Lalin’s Column: Bradby shield - Trinity –the cradle of Rugby - v Royal College

The second leg of the Bradby between Trinity and Royal College is to be played at Bogambara, Kandy on 26 June. The Bradby Shield is awarded on the aggregate of the 2 matches played (in 1971 when only one match was played due to SL’s first counter terrorist conflict). The series started in 1945.

The 2 schools however first started playing each other in 1920 although Trinity started playing rugby in 1906. Over 145 matches have since been played between the schools. Trinity leads, just.

The shield was presented by Principal Mr. Bradby in 1945 to make sure that Royal College did not give up the game. There was and has been no concern at Trinity on that score as playing rugby is close to being 2nd nature to the doughty hill men.
In 1945 there were only 2 other schools in the reckoning, even if not playing regularly, Zahira and St Peter’s. The game is now played all over SL except in the North, North Central and the Eastern Provinces. It is very much hoped that the schools there too will soon take up to this game, now that there is nothing except bone dry grounds to stop those intrepid and stalwart boys. The expectations of Bradby have been fulfilled beyond his royal expectations.

Trinity too was very concerned about Royal College’s commitment as otherwise it would have very limited schools opposition, even if there were always the Kandy SC and a few Colombo clubs around to give them a match. In the mid 1950s there was a match against Kiwi naval cadets off a RNZN training ship. By then another 4 schools, STC, SJC Wesley and from Ambalangoda, Dharmasoka College, (introduced to and coached by a Trinitian naturally), took to the game.

Trinity it is rumoured adopted a very sophisticated and ingenious plan, not known to many, to doubly ensure that Royal College did not give up rugby even if they kept the Bradby. For over 25 years the Royal College rugby master was an old Trinitian. Every now and again Trinity has allowed the latter to win. At the turn of the century when Royal College may have again been contemplating ‘discede’ after 4 years of continuous defeats, Trinity graciously allowed the latter also to win for 4 years. Thus is Bradby remembered by a grateful Trinity to preserve rugby at Royal College. All this adds to the myths and fables if not traditions of the Bradby.

Royalists enthralled at playing Trinity, are willing to pay through their noses for the privilege at their security netting protected ‘Complex’. The price of a ticket is Rs 2,000 for the Bradby only! At Bogambara, the most expensive ticket is Rs 700/= which Trinitians may think is a bit much to see the Royalists play.

Royal College leaves no stone unturned to keep the series alive. Like some Colombo schools, outstanding players from other schools, but not as many as 11 as in one saintly Colombo school this year, are recruited on the quiet. This has led to interesting sequels when the school song is sung before the game. The imported boys mime the words hopelessly but grasp their chests with the right hand to make sure, in Royal American style, that their hearts even if not the words, do not fall out. The Trinity Principal has said he will not allow ‘imports’ to play.

There is at each leg of the Bradby a chief guest, who is by tradition a former captain of the home side. This is a jealously guarded tradition. No other school that plays Royal is allowed this gesture. As there are 2 matches each year, the waiting list of previous Bradby captains who are to be the chief guests is not too long even though some of them come from foreign climes for the match to do the honours. Other schools have still to come to terms with the reasoning behind the decision when their request for ‘chief guests’ is turned down by Royal College.

Before the referees association was formed, another tradition was for an old boy of either school to referee one leg, with the Colombo leg been done by a Trinitian and the Kandy leg by a Royalist. This put considerable pressure on the referee to avoid any error of judgment which could be misunderstood and affect the bond that glued the schools, the game and the Bradby. Older Trinitians recall with awe if not shock Sidney de Zoysa (DIG Crimes) refereeing, while for the Royalists the memories of the very high spirited Lt Col Bertie Dias are less diluted. The fact that these 2 gentlemen were also the respective coaches mattered little to either school. Even though no longer permitted by officialdom, it helped to build the Bradby traditions of enduring and impeccable sportsmanship.

After each leg there is a formal dinner for the 2 teams at each location at which an Old Boy of the home school alone makes a speech. A few years ago, for the first time, the Trinity Principal was also invited to speak. Royal College does not have an after rugger match dinner with any other school. That’s what the Bradby tradition means to them. It suffers no other claimants.

In the years gone by the 2 schools used to also have a debate after the match. Trinitians of the 1950s remember a later popular State Minister for Defence ‘s cerebral and gentlemanly debating skills as he struggled valiantly, nay audaciously, to attempt to get back to Royal College that very night the Bradby shield lost at Bogambara in the evening. A few years before, it was a later famous Foreign Minister in a win win situation that knocked the Royalists over with a sparkling speech in the hallmark style that later held audiences spell bound in world forums.

The high point of Kandyan social life was always the Trinity Ball at the Queen’s Hotel after the Kandy leg. While that tradition continues, the Royalists (the school has reportedly 7,000 boys on its roll) have regularly brought in over whelming reinforcements to strengthen the tradition. They have this year booked 3 hotels in Kandy for 3 Royal College Balls. Reports of Royalists thereafter falling into the Kandy Lake or rolling down Kadugannawa Pass are normally censored.

SL Railways has laid on a Bradby Special train after a nearly 30 year break to take the Royalists (only) to Kandy for the 2nd leg on 26 June, possibly to bring the Kandy lake to spill level with copious tears after the match, dance and drink their sorrows away in the night and return unharmed to Colombo on Sunday. The cost is a Royal fee of Rs 20,000/=per person. Even without the use of the train they always outnumbered the Trinitians 3:1 at Bogambara. Trinity has never offered to contest in quantity at either location except for the points scored at the match.

Two weeks ago in Colombo the players were led onto the grounds in European style, by elderly junior Royalists. They made it a bit of a problem for the chief guest to reach over them to shake hands with the players lined up behind.

At Bogambara in the 1970s, Trinity’s hewisi band and classical Kandyan dancing troupe introduced to Bradby spectators a spectacle of grace, rhythm and reverberating music that has been unmatched nationally and acclaimed internationally. This format has since been adapted by most other schools adding splendour to their fixtures and sports events.

A few years ago Trinity also had a mini perahera with lumbering elephants and swaying Kandyan dancers accompanied by the pulsating beat of Kandyan drums winding its way through the streets of Kandy into the Bogambara grounds to thunderous applause. Some, not all, Royalists, strong on Kandyan history, were seen getting ready for the worst.

There is no breath taking more beautiful rugby grounds than Bogambara in SL. The sward is always deep up country green. Over looked by hills which inspired the Kandyans through the ages there is a loveliness that sets the scene for great, unforgettable, open and thrilling rugby. The legendary stunning captivating good looks of the fair Kandyan ladies, fashionably dressed in striking colours with red predominating, makes the setting even more incomparable. The back ground is of the Trinity boys in their spotless white school uniforms behind the goal posts on the hospital side. While first timers are spell bound and glued to their seats, it inspires both teams to reach for the sky.

Then comes the most stirring and splendid sight on a rugby field: the glorious red gold and blue strips of Trinity as its players run on to the field. Strains of the rugby song ‘Wrap me up in my Trinity blazer’ echo round the grounds. It all reminds everyone of the place Trinity has in rugby in SL. Bogambara is a twinning of the cradle and the home of Sri Lankan rugby.

The Bradby is not about winning the shield. It is bigger than the players and the game. It is about 2 schools that have built a reputation and a tradition that even if unenvied is yet admired by schools that play rugby. It sets the standard both in skills and more importantly in conduct. That is why at Bogambara, the referees decisions are never (seriously) questioned whatever the eyes of the spectators and not that of the referee’s witness as at the ‘Complex’ 2 weeks ago. Fisticuffs have probably taken place only once and that not at Bogambara. Hooting, a boorish, crude, shameless and disgraceful SL habit indulged by far too many boys and adults including ladies when kicks at goal are taken, is not welcome but does unfortunately happen even as shouts of ‘stop it’ roll from all sides. When the last whistle blows, however much disappointment it arouses on one side, the result is not questioned. This is why old boys flock not only from all parts of SL but also from ‘far flung corners’ of the Commonwealth and USA to the Bradby. The friendship and camaraderie between the players last a life time.

No Royalist however will forget their only visit to Trinity’s own new rugby grounds Pallekelle (circa early 1990s) when after being defeated, they despaired in the pitch dark as they blundered along to find their way back not to Kandy but to their vehicles which they knew were parked close by but not where. It was a far cry from the urban comfort of well lit Longden Place and Sugathadasa Stadium. It delayed their mournful wake at the Citadel Hotel but gave them a greater thirst and hunger. Bogambara gives them a better chance to escape.

What of the memories of the players? That is the stuff of legends that adorn all match souvenirs and is another story, far too long to be included here in full without doing justice to all those who made Bradby history great. Mention of the foreigners who played for Trinity (which has sister schools in Ghana –Achimoto- , Jaffna (St John’s), Colombo (Ladies’) and Kandy (Hillwood) from Uganda (AN Myanga -1925 and Michael Kagwa 1945) and Burma, (Than On - 1925, M Khim Maung -1928 ),will not however be out of place.

There is no question about which side is the better. As far as the schools are concerned theirs is the better one and the side that will win.

Best of Kandyan luck Trinity and may Royal College make it a good game. The Bradby is safe with either side.

- Asian Tribune -