Rev. Fr. Peter A. Pillai Trophy Football encounter tomorrow
St. Benedict's team
A good game of football is on the cards when St. Joseph’s College meet St. Benedict’s College in the annual encounter for the Rev. Fr. Peter A. Pillai Trophy tomorrow at the Sugathadasa Stadium, kick-off at 4.00pm. Incidentally this is the opening match of the 2017 All Island Under-19 Football Tournament organised by Sri Lanka Schools Football Association.
As the two schools were included in the same group the respective Soccer Advisory Committees took up this chance to revive the traditional Joe-Ben encounter which has a history of more than 120 years and is one of the oldest sporting event in the school’s sports calendar.
In the past the Josephian – Benedictine Soccer match was the glamour match in the school soccer season and was a much look forwarded encounter for old boys and sports fans. As per records the inaugural match between the two schools was played in 1896 the year St. Joseph’s College was founded. Several members of the staff turned out for both schools which used be the norm for school sports events during this period. The inaugural match was won by St. Joseph’s.
For the first 32 years of its existence St. Joseph’s reigned supreme in the school soccer season including a run of eight consecutive inter school championships in the 1920s. Their run was finally broken in 1928 when St. Benedict’s beat them at the Tamil Union grounds by 2-0. Incidentally it was the first time that St. Benedict’s had won this annual encounter. In fact up to World War II, the Benedictines were able to defeat their Darley road counterparts only thrice and that was in 1928, 1932, and 1935. Post World War II it was the Benedictines who dominated school soccer and they recorded several victories in the annual soccer encounter.
St. Joseph’s recorded their greatest margin of victory (6-0) in 1914 which is the biggest win in the annual soccer encounter, although St. Joseph’s had a 7-0 win in a Rockmount Cup fixture in 1963. They also won 5-0 in 1915, 1934 and 4-0 in 1964. Other good wins (3-0) registered by the Joes were in 1921, 1922, 1927 and 1957. The greatest margin of victory for St. Benedict’s was (5-1) in 1961 to be followed up by a similar victory in 1965. They won 4-0 in 1959 and 4 -1 in 1967 and also had three other (3-0) good wins in 1945, 1963 and 1968. Most other games were evenly matched with the decision going one way or other by narrow margins. The Chevalier John Rodrigo Memorial trophy was awarded for the first time in the history of the encounter in 1964. Joes led by Hesketh Kuruppu won this encounter by 4-0.
How could one forget the players who graced this annual fixture in the days of late. V. A. Sugathadasa, N. H. Keerthirathna, Sarangapany brothers, Jayawardena brothers, Albert Fernando, Denzil Wailes, Eric Perera and Rozen Rodrigo of St. Benedicts and Anthony Abeysinghe, Herbert Wittachi, Peter Ranasinghe, Durand Perera, Bagoos Saldin, Joy and Berchman de Alwis, Terrance Kuruppu and Calistus Pillai of St. Josephs to name few, who drew crowds to this battle royal with their dazzling display.
Unfortunately from the latter part of 70′s until 1994, there were no annual soccer encounters between these soccer giants. This is due to the fact that schools were more interested in tournaments rather than friendly annual fixtures. The annual fixture was revived again in 1995 and was played for Rev. Fr. Peter A. Pillai Trophy with the match ending in a 1-1 draw. The 1996 encounter which was the centennial encounter between both teams was well organized to raise the profile of the encounter as in past. The match was played under lights at the Sugathadasa Stadium with a large crowd in attendance. The Josephian team which was one of the successful school teams of all time trophy wise, as they had won the All Island Schools Soccer Championship, National School Games Soccer Championship and Brazil Cup in the 1995/96 season went on to win by 4-1 to crown their season. Unfortunately again from the late nineties the annual encounter hasn’t been played up to now.
The Soccer Advisory Committees of both schools hope to revive this great football tradition from this year onwards and to play the matches annually irrespective of results. They stated that in the days gone by a healthy rivalry has existed between these two great Catholic colleges and that this year will be no exception. From next year onwards Junior matches as well as an Old Boys match are planned to be held along with the main Under 19 match.
St. Joseph's team
This year, the soccer encounter is sponsored by Renown Sports Club one of the leading football club in Sri Lanka. The Peeris brothers owners of the Club and benefactors of St. Benedict’s football in the past and St. Joseph’s presently are honoured to revive this great encounter again as they have close contacts with both schools. They are all Old Benedictines while Albert Fernando, Edward Jayawardena and Edward Wickramasuriya the main past coaches of Renown SC are products of St. Benedict’s College as well. Whereas the second generation of the family are mostly Old Josephians with Sritharan Peeris being a member of the centennial big match team of 1996. A new trophy will be launched this year and will be donated by Mr. Crispin Peeris an old Benedictine.
This year’s encounter should also be a close one with both Joes and Bens fielding strong outfits. St. Joseph’s in the recent past has been a leading performer in the schools soccer arena and are the defending All Island Under 19 and Under 15 All Island Soccer champions. As for the Bens they have done well in the recent qualifiers for the National School Games.
The Joes and Bens will be led by third year coloursman Jason Fernando and Stehan Pillai respectively. AFC ‘C’ License holder, Anura Sampath, the head coach of Joes, predicts a good win for Joes. Lasantha, the head coach of Bens too predicts same but the a win for Bens.