The History of The Old Beneditines’ Sports Club
Extracts from the St.Benedict’s College Millenium Magazine in 2000 from an Article written by former Vice President Late  Mr. Stanley Rodrigo

Origin – The Old Bens Sports Club was the brain child of Dr Cyril Fernando and a few others like Dr Sydney Jayawardene and Douglas Livera.

The club had its beginning in 1948 , when the College emerged the Inter-School Soccer champions of that year. Old Ben loyalists like Premnath Moraes , Chandra Ramanathan and J E Benedict , together with about 20 soccer crazy young Bens , most of whom had represented the College in  1st Eleven Soccer , wished to celebrate the occasion. But, since the Bens lacked a club house and amenities , Mr Moraes offered his residence at Mayfield Road as a temporary club house.

It was here that the first meeting and celebrations took place. As word went round , more eager Old Boys turned up. The club was lively in the evenings at Mayfield Road , and more often , after a victorious match the College eleven . The members themselves organised  friendly soccer matches which produced a few successes.

The Formulation of the Constitution and the Inauguration of Clubhouse at the Pavilion
As Mr Moraes shifted from Kotahena in 1951, the club became inactive temporarily. In 1958, the Old Bens Sports Club was revived with the blessings of then Director of College Rev Bro Alban Patrick who officially opened the upper floor  of the College  pavilion  as the club house for the Old Bens. A new constitution was formulated under the auspices and aegis of the OBU and it continues to be an affiliated body of the OBU  The Old Bens have since carried out their activities  from this elevated premises having a panoramic view of  the playground and the surroundings.

Billiards Table
In just over two years at the new  club premises the club was able to get what has been over the years a major asset and facility  , a valuable Billiards Table which is still being used. This table was purchased at an auction for Rs. 4,000/- by an active  committee member   Mr J P Perera and the treasurer Mr A J U L Ramanathan. The inauguration ceremony of the Table was graced by  Rev Bro Athanasius , then Director of the College,   Bro Lawrence Justinian , the Provincial Visitor , the President of the club Dr. Sydney Jayawardene  and the committee members..

Rhythm in the Cornfields
In 1962 a group of a dozen enthusiastic and talented singers from the club as well as a few well wishers staged a medley of country songs for the purpose of collecting funds for the Club  Bar and also for the upkeep of the sports teams. This group with great devotion and dedication practiced tenaciously and vigorously at the College Hall to present the musical extravaganza “Rhythm in the Cornfields” on the exquisitely designed stage of the College Hall, twice before packed audiences. The show was produced by Late Mr.Premnath Moraes assisted by Mr.Stanley Rodrigo. This magnanimous effort by the Bens was a great success and was the foundation for popular Old Benedictine choirs that were formed later.

The Quadrangular Tournament
The quad tournament  was initiated by the Old Bens Sports club in 1963 to commemorate the diamond Jubilee of the Old Boys Union of the College amongst the old boys of the four  Saint Schools of St Joseph’s, St Anthony’s Katugastota, St Peter’s and St Benedict’s. The  pioneering efforts of the Old Bens Sports club blossomed into an annul event building up a spirit of camaraderie  amongst the Old Boys  of the four Saints Schools. Initially matches were played over two weekends, which subsequently made a 50 over tournament on a knockout basis. The first quadrangular was won by the Old Antonians beating the Old Joes by 2 runs in a thrilling final at Kotahena.

The First Minister of Sports
In 1965 the Late Mr. V A Sugathadasa the founder of the famous Sugathadasa Stadium , an active committee member of the club during it’s formative years was appointed the First Minister of Sports of the Government of Sri Lanka. Mr. Sugathadasa was a skilled Soccer player and  represented the College in the year 1927

The Centenary Festival of Sports
In 1965 the Centenary Committee of the Old Boys Union headed by Dr.Sydney Jayawardene who was also the President of the Old Bens Sports Club,  entrusted the task of conducting a festival of sports to celebrate the centenary of the College, to the OBSC.

The hard working committee headed by the energetic and sporty Vice President Mr. Douglas Livera worked as a team to organize and conduct the festival over a period of 16 days from 24th July to 8th August 1965.

Eleven tournaments were held in the club premises, the College grounds and the Sugathadasa Stadium.There were invitation tournaments in Cricket, Basketball, Hockey, Relay Carnival and indoor sports Billiards and Snooker , Contract Bridge, table Tennis, carom and Draughts which were open events.

The club was a  hive of activity during the centenary year. One recalls with pleasure the wisdom of organizing the Annual Soccer encounter between St.Benedict’s and St.Joseph’s  at the Sugathadasa Stadium which drew large crowds.

The closing ceremony of the sports festival was held  at the gaily decorated club house and glittering trophies were awarded to the winners followed by a ‘Gala Nite” . The festival drew nation wide attention and turned out to be a grand success.

Soccer  
Ever since the official opening of the Old Bens Sports Club in 1958, Soccer was organized and played regularly with a fair measure of success under the great maestro Mr.albert Fernando. After he migrated to India in 1973 his pupil Edward Jayawardene continued to coach the Old Bens for a long period of time until he retired from college.

After Edward , the Old Bens players such as Amalraj Miranda, Neville Abeygunawardene and Jayantha Wanigasuriya coached the Old Bens who were then playing in the Premier Division 1 tournament.  The Old Bens over the years came into the Finals in key tournaments, on many occasions ending up as the runner up.

Some of the key members responsible for the success of Old Bens soccer are Mr.Donald Bastampillai who migrated to Canada, Mr. Valentine Fernando and Mr..Jayantha Wanigasuriya. Their whole hearted dedication and contribution is well acknowledged and appreciated by the Old Boys.  

In the mid  90’s an Over 40 Annual Soccer encounter between Old Bens and arch rivals Old Joes was commenced. This encounter which was played for several years is much looked forward to by the Old Boys and should be continued. It is encouraging to see the players of yester year meeting along with their families and practicing regularly at the college grounds to keep themselves in good shape.

Basketball
In the Cager court the dominance of the Old Bens was marked by the  innumerable titles they annexed during the period 1963 to 1973. The Old Bens to their credit have won the Exter shield Victor Wijeratnam Pioneer Trophy and the Depot Police Trophy on a number of occasions. In the Centenary year the Bens made national History when the finalists in the Exter Shield interclub tournament were Old Bens and St Benedict’s College. It was an unprecedented achievement in the Basketball arena.

Every National side included a complement of  Old Bens and its significant that over the decades several National Captains had been regularly produced, namely Cosmos Perera , Percy Perera, Rienzi De Silva, Rohan Guneratne, Vivian Saverymuthapulle . In 1964 for the first time in the history , the National team  comprised of  six Old Bens players out of the twelve players.

At the 1968 Asian games in Bangkok , Percy Perera and Cosmos Perera made their mark as the best shooter and dribbler , respectively.

In 1971  a unique achievement was that the first five of the Sri Lanka national side were all Old Bens namely  Cosmos Perera (Captain) , Percy Perera, Malsiri Perera, Reinzi De Silva, and Noel Pereira.  They were men of unrivaled class and touch.

Hockey
In the field of Hockey  our dribblers  achieved remarkable success for over a decade , annexing over and over again , every major title at stake.

On two occasions , our Team surpassed the efforts of the National team , when in 1963 led by Stanley Fernando, we beat the Indonesain national team by 3 goals to NIL at the Army  grounds, Galle Face, and in 1969 led by Sanath Jayawardena, we beat the Bhilal Steel Plant team , India , on the College grounds by one goal to nil.

Another unique achievement was when on two occasions , in the early seventies , the National team represented by a trio of Old Bens brothers Stanley, Homer and Subash Fernando at the Nehru Memorial Tournament in New Delhi created a world record. This was highlighted by the “Times of India” under the caption ‘Brotherhood’ as it was the first time in the History that 3 brothers played in a National side.

In 1968, eight Old Bens stickers were selected to represent the National team at the Pre Olympics at Lahore.

In 1970, Stanley Fernando, became  the first  Benedictine to Captain the National Hockey team .    

S A Selavaraj also known as Batcho,  a stalwart of the Old Bens Hockey team represented the National team at the Asian games and also two other Internationals in Sri Lanka and abroad. He was the National Hockey coach from 1975 to 1977 and also a Grade 1 referee.

Rev Bro Mathias was the mentor and live wire of the Old Bens Hockey and was instrumental in the phenomenal success of the Old Bens Team. He was a friend , philosopher and  guide to the players.

It  must be mentioned that the idea to start the Old Bens Hockey team was given by Rev Bro Mathias. The spade work to form the teams and enter tournaments was done by late L P Rayan na d the late Sandrasekeran. (Hockey Secretary)

Rev Bro Mathias Memorial Inter- Club Invitation Hockey Tournament
In  appreciation  of the great service rendered by the late  Rev Bro Mathias an interclub invitation  Hockey Tournament was organized by OBSC  in 1986 for the Rev Bro Mathias memorial trophy. The trophy was donated by Old Ben  S A Selvaraj.  The Chief Guest for this inaugural  event was Dr Reinzi Peiris and his wife.

Cricket
The Old Bens entered the Daily News Division 3 Cricket Tournament conducted by the BCCSL for 02 years in 1981 and 1982. The team was captained by Sanath Jayawardene and a lot of enthusiasm prevailed at the beginning. However over the years the club did not enter for the inter club Cricket tournament due to lack of interest by the players and financial constraints.
       
Billiards and Snooker
When the Billiards table was purchased and the games of Billiards and Snooker were introduced only a few members participated as many of them were novices. Gradually both forms of games gained popularity and with the assistance of the seniors, the juniors practiced regularly and attained good standard. Then the club entered for the A’ division Inter Club Billiards and Snooker tournament conducted by the billiards and Snooker Association in the early eighties captained by Stanley Rodrigo and did remarkably well to emerge runner up losing to the Moors SC by a slender margin of one point.
        
Architects of Success in Sports
It is a well known fact in the Benedictine fraternity that the phenomenal success in the fields of Soccer, basketball and Hockey were due to the dedication and efforts of former College and Old Bens coaches Ms. Albert Fenando, Ram Sunderalingam and Brian Assey. They were all experts in their respective fields and were devoted and loyal to College. They unstintingly gave out their best to perfect the skills and knowledge of the  game to those who came under their care.