Denzil Kobbekaduwa – officer and gentleman
View(s):Denzil Kobbekaduwa, one of the best allround students to come out of Trinity College Kandy representing his alma-mater in Rugby football and hockey. Denzil represented the ‘Lions’ in 1957 and 1958 under Ken De Joodt and the following year he led the Trinity outfit ending up with a ‘Lion’ for Rugby.
He played along with some top class players such as Tyron Herman, Ken Murray, Haroon Chunchie, Gamini Fernando, Jayantha Jayawardena, Dinesh Janiram, Sari de Silva, Eric Roles, Mohamed Azain, R. Madugalle, N. Madugalle, Jayantissa Ratwatte, Tony Bulltjens and Malcom Talwatte. At hockey he was the vice-captain in 1959 and won his colours.
The famous picture of General Denzil Kobbekaduwa
He also played cricket and took part in athletics for Trinity. Denzil was a prefect and ended as the senior prefect of the school but it lasted only for seven days as he was selected for the Sri Lanka Army, then the Ceylon Army while he was a schoolboy.
Denzil represented Sri Lanka Army, Havelocks SC and Kandy SC after leaving school. In 1969 he led Kandy SC to reach the knockout finals losing to CR and FC. Later on from 1970 to 1972 he played for Army SC once more. While playing for Sri Lanka Army, Denzil was the Secretary of the Ceylon Rugby Football Union (CRFU).
He was also leading referee officiating for more than 11 years from 1974 to 1985, officiating some of important club and school encounters. The players always respected his fair decisions and he was one of the most disciplined referees to officiate from the referees’ society. Kandy Sports Club named its club house as the Late General Denzil Kobbekaduwa.
Without any doubt he was one of the top students to do a yeoman service for the school and the country. He died when the vehicle he was travelling was caught in a land mine on August 8 in 1992.
Trinity is playing three trophy games — one against Royal in the Bradby Shield, second one against S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia in the Canon R. De Saram Trophy and the third against St. Peter’s College for the General Dennis Perera Trophy. It will be a fitting tribute to one of the greatest sons of Trinity to name a rugby game in his honour. The Schools League Rugby game against Isipathana College would be an ideal trophy match if Trinity College officials could make the initiative.
-SJ