baseball in this country. The US Baseball Coach Jim Dimick was brought to Sri Lanka to introduce and coach the game.

At this time, the Principal of Royal College C.T.M. Fernando, decided to establish the first ever college baseball team due to the keen interest shown by the players and their games teachers. He entrusted this responsibility to the senior games master V.A.B. Samarakoon ably assisted by P.W. Samarasekara Momentum gathered as a well-known baseball enthusiast from the US Embassy Ms. Lee Ann Ross, took a personal interest in helping Royal, who were also fortunate to be coached by Jim Dimick. By the end of the year Royal had two baseball teams in a pool of 30 players.

That year, the Royal captained by K. Manoj C. Fernando was the runner-up at the first ever National Baseball Championship held for the John H. Reed challenge trophy. The tournament was open to men with no set age limit. Later, K.M.C. Fernando was elected as the second vice president of the Sri Lanka Baseball Association, the first schoolboy to hold such a position in the Association.

During this period, Royal took the initiative to introduce the game to other schools such as Ananda and clubs such as Mercantile Credit. Gradually, competition got tougher as more and more teams competed in The National Championship. Royal have won these championships more times than any other school.

In 1993 the Sri Lanka Baseball Association ran the Little League Tournament (under 13) won by Royal College.