The 94th Battle of the Blues is scheduled to get underway on March 13 & 14, 2010 at the homegrounds of “the best school of all” at the picturesque Asgiriya international cricket stadium. The “eagles” as the Antonians are best known in this country have a cricketing legacy that speaks volumes of the importance laid on the gentleman’s game. Having produced one of the most mesmerizing bowlers of our era and arguably the best spin bowler to take to the game Muththiah Muralitharan to the modern day prodigy Chamara Kapugedara the eagles take pride in producing the best of the best.

I don’t think the name A..C.M. Laffir would be fair to be left out. According to many of the Old school this man was by far the most skillful batsman ever produced in this country with the great Sathasiwam an old Wesley’ite himself known as the only other player to have the skill to challenge Laffir in the Old Ceylon days.

For the Trinitian’s the youthful exuberance and aura of the current Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara is enough testimony for the caliber of products the “best school of all” is known to produce. Kaushalya Weerarathne one of the best allrounders to take to the game in recent times not considering the fact that his talent was left to languish within him due to the then Selectors were pinnacles of the Trinitian tradition.

History tells us that these two schools met for the first time on March 17 & 18 in 1914 at the Bogambara Grounds, where the Antonians led by C.E. de Silva emerged as winners by 42 runs and in the following year Trinitains led by R. Ondatje beat the Antonians. From the first game in 1914 to 1926 - in the 12 games played Trinity won 10 and the Antonians two. Out of the 92 games played to date, the Trinitians have 22 wins with the Antonians emerging victors on 12 occasions. The rest have ended in draws a result that has always overtaken the wins and the losses in any big match played. There was an exception in the year 2001 the year in which the Trinity College cricket team was suspended by their then Principal Dr. Breckendridge because the team refused to take to the field in one of the seasons matches.

Speaking exclusively to the Colombo Spirit former Trinity College captain Clifford Fernando who had the rare distinction of leading the Trinitians for two consecutive seasons (2002/2003) and was awarded the prestigious Ryde Gold Medal told us that “ the big match is the finale of the season. For all of us as players it was the end of nine months of cricket and we eagerly looked forward to it to end the season on a high note”. I asked him about how they went by preparing for the Big one “ We had a coaching camp during the week running to the big one, It was a very strenuous week because we trained during the whole day. Looking back though I think it was the best time for us as cricketers because the whole team was together and it was a lot of merry making albeit the focus that normally is put in to the match. We had a gala time, the guys enjoyed it thoroughly. It was also the time that the juniors were incorporated as seniors to the team. Im sure every one of those cricketers who were fortunate enough to be a part of the great camping tradition would tell you undoubtedly that they indeed were the best days of their lives” He however went on to note that “for us Trinitians the most important sporting event In the calendar Is the Bradby the annual rugby match played against our rivals in Colombo Royal College. The big match really is secondary compared to the hype that a Bradby gets. I think this must be more to do with the fact that us Kandians are very passionate about our rugby. Having said that both schools look forward to the big match with great anticipation because it isn’t the match itself” I queried as to what he meat by that “ for us now its two days of merry making, to recall relive and relish our good old days. To meet our batch mates and the guys who took to the field against us. That is what the big match has evolved to for us. For the schoolboys its two days of absolute freedom to be shouting, cheering and jeering. So in a sense the few of us still fortunate to be in this country make the annual voyage to the Asgiriya stadium”.

Cricket inevitably turns out to be a game of statistics and within those statistics lie many a record created by those who wiled the willow. Some of the records available in this series are the first century of the series, which came off the bat of the great Antonian cricketer Jack Anderson in 1918 at the newly laid wicket - which was the first turf wicket in Kandy. It was the first in the series and the first at Asgiriya. For Trinity it was M.D.D. Jayawardene he scored 120 in 1922. Opening bat A.C.M. Laffir's 176 in 1954 stands, as the highest individual score in the series and T.B. Weerapitiya's 143 in 1944 was the earlier record.

C. Dharmalingam of Trinity has taken 9 for 74 in the 1938 match second innings. Over 15 wickets in the series has been taken by R.B. Ettipola in the 1920's.

A few of the high ranking centuries for the Antonians are from Jack Anderson 111 in 1918, Ronald Stevens 102 in 1952, A.C.M. Laffir 176 in 1954, Ronald Stevens 120 in 1954, S.W. Seneviratne 100 not out in 1958, Franklyn Burke 145 in 1962, V. Seneviratne 110, Merille Dunuwille 100 in 1970, Premlal de Silva 148 in 1973, Bernard Perera 155 not out in 1976, Marlon Vonghaut 123, Angelo Wickremasuriya 114.

For the Trinitaians M.D.D. Jayawardene 120 in 1922, L.C de Mel 111 in 1923, T.B. Werapitiya 100 and 143 in 1943 and 1944, Jayantissa Ratwatte 103 in 1960, M.T.M.Zaruk 101 in 1964, Lalith Ramanayake 110 in 1970, Niroshan de Silva 100 in 1971, Naren Dambawinne 135 in 1978 and Kaushalya Weeraratne 140 in 2000 have gone into the record books as the centurians.

It is said in 1948 the Anthonians led by L. Pamunuwa and coached By John Halangoda an old Trinitian beat the Trinitians by 151runs after 18 long years at the Katugastota matting wicket. This year the Anthonain team was spelled out of crickets in the calibre of L. Pamunuwa, T.K.Hannan, T.M.A. Cooray, S. Jayasinghe . S Bareback, C. Dassanayake, S.Samaradasa, P. Abeyasinghe, E. Cooray, T. Pararajasingham, Stanley 'Dickie' Dunuwille who was hero of the game with a match bag of 2 for 37 and 5 for 19 in the second innings.

Then in 1986 Thushara Weerasuriya led the Trinitans to defeat the Anthonians at Katugastota by 7 wickets after a lapse of 35 years. This Trinity side was made out of Thushara Weerasuriya (Capt), Denham Madena, Chaminda Unantanne, Mevan Ballale, Romesh Jayawardene, C.I. Fernando, S.K. Premasinghe, S. Ratnakumaran, Sanjeewa Jayawardene, Dasarath Kiridena and P. Nanayakkara and the Trinitians were coached by Royalist Shaw Wilson.

The Antonians had the legendary Jack Anderson among their ranks who stole the show for three consecutive years and still holds the record for the highest individual score made by a schoolboy cricketer 291 not out against S. Thomas College, Colombo in 1918. Jack Anderson's score of 111 against Trinity in 1918 is the 1st century to be made at the Asgiriya grounds.

The limited over encounter is scheduled to be played on March 20. The match is played for the Sir Richard Aluvihare Trophy and was started in 1980. Former Sri Lankan test player Ravi Ratnayake was the captain of the Trinity team, while the Antonians were led by Angelo Liyanage. The first match was played at Asgiriya Grounds. This apparently was the first limited over match to be played between two Kandy schools. Out of the 24 matches played, St. Anthony's has won thirteen matches and Trinity nine. Two matches ended without decision in 1993 and 2003 respectively due to bad weather. The Antonians have dominated the series in the first ten matches played with eight victories, including four consecutive wins from 1987 to 1990. Trinitians have performed well during the latter years registering seven victories. They created an upset by beating the formidable Antonian team of 1991, which was the All Island champs. Trinity repeated this in 1992, when they beat Antonians after losing the Big Match a week before.

On March 13 & 14, it will be for those young and old to make sure they see the “Lux de Coelo”- light from heaven as the Antonian motto goes or if they will have to “respice finem look to end. Time will tell.