It is the second oldest Inter-school Cricket encounter in the island as two prestigious institutions Royal College and Wesley College will battle it out for the Sir Frank Gunasekara Shield at Campbell Park this Friday the 14th of February 2014.
The first encounter was played back in 1893 at San Sebastian Hill, Hulsdorf home of the Royalists. The hosts were led by F.S. de Silva while Percy de Bruin captained the visitors and one of the umpires was John Harward, then principal of Royal College. The Royalists won the inaugural encounter by 53 runs.
This time it will be the 121st encounter between the two schools where Royal lead the tally with 50 wins to Wesley’s 21 while 49 matches were ended drawn. The only break in the series came in 1943 when the grounds of both the schools were taken over during the Second World War.
The shield is named after a famous Ceylonese Senator, an old Royalist Sir Frank Gunaseakara who was the Deputy President of the Senate of Ceylon in 1948.
The shield was first awarded in 1969 with Wesley emerging victorious under the captaincy of Amaresh Rajaratnam. The result was made possible due to sporty declarations by both captains. Batting first, Wesley scored 260 for 9 while Royal replied with 207 for 7. With a lead of 53 runs from the first innings, Wesley declared at 105 for 8 giving Royalists a target of 158. Eventually Royal was bowled out in the last over for 148 runs to give a thrilling end to the game.
However fortunes were short lived, when Royal won it back in 1970, giving Wesley no other option but to wait for another 42 years to taste victory which they did so in 2012 under the captaincy of Ashen Fonseka.
The centenary encounter was played as a 3 day affair at the P.Sara Stadium in 1993 where Royal triumphed under the captaincy of Gamini Perera. The Wesleyites were led by Tehran Rasool. After bowling out Wesley for 103 runs, the Royalists posted a mammoth total of 411/6 where the skipper scored an unbeaten 152 runs. The match ended in two days when Wesley was bowled out for 112 in their second innings giving Royalists an emphatic win of innings and 196 runs. N. Rajan’s brilliant bowling earned him a match-bag of 10 wickets for 43 runs.
The highest individual score is held by Royalist Chulaka Amarasinghe who scored 207 not out in 1983 while batsman Roshan David’s 199 in 1990 stands as the highest for the Wesleyites. David’s 199 also happen to be the highest individual score by an opponent against Royal at any school cricket fixture.
Royal’s highest score 463 for 9 dec. came in 1930, while the highest score for Wesley is 368 all out in 1990.
Having won the encounter in 2012, Wesley currently holds the shield where the last win came for Royal in 2010.
This year the Wesleyites will be looking forward to holding on to the precious shield which they earned after a long wait while the Royalists will be hoping to do their utmost to bring it back to Reid Avenue.
