Scoring a century in a Royal-Thomian match
Standing 6 ft plus, Michael Wille was captain of the Royal College first XI team during the season 1956-7. During that era, school cricket was of a high order and spectators (including schoolboys who used to ‘cut’ College) flocked to the various grounds to watch their ‘stars’ in action.
That year, Royal College, Colombo, did not have too strong a team, and Wille’s deputy was Lorenz Pereira – different personalities. The skipper was a thinker on the game (I think he still does!) while his deputy played the many games he participated and excelled in, merely for the joy in the participation. I had the fortune of playing in that side.
However thanks to Michael Wille’s discipline and captaincy skills, Royal went through the season undefeated and notched up three wins before the 1957 Royal-Thomian encounter.
S. Thomas’s batted first and notched up 259 runs in the first innings and Royal had an uncomfortable half-hour to contend with on Friday. Opening batsman and skipper, Wille did not dodge the issue and opened the batting. But with the score at 68/4 on Saturday, things looked bleak for Royal. However, skipper Wille (121) associated himself for the fifth wicket with deputy Lorenz Pereira (57) in a partnership of 117 runs and saved Royal from possible defeat.
Michael Wille’s innings of 121 – almost half the Royal total of 249 – in my opinion, was one of the greatest innings at a Royal-Thomian I had the pleasure of watching (and playing in). Let Wille continue from here:
“………..We had an awkward hour or so to survive on Friday evening and the first ball from Denis was delivered at a ferocious pace and took me by surprise…….
The ball hit the shoulder of my bat and went down to fine leg and I got a single.
The ball could have gone anywhere and I could have been out for a duck off the first ball I received, so luck plays a big part in our destiny.
I was concentrating so hard that I just played one ball at a time and didn’t look at the scoreboard.
When the umpire called ‘stumps’ we were about 45 for 2, which was not good but could have been worse.
The next day was much the same except that I had decided not to try and hook Denis.
This was a strategy I had decided on well before the match.
The previous year I tried to hook him and he nearly broke my arm so I had decided to duck the two or three bouncers he bowled every over.
I saw Dennis as the main threat as he could have gone through us if he got on a roll and I tried to keep him away from the ‘freshers’.
The partnership that saved us was the 115-run partnership with Lollo (Lorenz) for the fifth wicket.
Thomian leg-spinner Idroos was good but he had a tough task bowling to two left handlers on a good wicket.
When we left the field for the ‘milk interval’ I looked at the scoreboard and saw that I was 96.
I recall that there were a lot of ‘old boys’ in the dressing room giving me advice on how to make the next four runs but I took no notice of them.
I only recall Satha (batting maestro Sathasivam), who was my boyhood cricket hero, when he came into the dressing room to wish me well.
In the first over after the ‘milk interval’ I drove Ronnie Reid through the covers and when turning for the third run I saw the ball cross the ropes and said to myself, ‘a hundred in the Royal Thomian, how good is that’, meaning that I had never dreamed of achieving this Holy Graille.
The game stopped for a few minutes while the Thomians congratulated me.
I looked at the scoreboard and concluded that we had saved the match which was what we needed to do after the Thomians had made 250 plus.
I suddenly felt both exhilarated and mentally exhausted and the thought of breaking Ronnie’s record didn’t cross my mind because I don’t think I could have maintained that level of concentration much longer, maybe the responsibility of Captaincy played a part.
As you know, I then went berserk and was inevitably bowled by Denis for 121.
Mahinda, I must tell you something else:
At the start of my first year (‘54), (Mr.Harold Samaraweera, our master-in-charge cricket) held a ‘team bonding’ dinner at his home in Havelock Park.
A player – Selvi Perinpanayagam – asked our coach Mr. Barney Gunasekera: ‘Sir, what does it feel like to score a century in the Royal Thomian?’ (Mr. Gunasekera scored 148 and captured 7/57 in the R-T of 1930.)
Barney gave the question some thought and replied with a humorous smile, ‘Selvi, like many things in life, anticipation is often better than realisation’.
I would be telling you a lie if I told you that I am not proud of the fact that I made a century in that match.
However, what Barney said in ‘54 is true: ‘anticipation is better than realisation’ and what gives me the greatest satisfaction is that we had a good season and ‘punched above our weight’.
The century is not important except in its contribution to the team effort and the outcome of the match.
On reflection, of the 4 years I played for Royal, the ‘57 side had the best ‘Espirit de Corps’ and here is my explanation for this phenomenon:
When there is a strong side the team divides into two groups, the veterans and the ‘freshers’.
The veterans are full of themselves and believe that the ‘freshers’ are beneath their dignity and the freshers banded together in self- preservation.
For instance, in ‘54 I cannot recall Nirma (Nirmalingam) or Ubaya (de Silva) or Freddie Kreltzheim) talking to me but I built up a strong friendship with Selvi who also was a’ fresher.’
In ‘57 there was myself, fourth year player, Captain, God (or ‘Hitler’ as I was named by Mahinda Wijesinghe) and 4 second year players.
In short, there was no ‘them and us’ in the team, we were all in it together, we swum or we sank and, fortunately, we swam.”