Hockey at Kingswood College in the mid Twentieth Century

Kingswood College, Kandy had a reputation for hockey during the mid-twentieth century. The school was way ahead of the schools in Matale which developed their hockey to the extent that there was no national team later on without two or three players from Matale.

Kingswood had Mr. Lennie de Silva as the hockey coach. Later on Mr. Leonidas James, who had come from India and had played hockey, also joined in coaching. Both were teachers and there was no remuneration for coaching at that time. In fact, Mr. James was so good in hockey that he was made captain of the Kandy District Hockey team in the first Hockey Nationals. Later when Mr. JCA Corea who was a teacher at Kingswood was appointed the Principal of Royal College, he took Mr. Lennie de Silva with him to Royal. Mr. de Silva started hockey at Royal. Now the two schools play a hockey match annually for the Lennie de Silva Trophy.

Alfred Rajoo was one of the finest dribblers produced by Kingswood and played just before Freddie White. He was able to take the ball on his hockey stick without letting it fall and run from one end of the field to the other. He and others who were very good never got an opportunity to play for the national side as there were not many tournaments then to enable players to show their abilities.

Kingswood produced one of the finest goalkeepers in Freddie White, the younger brother of Duncan White. He was, at one time considered to be Asia’s finest goalie. Thereafter Derrick Harvie also from Kingswood, represented Sri Lanka when he was still a schoolboy. Then Iqbal Jumar followed.

Other than those mentioned above, there were other outstanding players from Kingswood who did yeomen service for their clubs and employers. Dilsiri “Bullet” Peiris played as fullback for the Railway and for the Government Services team at the Nationals with Mylvaganam. Mylvaganam was famous for his bullet like shots at the goal from short corners where he rarely missed netting a goal. TS Adahan played as fullback for the Bank of Ceylon and also for the Nationalized Services at the Hockey Nationals with me as the other fullback.

The other hockey players of note from Kingswood were Roy de Silva (Kandy District at the Nationals and later Kandy Whites), Dr. Quintus de Zylwa (for the University of Ceylon, now domiciled Down Under), MS Jumar (University of Ceylon), Jitha Jayasuriya, Herby Jayasuriya and Sathiyan(Police).

The hockey I learnt at Kingswood stood me in good stead as I played for Kandy District in the Hockey Nationals and later for Kandy Whites (when we won the inter club tournament conducted by the Kandy District Hockey Association. I captained the Ceylon Transport Board the year the CTB won the Nationalized Services tournament. I also played for the Government Services and Nationalized Services at the Hockey Nationals as well as the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, captaining the team in my final year when we won the inter club tournament conducted by the Kandy District Hockey Association. That was the first time the University won the championship, and it took another decade or more for Peradeniya to repeat the performance.

The forming of the Kandy Whites hockey team was a boon to women’s hockey in Kandy when we organized the women’s team which became a formidable unit, beating some of the ladies’ teams in Colombo. The captain of the team, Zohara Jumar, later became the captain of the national side. The majority of the players in the Kandy Whites men’s team were old Kingswoodians (Roy de Silva, Reza Jumar, Rasheed Ali, Kan Butani, KH de Silva and myself).

The hockey I learnt at Kingswood helped me to be a member of the University of Ceylon (Colombo and Peradeniya combined team) that travelled to India to play in the All-India Universities tournament in Ahmedabad in 1961. More importantly, it enabled me to conduct a hockey camp for schoolboys in Nuwara Eliya with my Vice Captain at Peradeniya, SB (later Dr.) Ekanayake. I started hockey at Talatuoya Central College where I was teaching for a short period. The Under 17 team, after about three months training, was able to beat Nugawela Central College who had been playing hockey for some time.

HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE