The much awaited 103rd big match between Trinity College and St. Anthony’s College which is called Kandy's Battle ofthe Blues” will take place on June 3 and 4, under the distinguished patronage of one of the top sportsmen of Trinity College Maj. Gen. Nihal Marambe who, during his playing days in 1960’s was one of the finest cricketers.
This game is played for the John Halangoda trophy which was introduced in 2005, He was a Trinity College cricketer and later became the coach of St. Anthony’s College and guided them to beat his school in 1948. In the series Trinity College leads the overall tally with 23 wins while St. Anthony’s College has won 11 and 68 have been drawn.
The one day will be the 40th encounter which will be played under the distinguished patronage of 1992 captain Kelum Ediriisnghe for the Sir Richard Aluvihare trophy. The match is set to be played on the 11th of June. Both games will be at the Asgiriya Stadium, which is going to be well organized to mark the Trinity College’s 150th year. This big match is known as the Hill Country Battle of the Blues the leading annual cricket Big Match of the hill country since 1914.
This time performance wise both sides are equal, but anything can happen. This is the sixth oldest big match in the country.
In the big match Trinity’s last win came under the captaincy of Niroshan Dickwella in 2012 where they broke a 25-year hoodoo to win by an innings and one run. The Antonians are still to win an encounter this century their last one coming in 1991 under the captaincy of Umesh de Alwis. It is the Trinitians who dominated the series in the early years to such an extent that they won the ‘Big’ match a record eleven times in a row from 1918 to 1928.
St. Anthony’s College are the current holders of the trophy after their first innings win in 2019 as they managed to restrict Trinity College to 173 after posting 298 for the loss of eight wickets. The first encounter was played at the Bogambara ground in March 1914 where the Antonians won. Trinity won the next match. from 1918 to 1929. During World War I, the premises of St. Anthony’s College(presently St. Sylvester’s College) were occupied by the British Army. As a result, Antonian cricket was hampered and they lost to Trinity 11 times consecutively.
Some of the past records and notable performances of the big match are JackAnderson (St. Anthony’s) in 1918 scoring 111 runs which was the first century in the series, Antonian ACM Lafir making 176, the highest individual score and he and Ronnie Stevens being involved in an opening stand of 266 runs with the former making 176 and the latter 120. The lowest total is 37 by Trinity in 1951 and St. Anthony’s 44 in 1938.
In bowling C. Dharmalingam of Trinity in 1939 took a double hat- trick and Lalith Ramanayake scored the fastest 100 in 72 minutes in 1970. Antonian Merrill Dunuwille scored the first 100 at Katugastota after the laying of the turf wicket. Centuries: Jack Anderson (SACK) 111(1918), M.D.D.T. Jayawardena (TCK) 120 (1922), L.C. de Mel (TCK) 111 (1923), T.B. Werapitiya (TCK) 100 (1943), T.B. Werapitiya (TCK) 143 (1944), Ronnie Stevens(TCK) 102 (1952), Ronnie Stevens 120 (1954), ACM Lafir 176 (1954), S.W. Seneviratne (SACK) 100 (1958), Charlie Joseph 127 (1960), Jayantissa Ratwatte(TCK) 103 (1960), Franklyn Burke (SACK)145 (1962), Wasantha Seneviratne (SACK)110 (1964), M.T.M. Zarook (TCK) 110 (1964), Ralston Burke (SACK) 165 (1965), Randy Sims (SACK) 100 (1969), Merill Dunuwille (SACK) 106 (1970), Lalith Ramanayake(TCK) 110 (1970), Niroshan de Silva (TCK) 100 (1971), Premalal de Silva (SACK)148 (1973), Bernard Perera (SACK) 155 (1976), Naren. Dambawinne (TCK) 130 (1978), Marlon Vonhagt (SACK) 123 (1983), Angelo Wickremasuriya (SACK) 144 (1984), Nuwan Kalpage (SACK) 100 (1990), Kaushalya Weeraratne (TCK) 148 (1999), Shameera Wijesooriya (TCK) 114 (2009).
There had been some outstanding bowling performances in the series when Dickey Dunuwille took 6 for 10 in 1948. In 1939 that mystery spinner C. Dharmalingam performed the hat-trick in both innings for Trinity. In the first innings, he took 6 for 17 and 6 for 31 in the second and this most probably is a world record. This gave him a match bag of 12 for 48. In 1938 too he routed the Antonians with the then best bowling analysis of 9 for 74 and this was bettered in the mid-nineties by Trinity’s Suranga Fernando who captured all ten wickets in an innings. Eustace Rulach too had fine figures of 5 for 8 in 1951.
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