We are pleased to inform that Thurstan College Rugby has decided to launch a programme in order to encourage Young Thurstanites to join the above programme to bring the College Rugby to a greater heights and good standard to train the young players and select the best players from the College itself mainly for a good team build up.
The Principal at a recent discussion gave his consent to go ahead with such programme to search good and best players after they are properly trained by the Present Coaches as well as Old Thurstanites who were involved and devoted in Thurstan College Rugby.
Accordingly,we have decided to have a meeting mainly to get your ideas on how we should we push Thurstan College Rugby to a greater height by bringing in more and more Rugby lovers and decided to have a meeting under the patronage of the Principal which will be held on the 10th of March 2012 (Saturday) in the College Hall at 5.00 p.m.
Please ensure your participation which will definitely help this Young Rugby Lovers Programme.
We shall be pleased if you can inform any Thurstanites who wish to get involved in the development of Thurstan Rugby please ask them to be present on this day at the College hall to make this event a success.
Regards,
Senaka Kumarasinghe
OBU Functional Secretary – Rugby
Nimmitha Hettiaratchchi
THURSTAN-ISIPATHANA 49 CRICKET ENCOUNTER PLAYED AT SSC GROUNDS ON FEBRUARY 24TH & 25TH
Thurstan skipper Sanjeewa Salgado winning the toss invited Isipathana to bat.
Thinking behind his decision was that the wicket was not covered by the SSC authorities and there was a tinge of grass which is normally not found in a SSC wicket, The Captain expected his 2 fast bowlers to exploit the conditions, but unfortunately they strayed in both line & length could not make use of the lift & movement which was available.
Isipathana opening pair batted cautiously and put on 72 runs by lunch off 36 overs. First over after lunch produced a wicket for Thurstan and in came the vice captain, the left handed Deshan Jayakumar who scored 73 in the last year?s big match. He settled in quickly and both he and left handed Sanka Thabrew batted in a technically correct manner and took the score to 145 for 1 wicket by tea, batting a total of 71 overs and 280 min. Slow going just over 2 runs and over & Thurstan maintained a healthy over rate.
After tea Isipthana accelerated their scoring rate, but it was still pedestrianly slow and when play was surprisingly stopped by the umpires at 5.15 PM with another 25 min for close of play Isipathana had scored 256 for 5 wickets in 99 overs and 380 min batting time with Jayakumar scoring a well deserved century to be unbeaten on 100.
In the post tea session Isipathana lost the wicket of Thabrew for a well deserved 85 runs his first 50 for the season. Thurstan was able to capture the wicket of Isipathana Skipper, the hard hitting Harith Wanigaarchchi for 1 run when the off-spinner Jaleel held on to powerful drive of his own bowling. Harith was the star batsman of the side scoring over 800 runs in the season with a century to his credit.
Surprisingly the under dogs Isipathana continued batting on the second day, the first time it had happened in this series of 49 matches that side continued to bat on the second day. Isipathana who were on 256 runs for the loss of 5 wickets managed to add on a further 51 runs to end their innings on 307/9 in 108.5 over?s which was one run short of their series highest score of 308 for 9 made in 2005
Isipathana deputy skipper Deshan Jayakumar resuming on his overnight score of 100 not out went on to score 126 runs while Pawan Anjana ended with 12 on day two. Jayakumar who put on a solid 2nd wicket stand of 109 with Sanka Thabrew during the first day ensured that he took his side to safe shores on day two adding 26 runs to pass the 450 run mark for the season. He seems to be a batsman for the big occasion. Minhaj Jaleel tormented once more with his off spinners but failed to capture a wicket. However right arm medium pacer Kavindu Silva added a solitary wicket to his overnight wicket tally to end on 2 for 46.
Favourties Thurstan College in their first innings mustered a formidable 331 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in quick time. It took them just 85.3 over?s to set up a good score and skipper Sajeewa Salgado muscled his way to another century 114 with 18 -4?s to take his tally of centuries to 5 for the season and his tally up to 1183 runs. Salgado starting his innings with his personal tally on 1069 runs went on a rampage to take the opposition bowling apart with some destructive batting which laid the foundation for the Thurstanites.
Opening batsman Minhaj Jaleel who had a good appearance with the ball gave a concrete start scoring 30 runs while adding 68 runs in 10 overs with the diminutive wicket keeper Sahan Hewavitharana 34 who was explosive with his drives and cuts over the cover fielders. Salgado had a stand of 138 with south paw Ramindu Kumarsinghe for the 4th wicket before retiring soon after his century with cramps and came back after the fall Kavindu Silva?s wicket. Kavindu Kulasekera scored 51 held the side together to take their team to a first innings win
When Ramindu fell at the score of 222, the 4th wicket stand was 144 which is record for Thurstan eclipsing the record of 114 held by Kamal Mahendra [ 146 * ] & Gamini Nanaykkara [ 60 ] in 1990, when Thurstan registered the first of the series triple triumphs in 1990 -92.
The Pathanians relied a lot on their experienced captain to take wickets on a flat batting track and Harith Wanigarachchi came good for his team finishing with figures of 4 for 84. The left arm leg spinner together with his bowling partner Sidath Mallawarachchi claimed the bulk of the wickets while medium pacer Charith Rajapakse ended with 2/59.
It was a stale draw once more at the 49th encounter with the last win of the series coming 12 years ago in 1999. Thurstan last won the big match in 1992 under the captaincy of Mackenzie Perera while Isipathana won in 1999 under the leadership of Krishantha Jayawardena.
The crowed come to see results and to see records being broken, It is up to Isipathana to take the Challenge offered by Thurstan to limit the First Innings to 60 overs per side, so that one side could work towards a decision.
There were many batting records broken
First time that both sides topped the 300 run mark
First time, a players from both side scored centuries
Thurstan scored the highest total of 331 for 9, their highest and also the series eclipsing Isipathana score of 308 for 9 declared made in 2005.
The most dubious records is Isipathana Continuing to bat for nearly one hour on the second day, which had never happened in the past 49 years !
Priya Paranavitane
Thurstan vs Isipathana
49h Cricket Encounter Played at SSC grounds
on February 24th & 25th, 2012
Isipathana 1st Innings
Sanka Thabrew
b Perera
85
Salinda Ushan Perera
Lbw
b Silva
26
Deshan Jayakumar [ V Capt ] ( 232 min, 1-6,11-4 ) run out
Th Annual Sports Meet for the year 2012 will be held on Thursday February 9th at Thurstan Cricket Grounds at Prof Stanley Wijesundera Mawatha commencing at 1.30 PM.
The Chief – Guest will be the Distinguish Old Boy Lion Graetian Gunawardhana
Notable feature will be two distinguish Athletes of Public School fame in the late 1960’s are giving new Shields for the Champion & Runners-up house respectively
Champion House –
W.W. Dahanayake Memorial Challenge Shield (Head Prefect 1960,Athletic Captain 1959, Public School Coloursman 1959) Donated by his family
Runners-up House
Dr Chandra De Alwis Challenge Shield
( Prefect 1961,Athletic Captain 1960,
Public School Coloursman 1959, Rugby Vice Captain 1960)
The Principal and the staff ( Academic & Non Academic ) of Thurstan College pleased to invite former Principals,Teachers and Old Boys and to coincide with the 62nd Anniversary of the Thurstan College, decided to hold the above All Night Pirith Ceramony followed by Morning Alms Giving to 25 Bhikkus at the College Main Hall to invoke blessings to the Thurstan College as well as those departed Principals, Teachers and old Boys of the College and for those who assisted and contributed for bringing our College to the present position.
The All night Pirith Ceramony will be on the 19 th January (Thursday) 2012 commencing at 8.00 p.m and followed by Morning Alms giving to 25 Bhikkus on the 20th (Friday) 2012.
The Principal,Teachers,Academic /non academic staff and Thurstan College Old Boys Union, wishes if all invitees and their family members too could participate in this event to make it successful.
MAS HOLDING WINS PRESIDENT CHALLENGE TROPHY FOR THE FIRST TIME
The fifth Annual Mercantile Swimming Championship for the President?s Trophy organized by the Thurstan College Aquatic Club in Association with the Sri Lanka Amateur Aquatic Sports Union (SLAASU) was successfully worked off on October 16, 2011 at the Thurstan College Swimming Pool Complex.The Following were the Winners and Runner-up
The winners 2011 President’s Challenge Trophy
Champion – MAS Holdings
1st Runner up – John Keels
2nd Runner up – Unilever’s
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, perhaps reminiscing his happy childhood at Thurstan and an athlete of Public School fame decided to donate the ?President?s Trophy? to mark yet another memorable chapter in the history of sports at Thurstan. The inaugural Championship in 2007 was a tremendous success with large participation, and was won by John Keels Holdings while Sri Lankan Air Lines became the worthy runners up. The John Keels Holdings continue to dominate the competition in subsequent years as well by winning the coveted Challenge Trophy This year the organizing committee made elaborate arrangements to add many new features to attract a large number of Swimming Enthusiasts from the Mercantile Sector.
Thurstan College was set up as a Government institution in the early fifties to cater to the overflow of admissions to Royal Primary school. It?s founder Principal, Douglas Earle Allan Shockman took lot of pains to instill public school values to this fledgling school. The house system, athletic meet, prize giving etc. soon gave a sense of pride to youngsters, most of whom came over from the adjoining Royal Primary School. This background no doubt saw a remarkable upsurge in the sporting activities of Thurstan and in no time they began hitting the headlines in Cricket, boxing and rugby.
Swimming during this era was by no means a popular sport among the schools and the available facilities were few, with only schools like St Joseph?s College, Maradana and S. Thomas? College, Mt. Lavinia having their own swimming pools. However, Thurstan too took a plunge in to this sport in the early sixties with boys going over to the St Joseph?s, pool for their training in swimming. The task of overlooking of swimming at Thurstan fell in to the hands of a young school teacher, Addison de Silva who later on became a leading icon in the National swimming arena and continued his inspiring addiction to swimming until his sudden demise in the late eighties.
Though lacking in basic facilities, the enthusiasm was high among the young Thurstanites who took the plunge and in 1964 they produced a prodigy in Gavin Amarasinghe who broke in to fame with a record breaking win in the then highly popular annual ?two mile? sea swim and followed up with an equally masterly display to win the ?six mile? event too. Gavin who was Thurstan?s swimming captain in 1964 repeated his championship feats for two more years. Another was Ravindra de Livera (passed away just two years back in USA) who excelled in public schools meets and also represented Sri Lanka.
Thurstan?s landmark year in swimming however was the year 2000 when the College was gifted with a six lane swimming pool with all facilities, by a distinguished old boy, Lion Graetian Gunawardhana who was a fine Rugby player during his days. Ironically, laying of the foundation stone and the opening of the Pool Complex was done by none other than another distinguished past Thurstanite and .a sportsman par excellence, His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa presently the President of Sri Lanka.. This is an unparalleled unique event that every Thurstanite could be proud of.
Today, swimming is a very popular sport at Thurstan with the Swimming Pool Complex managed efficiently by an independent legal entity with a Board of Management comprising many distinguished ex-Thurstanites.
Mercantile Swimming Championship 2011 essentially for the Mercantile Sector for the coveted President?s Trophy. It is open to Companies, Organizations & Banks in the Mercantile or Private Sector.The Organizing Committee of ?Old Thurstanite boys? headed by Lion Graetian Gunawardhana, the sole presenter of the Swimming Pool Complex to his beloved ?Alma Mater? and Chairman of the Swimming Pool Complex Management Company which also includes the pioneer swimmer from Thurstan, Gavin Amarasinghe for technical advise and also the present President of the Swimming Pool Complex Management Committee Maj Gen. Dr. Dudley Perera supported by many past Thurstanites from various eras of the existence of the School worked tirelessly to make it a grand event.
On Thursday July 28th,2011, Thurstan conducted a hugely successful Prize -giving ceremony covering the period 2007 – 2010, at a special tent erected at the grounds as the College hall could not accommodated the large crowd that attended the function. The Prize-Giving commenced at 3.00 PM with the arrival of the guest of honour, the Minister of Education Hon Bandula Gunawardane who was conducted to the dais by the Principal and the Academic Staff accompanied by the Thurstan College Western band.
There were closed Circuit TV screens installed at many points in the “special hall” which enable the large crowd to see all the “action” at close quarters.
Till the dignitaries arrived there was a Video presentation on the history of Thurstan from 1950 to date.
The President, His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa the most Distinguished Old Thurstanite, who was the Chief Guest for the occation arrived around 5.15 PM and he handed over the special prizes for outstanding Students of different subjects. A new feature added was the Presentation of Challenge Trophies with replica’s named after the past Principal’s. This was a project under taken by the ardent Old Boy Asoka Wedage the Functional Secretary of Education of the OBU. Another feature was the re-introduction of the Mudaliyar M N Pieris Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Best All round student. This Trophy was first won by the Distinguish Thurstanite former Civil Servant Deshamanya M D D Pieris way back in 1955 when it was given by his father. He kindly consented to donate this new trophy.
After the Conclusion of the Prize- Giving, the President spent about 45 minutes at a fellowship at the College Lobby.
The new Principal Mr Nihal Yapa and the organising committee should be congratulated on a “JOB WELL DONE”.
Schools help mould successful citizens?
Chaminda PERERA
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that schools play a pivotal role in moulding a successful citizen. He added that all successful citizens are proud of their Alma Mater which helped them to ascend to the top rung of society.
President Rajapaksa said that the genesis of one?s success is sown in school. The President said that schools help unearth latent talents and creative abilities of students.
Thisura Randula Madurapperuma who became the best student for 2010 receives his award from President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Picture by Sudath Silva
?Successful citizens are proud of their country in which they were born and bred and their school,? he added. The President was speaking at the annual prize giving of his Alma Mater, Thurstan College, Colombo yesterday. Students of Thurstan College , Colombo who showed exceptional performances in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 were recognized on this occasion.
Yashas Sri Bandara Bhupathi Kahathuduwa, Yohan Champathi Thennakoon, Thisura Randula Madurapperuma who became the best student for 2008, 2009 and 2010 received their trophies from the President.
President Rajapaksa received a special memento from Thurstan Principal Y A N D Yapa. The members of academic staff who showed a great commitment also received awards from the President.
He said that the students hardly recognize the importance of their school till they leave it. ?They are not mature enough to understand the value of their school and the teachers.?
?The experience we receive from schools should be made use for our success,? he added. President Rajapaksa was of the view that Thurstan College established in 1950 was on par with other leading schools in Colombo due to the dedication and the commitment of staff, parents and students. He added that he was fortunate to have associated with reputed teachers at Thurstan College who represented many fields.
President Rajapaksa added that parents have a responsibility of moulding their children who will not hate society.
Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena and Petroleum Resources Minister Susil Premajayantha were also present.
The fifth Annual Mercantile Swimming Championship for the President?s Trophy organized by the Thurstan College Aquatic Club in Association with the 
