Michael Roberts supplementing KK De Silva’s article with aid from Johnny De Silva in Melbourne (all three of us Aloysians who played cricket in the School XI in the mid-1950s)
“Michael Roberts, writes as follows on his initiation in an article titled ‘Aloysian Identity’ in the Aloysian Centenary Souvenir, 1895-1995: ‘A big cricket match meant cheering parties. Big cheering parties, and sometimes ‘bajau‘ afterwards. These cheering parties were boisterous, rumbustious, inspiring affairs — even when saddened at the end by our team’s effort.”
‘The doyen of cheer leaders in our time [my pre-16 junior days] was Royle Barthelot. And among us learning the trade which has made him famous was Percy Abeysekera, Pissu Percy, as he is lovingly (and not always lovingly), called. It could be truly said that he is one of the most widely known Aloysians of our time, leaving such luminaries as Dr Cyril Ponnamperuma in the shade!
He has also been a good ambassador as I can attest from Australian crowd responses in Adelaide — where I had the privilege of watching a one-day match where, facing an imposing target of over 300, we [the two us] watched Roshan Mahanama and Arjuna Ranatunga lead a magnificent fight back after an initial collapse in a game which we — that is Sri Lanka — lost nobly.
This just goes to show that being Aloysian has been a building block towards being Sri Lankan.’
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