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When nine Thomian batsmen failed to get off the mark
Though the big event of the celebration of the 125th big-match between the students of Royal and S. Thomas' is scheduled to take place at the Sinhalese Sports Club Grounds four days hence, did anyone ever pause to think if they got the date wrong? No doubt, this is not a new revelation.

This has been argued before, and it has been generally settled by both Colleges amicably, that the first recorded Royal-Thomian should be considered the match in 1879, and that therefore this is in fact the 125th encounter.

But in 1879 even though it was the first ever match between the two institutions, the two sides had a mixture of teachers and students, and the 'star' of the match was Mr. Ashley Walker (a Cambridge 'Blue' who was also a cricketer who represented the English County Middlesex. Incidentally, he bowled underarm in this match, turning out to be the initiator and main wicket taker of the match. The Colombo Academy (Royal) was captained by Mr. Ashley Walker himself while Rev. S.J. Meyrick captained S. Thomas'.

The match was won by the Academy by 56 runs. However the real 'students only' match was played a year later and it was a third term match. The game took place at the Galle Face Green on 29 and 30th October 1880. The honour of the first student to lead the Academy went to J.W. de Silva while F.W. McDonell led the Thomians. The Academy taking the first lease of the wicket ran up to make a total 110 runs with Wilfred de Kretser (23), skipper J.W. de Silva (10), P. Jansz (17) and William de Kretser (22) entering double figures. For S. Thomas' J. Lourensz captured five wickets.

In that era preserving scores may not have such a priority because in this game the number of wickets captured by a bowler is recorded, but the number of overs and runs are not recorded. In reply to the Academy score, the Thomians took lease of the wicket only to find things were not easy for them against some tight bowling by the Academy captain De Silva.

The Thomians were all out for 59 runs in their first innings, skipper J.W. de Silva running through the Thomian batting line-up with seven wickets. Royal batting for the second time had their own share of problems as they were skittled for a mere 35 runs. It is worthy to note that even though they were all out for 35 runs, there was not a single 'duck' in the Academy second innings. For S. Thomas' C. de Saram (5) and J.Lourensz (3) were the wicket takers.

The target of having to make 87 runs to win the match did not look too big a task, but ironically it did become too big for the Thomians. Once again J.W. de Silva was a danger man and S. Thomas' in their second innings were shot out for only 24 runs. What a mess they got into in that game losing the match by 62 runs. De Silva ended the match with 14 wickets to his credit.

In the entire game nine Thomian batsmen failed to get off the mark. S. Thomas' captain F.W. McDonell along with C. Wilkins and C. H. de Saram "wore spectacles" as the term came to be known as they failed to get off the mark in both innings. There was only one batsman (C. Wellopulle 23) who got into double figures for S. Thomas' in both innings.

And so, the game continued from there henceforth being played only by the students of the two Colleges up-to-date, in a glorious tradition second only to the encounter by two Colleges in Adelaide, Australia - the difference just an year.

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