The Royal-Thomian spectacle: Potted history of the series

By Chandana de Silva

The Royal versus S. Thomas’ cricket match, better known as the Royal-Thomian, is the second-longest uninterrupted cricket match series in the world, the oldest being the series between St. Peter’s College and Prince Alfred College, South Australia. The match is even older than the Ashes, having been played for 139 years continuously.

The colourful history that comes hand in hand with the match dates back to 1879 is known as The Battle of the Blues due to the colours of the two schools’ flags i.e. blue, gold and blue of Royal College and blue, black and blue of S. Thomas’ College.

The original match was played between the Colombo Academy and S. Thomas’ College, Mutwal in 1879, with schoolmasters and schoolboys participating. Ashley Walker captained the Colombo Academy while Rev. S. J. Meyrick, a member of the staff played for S. Thomas’ College, Mutwal. 

In 1880, only the students took part and this first official encounter between the Colombo Academy and S. Thomas’ College, Mutwal in Modara was played at Galle Face Grounds, which is today the site of the Taj Samudra Hotel. 

The match commenced at 4p.m. each day. The Beira Lake stretched up to the present railway line close to San Sebastian Hill and the two teams rowed across in boats to the Galle Face Grounds.

 In this first encounter Colombo Academy won by 62 runs. 

Royal College, Colombo is a public non-denominational school accommodating approximately 8,000 students and S. Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia is a private Anglican school that has about 2,500 boys on roll and a branch network of three constituent schools with a total of over 5,500 students. 

The series wins stand at 35 wins each, which is a remarkable statisticconsideringthat it has been played over 139 years.The longest winning streak was four wins in a row, which STC achieved from 1904-07 and Royal achievedfrom1929-32.

My experience from 1967-76

I was an impressionable eight-year-old when my father – an old Royalist, whilst I was a Thomian at that time – took me to the match in 1967. It was played at the P Sara stadium. It was a beautiful setting in an oval shaped ground and an absolutely captivating atmosphere. The singing and parading by the school boys was a sight to behold while the old boys, not to be outdone, sang lustily whilst cheering sometimes drunkenly and often good naturedly, their alma mater.

Most of the matches in the period between 1967 and 1976 were drawn but many of them were thrilling encounters. Most of the time it was STC grittily hanging on by the skin of their teeth to secure an honourable draw. I am guessing that the phrase “Thomian grit” was coined during this period! The only result was in the 1969 match when STC lost sadly for me, as I was an ardent Thomian supporter at the time. As you may have guessed, I switched allegiance when I moved to RC in 1972 for the last five years of my school education.

Despite the drawn matches, there was outstanding batsmanship during this period. The stand out batsman was DuleepMendis (STC), who scored 184 out of a team total of less than 250 when he got out. He went on to not only play for Sri Lanka but also captain the national team. He had the distinction of scoring twin centuries in a Test match against India and missed by a mere four runs of performing the same feat against England at Lord’s.   

In the mid-seventies that the venue for this tie shifted to the SSC grounds and I am guessing it was to accommodate a larger crowd. This was a larger ground and the numbers attending this encounter has increased quite significantly over the years. I believe that the numbers now are around 30,000.

How the spectacle has evolved to the present day

The most anticipated event of the year in the Sri Lankan school calendar is probably the Royal-Thomian ‘Big match’.  The match is looked forward to by both young and old, male and female and even those who has no connection with either school would turn up and enjoy the celebrations.

The ‘Battle of the Blues’ is filled with pageantry. With decorated tents, flags and baila singing and dancing groups present all around the city and the ground itself during the match days and in the days leading up to it. 

The match is held on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday. By tradition, the schools are closed on match days to allow students to attend the Big Match. Souvenirs are published by both schools and are sold on all three days as a memento. The duty of distribution entrusted to the souvenir committees. 

On the day before the match, the students of each school travel around the city in a ‘cycle parade’ with bands and decorations and other colourful items showing support for their team. Girls’ schools are often the object of their attention and has had to be curbed to some degree over the years. Overloaded cars with supporters singing and careering along the Colombo streets is a familiar sight during match days.

The match is looked forward to by both the young and old, male and female and even those who had no connection with either school would turn up and enjoy the celebrations. 

This game attracts more spectators than almost any other game played in Sri Lanka. Sadly, despite the national team playing cricket at the highest level of global competition, it does not attract even a fraction of the numbers that this game attracts. And this is largely because for many who come to this game the cricket is incidental. 

It is a good opportunity to catch up with friends from their school going days, share a joke and a laugh and drink to excess! Despite this, the spectators conduct themselves with decorum and the occasional misbehaviour is handled expertly by the match organising committee. 

Not surprisingly, a huge amount of organisation and planning goes into every game. The organising committee is composed of old boys from both schools and the chairmanship of this committee alternates between the two schools. This year’s committee is led by my STC Prep school batchmate S. Rajmohan, known affectionately as Babu.

The atmosphere in the tents – and they have grown in number from the traditional three – is electric. It goes from extremely noisy at the Colts (this is a tent for the youngest of the old boys) to quite quiet at the Mustangs (attended by the oldest of the old boys). The Stallions are somewhere in-between on the noise-making front but the leader in the alcohol-consuming front!

In contrast, the atmosphere in the club house especially upstairs is sedate and silent. This is where the serious cricket watchers repair to. Of course, the fall of a wicket or a boundary is greeted with loud cheers but otherwise there isn’t much merriment which goes on here.  

As I look back over 50 years of watching this encounter (not continuously), I see that the anticipation of this match and the excitement of attending has not diminished at all. Many expat old boys time their travel plans to Sri Lanka to coincide with this match and so the numbers attending have continued to increase. 

As an old boy, the camaraderie and fellowship that this game provides is wonderful for the soul and enriches my life, as I and others like me, renew and refresh friendships, which have lasted a lifetime.