Origins of 'The Great Intercollegiate Match'
Ashley Walker, a First Class Cricketer and Royal College Master, wrote a letter to S.Thomas' College that led to the 'Big Match' and birth of School's Cricket in Ceylon.
With the mother of all big matches to commence tomorrow for the 146th occasion, let's look back at how the Royal-Thomian rivalry started, and led to many other things that followed and why it's not the 147 edition!
Second only to the "Intercol" between St Peter's College and Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, this long uninterrupted tradition was the brainchild of former first class cricketer Ashley Walker who as a master at the Colombo Academy (now Royal College), wanted to create a friendly encounter with S.Thomas' College, then in Mutwal and the first school to start cricket when it was founded in 1851.
A Letter to the Sub Warden...
Ashley Walker after seeing the keenness of his students for the 'Gentlemen's Game' wrote a letter to the Sub Warden of STC suggesting they commence an Inter-College Clash, then known as the "The Great Intercollegiate Match" in 1879, with the participation of students and masters from either College.
It should also be noted that Cricket was introduced to the Colombo Academy in 1860 by Rev. Joseph Brooke Bailey, one of the distant relatives of former Australia captain and current chief selector George Bailey! S. Thomas' having already established themselves with the sport, hesitated no further in the commencement of this encounter.
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